More and more employers are taking a look at job applicant's past credit history as a criteria in their decision whether to hire them or not. One would think that this is limited to jobs that are in the financial sector, but it is going on in all industries. In the past, it was common for a person with bad credit to rarely be hired in a position that handled money. With all of their financial problems, they posed as a person who would be tempted to possibly steal. Now, positions that have nothing to do with money transactions are protected from people with bad credit.
When interviewing a potential employee, an employer will want to get a feel of the person. This is done of course with general questions about their education, past job history and by asking questions such as "What can you do for our company?" This is all understandable and is what we are all familiar with. Interviewers sometimes even like to ask questions that will put a person under pressure to see how well they handle it. Again, this is something very understandable that we are all used of.
Another thing that will not come as a surprise to anyone is the background checks that companies do. They want to make sure that the person that they are hiring is not a former felon with a long criminal record. Businesses do not have any room available for drug users, thieves or abusers. Of course people do some things when they are young that they are later ashamed of, but the employer does not know you and when there is a criminal history on paper, it is all they are going to go by.
Now, we come to the credit check. The way companies look at this is that if a person cannot fulfill their financial responsibilities, it says a lot about them. Companies want employees who are responsible and pay their bills on time. They do not want people who make excuses as to why they could not pay their bills on time. They want people who have solutions to problems, and when a person shows that they did not have a solution to pay their bills when they did not have the money, a company sees that as a negative. They want to hire people who can find their way out of extreme circumstances to get done what needs to be done.
Law enforcement agencies are very strict on the credit profile of new cops that they are considering to hire. There is far too many stories of young men or women who have always dreamed of becoming a police officer only to get disqualified during the long hiring process because of their bad credit. The sad part is that many of these applicants do not know that their credit will have had an impact on their career choice. Many of these people are applicants that are in their early twenties, probably straight out of the military and had their whole life planned around a law enforcement career. It is a shame because many of them could have possibly been great officers.
Whether we agree with getting judged by our credit score or not, it is used by employers as part of our make-up and is not going to change. Employers want to know all about who they are hiring, and with technology these days, they can find out almost everything. Remember, having good credit is not only important to purchase a car or to buy a house, it is also important to gain employment.
