Consider means Sterling found something on your report that the employer should review. It is a status label, and the hiring company makes the decision. Sterling uses two labels on its reports: Clear and Consider.
Clear and Consider, side by side
Clear means no derogatory or discrepant information was found. Consider means some derogatory or discrepant information was found that the employer should review. Those definitions come from Sterling's status descriptions as shown in Workstream's Sterling integration help.
For criminal searches, Consider means information on the report needs review by the hiring company. For motor vehicle record searches, it can mean the record did not meet a qualification the employer set.
Why you got Consider
The trigger depends on the check. Common ones:
- A criminal record or a pending case inside the search window
- A job title or date mismatch on employment verification
- An education record that could not be confirmed
Mismatches often come from records. A former employer may have recorded a different job title than the one you list, or a school may have a graduation date that differs from your memory.
What happens next
Consider is not a decision. The employer decides using its own policy and how the finding relates to the job. A finding that matters for one role may not matter for another.
Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer that rejects you based on the report must send a pre-adverse action notice first. That notice includes a copy of the report and a summary of your rights. The employer then waits a reasonable period before the final decision. The Federal Trade Commission has informally said five business days is reasonable.
You can dispute errors with Sterling during that window.
What to do
Ask the employer for a copy of the report if you do not have one, then check the finding against your own records. If the record is wrong, dispute it with Sterling in writing and keep the confirmation.
If the record is right, you can explain context to the employer. A conviction from years ago, a case that was dismissed, or a title mismatch can be described in a sentence or two. The pre-adverse action window is the time to do it.
If your question is about the checks that produced the report, read what they check in a Sterling background check.
For employers
A Consider result needs a human decision, and every extra day of review risks the candidate. Score and shortlist before the background stage so the review does not become the bottleneck. AI Candidate Evaluation documents that comparison while the report is reviewed.