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A Bad Credit Score Can Hinder Your Job Hunt
Your credit score may be your lifeblood if you’re a banker, accountant, controller or broker, or if you work in any capacity with money or finances, including retail. If you’ve ever been late on consecutive credit card payments, had a car repossessed or had late bills reported to a collection agency, your past misfortune may stand between you and your next job.
When you’re job searching for a better position or seeking gainful employment, how do you handle the uncomfortable portion of the interview process that involves a request to run a credit check? Before you dress for your next interview in the financial industry, prepare yourself by seeking out the skeletons in your own financial closet before stepping foot into the interview room.
Why Credit Score Matters at Work
Employers, particularly those in the financial sector, consider personal responsibility with money essential for on-the-job success. The best number the employer has to evaluate you is not your previous salary, but your credit score. A potential employer will not put much faith or stock in an interviewee who has not been able to manage his or her own finances as reflected by a bad credit score. It may show irresponsibility, which can translate to a poor work ethic and improper handling of the firm’s own finances. If a potential employee cannot pay his own bills, which may amount to thousands of dollars, on time, how can that employee be expected to handle tens or hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars?
Employers, particularly those in the financial sector, consider personal responsibility with money essential for on-the-job success.
Potential employees with a history of irresponsible spending or who carry unreasonable debt for their income may also be seen as risks. A bad credit score may cause a prospective employer to question the intentions of the employee, or even honesty in dealing with money.
Protections Offer Little Assurance
Protection: The employer cannot run a credit check without your permission.
Reality: Refusing to allow the employer to run a credit check may raise more red flags than the actual credit score and report. The employer will think you have something to hide.
Protection: An employer cannot refuse to hire you due to bankruptcy.
Reality: After seeing a bankruptcy on your credit report, an employer may find any number of reasons not to hire you, without ever mentioning the bankruptcy.
What Can You Do?
Check Your Credit Report
You are entitled to one free credit report per year from AnnualCreditReport.com, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The report will give you insight into factors that could be contributing to your bad credit score. However, to access your FICO score you need to pay. Fix any errors on your report with this FTC guide.
Be Honest and Upfront
Address the issue of your credit score and negative information on your credit report with the employer if he or she asks to run your credit. Being unemployed, having debts related to untempered spending while you were younger or running into a stretch of bad luck may all be explainable. Provide the upside of the situation, and include details about unemployment or a one-time mistake you may have made, advises SmartMoney.com
Carry Low Debt
Pay down high credit card balances and make extra payments on high-interest loans to reduce the length of time you carry debt.
