HELP! I have just been hired by a company but now they are doing an employment verification...?

OK, here is the story.. I left my previous employer in August of 2007. From August till now, I have been looking for a place of employment.. Lucky for me this unbelievable company gave me an offer letter.. I signed it and faxed it to them yesterday.. However, the offer letter is contingent on a background check.. Now my problem.. Because I was embaressed I left my company, I lied on my resume and wrote that I was still presently there.. I received an email from HR of this new company asking first if I gave notice to my previous employer because they needed to do an employment verification.. So what does that exactly mean and how should I answer?? Should I tell HR yes I have given my notice and they can go ahead and confirm I worked for my previous employer?? How do they actually confirm?? I actually worked for a world-wide company.. Will they call my previous employer's HR Department?? Will my offer be rescinded?? What kind of information can my previous HR give out???

If you lied on your application the company can, and probably will, rescind it's offer to you. The best thing you can do is to walk into your new employer tomorrow morning and come clean, explaining your actions fully, completely, and honestly. They may take pity on you, if you do that.

Maybe.

If they find out on their own, they will not have pity, and you will not have a job.

As ken s said, the moral of the story is: DON'T LIE.
.

moral of the story don't lie.

They are asking about the notice because they think you are working there, and don't want to call and get you fired if you haven't yet given notice.

If and when they do call,your prior employer will probably give a neutral "he/she was employed as a _____ from date X to date Y, resigned, made salary in range of _____."

See what a tangled web you weave?

Only the company decisionmaker can tell you whether this will work out for you. We can but guess. You did, however, lie...that's not good, especially if your business is one which is heavily focused on honesty (law firm, accounting, etc).

Call your old job or somebody that you knew from HR if so, and ask how they do employment verifications. OR pretend to be a potential employer doing a verification (on say...yourself)...Disguise your voice or have someone else call and ask about YOU and see how much information they give. But the least any employer will give is the dates of employment...Sorry, but ya know ya shoulda just gave honest dates of employment...Good Luck (Been there and done AAAALLL of that.)

They will contact the old company. What information the old company releases depends on their policies. For a large company, they will usually confirm that you did work there and usually they will confirm when you were employed there.

They could give out more than that, but usually large companies do not so as to avoid any possibility of legal issues.

They can disclose whether you were or were not an employee of that company, your dates of employment, and whether or not you are eligible for rehire. That is all the information they can legally divulge, but it sounds like it will be enough to prevent your employment with this new company. Lying on applications is not a good thing to do. Not that I don't understand why you did; it's just that it always catches up with you.

You may well have signed on the application form that all the information you gave was true. Clearly, you lied. it will depend on how badly a company wants you as to whether they are prepared to overlook this lie.

You can simply say you are no longer at the company, and if they go on to question that, you can explain you stated your last employment as your current employment. Why be embarrassed you left your last employment, unless you have something to hide? There is no shame in leaving a job.

Most companies will only verify dates of employment, but you have basically screwed yourself since your new company will find out that you left in August and lied on your resume-- you should never have lied on your resume. They are asking you if you have given notice to your employer that you are leaving. There is really nothing you can do but tell them the truth at this point and hope they cut you a break, but your chances of that are slim. They will probably rescind the offer. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you will have to chalk this one up to experience. I am assuming you filed out an application and signed a statement that the information was true

If your being serious, you need to get in front of this and start telling your potential employer what is true and what is not. Your only making things worse when you try to falsify your records.
As for employment verification, relax. All they want to know is, did you work were you said you did, and did you do what you said you did there. Most companies use third party services for this anyway, so don't worry. They just want to make sure your not lying about your experience level.
Be honest from now on. It is much more important to most companies that you be honest with them over a few mistakes you may have made in the past. If they really want you, they can look past your youthful indiscretions.