Hiring background checks & what recruiters actually search.

Most formal background checks are narrower than people fear: identity, right-to-work, criminal records, sometimes credit or references. A structured "social media screen" is a separate, optional product - and where it exists, it's usually a keyword search against public profiles, not deep forensics.

The bigger risk is informal: a hiring manager who idly searches your handle. That's not a background check, but it's the one that most often turns something up.

Reddit is pseudonymous, but the link to your real name usually leaks through habits:

• Reusing the same handle on platforms that show your name.
• Mentioning your employer, city, or job in a comment.
• A distinctive writing style, or details only a few people would post.

Your audit dashboard is the fastest way to see this from the outside: top subreddits show where you're identifiable, and the risk flags surface the items that reveal the most.

If someone does connect the handle, they see what anyone sees: your public posts and comments, sorted by newest and top. The items that land badly are rarely the average comment - they're the outliers. A heavily downvoted argument, a post in a sensitive subreddit, an old take that didn't age well.

The average comment is invisible. The outliers are the story.

You don't need to scorch your whole history. Two targeted passes cover most of it:

• Run the Pre-Interview Clean recipe. It targets low-karma takes and NSFW activity from the last five years - the exact profile of what a search surfaces.
• Review the risk flags. Clear the controversial and sensitive-subreddit items specifically, and whitelist anything that's genuinely fine.

If there's a date on it, pre-event mode keeps the account clean right up to the interview. The goal isn't a blank profile - it's no surprises.