How to find out where someone works before meeting them? dating safety question
I'm in the US (california) and recently started online dating again. trying to figure out how to find out where someone works before meeting up because my last experience was really bad. matched with a guy who said he was an engineer and turned out he lied about basically everything including his job and it ended pretty badly and now I am just very scared to meet with anyone.
I usually just check linkedin on my phone (android, chrome) before a first date but it was not successful this time and I did not find any profile with work experience on this person.
A friend recommended spokeo and I tried it on my laptop. it found the person's name and city but the employment info was from 2021 so completely outdated. same issue with beenverified; it pulled an old job listing from indeed that was 3 years old.
The thing is I'm not trying to be creepy about it. I just want to verify that someone is who they say they are before I sit across from them at a restaurant.
Has anyone found a reliable way to verify someone's employment before a date? or am I overthinking this and should just ask them directly and hope they're honest?