It's impossible to know for sure what employers actually check for when you're hired, but anecdotally I've only been given a background check consent form at three of about a dozen jobs over the past three decades, and two of those also required DoD security clearances. I suspect larger employers do it as a matter of course, and smaller ones don't.
How many of your applications had a box requesting if you were ever convicted in those 30 years? Until fairly recently that was standard practice on any application. With the ban the box gaining traction, most companies now just farm it out, you don't have the check the box, they will do the background check. And here is the kicker, you don't have to give your consent in most cases as they are having a third party do the check on publicly available information. companies like goodhire, and many like it make the whole process cheap and easy.
