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I just got the job offer of my dreams and the offer letter came through, contingent on background check. I have no criminal history and for the past year and a half I have run my departments budget and credit card.
This new position would require the same I’m assuming, as in the letter it states they will do an employment credit check, and my credit is horrible! I went through a divorce and had to max my cards out and have a good few collections, and now I feel like they’re going to see the report and take the offer back.
Has anyone ever had this happen? I get they want someone responsible but I just feel it’s a little unfair because just because you had hard times with money; it doesn’t equal you being untrustworthy and mean you’re going to run up company bills.
Any company that even has credit checks done on their applicants (I suppose some finance-related positions might be an exception), is not a company I'd want to work for anyway. I'm sorry that your hopes have been shot in this instance, but, honestly, it already seems like you've received a blessing.
I just got the job offer of my dreams and the offer letter came through, contingent on background check. I have no criminal history and for the past year and a half I have run my departments budget and credit card.
This new position would require the same I’m assuming, as in the letter it states they will do an employment credit check, and my credit is horrible! I went through a divorce and had to max my cards out and have a good few collections, and now I feel like they’re going to see the report and take the offer back.
Has anyone ever had this happen? I get they want someone responsible but I just feel it’s a little unfair because just because you had hard times with money; it doesn’t equal you being untrustworthy and mean you’re going to run up company bills.
Things like collections generally don't matter for a run of the mill employment credit check. I'm assuming your position doesn't have any high level bonding requirements.
It’s hard to say because certain positions will require a certain level of credit. Still, I don’t think this is as a negative as it was a few years ago.
I know someone who was recently hired at a company with negative credit. A number of recent collections and charge off accounts. Supposedly credit scores in the mid-500’s. He was very worried about the background check because of this. He otherwise had a clean background in terms of taxes and criminal/civil records. Not only was he hired, he was able to get a corporate AMEX, with the company backing the card, of course.
I don’t know if this will be the same for you. I’m just noting this person’s experience. If questions come up, just be honest about it and speak towards how it was only the divorce circumstance that caused it. You are fully prepared to clean up your credit and have made or will make arrangements as necessary once you again have steady income. I bring this up because some companies are not keen on dealing with wage garnishments.
Good luck and please let us know what happens. It would be a great data point of recent experiences with this in the job market.
It is to my understanding that this sort of credit check pulls things such as: past addresses, employment history, and spending history such as collections, bankruptcies and liens. Upon closer it look it appears that it would show them spending habits and how that person is with their money and utilization. I guess it helps them assess risk, but I don't think it is a representation of a persons character.
In the role I will have dealing with money, but it would be more so in terms of a corp card, it isn't like I will be a bank teller at a job. I deal with a corp card and the finances at my job now, and am responsible.
I just got the job offer of my dreams and the offer letter came through, contingent on background check. I have no criminal history and for the past year and a half I have run my departments budget and credit card.
This new position would require the same I’m assuming, as in the letter it states they will do an employment credit check, and my credit is horrible! I went through a divorce and had to max my cards out and have a good few collections, and now I feel like they’re going to see the report and take the offer back.
Has anyone ever had this happen? I get they want someone responsible but I just feel it’s a little unfair because just because you had hard times with money; it doesn’t equal you being untrustworthy and mean you’re going to run up company bills.
I think you should contact HR and ask them some simple questions as it pertains to the credit check. Ask them what they are looking for exactly? Is it simply a credit score or what? Ask them, if you would get an opportunity to respond if they have questions regarding your credit report or background check so you could address any possible errors.
This way, you could say if something is an error or not, and gave an explanation about it if needed. The truth of the matter is there can be errors on credit reports such as information with banks you never had an account with or did any sort of business with them. This can happen if they possibly merged your account with someone else with the same name.
What you shouldn't do is panic and start confessing to a terrible imaginary sin to HR before it even comes up.
And if they don't want to be helpful in this regard, then it doesn't sound like a great place to work if they won't let you do this.
Since you deal with accounting in this new job, they want to make sure you can't somehow be compromised because you are having severe personal financial difficulties. Those would have to be so bad that it looks like you can't pay your rent or mortgage and might be at a higher risk to embezzled funds from the company.
In NY thankfully it's now illegal to make the offer rescinded on grounds of credit apart from bonded roles in a financial institution or other very specific positions.
At the end of the day personal finance has nothing to do with your ability to make smart decisions in a Corporate matrixed environment. I drive positive ROI for the company even if my personal ROI isn't that great. (My role handles non liquid budget allocations)
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