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I know quite a few in the DC area who have lost or didn't get a job because of security clearances and/or suitability screening. These are more involved than the average background/credit check, though some people don't get too far in the process because of bad credit/delinquent debts and/or a criminal past.
Tell me about it. For one of my jobs, they gave me an offer, but of course, it was contingent on my background checks. After waiting anxiously for 1.5 months, I finally got the go ahead to start my first day. When I talked with my manager, she was mentioned she was relieved it all went through. Despite my anxiety, I didn't suspect anything would be amiss, and asked her just how bad it could've been. She responded that past 2 candidates they hired didn't make the cut, and they had to get let them go.
Blame the liability society we live in. Each job is different. as to security checks for liability purposes. Even insurance has requirements on liability coverage.
I wish we could "thumbs down" replies like his, too, but we can't. I'll just say that drowning in debt from college is FROWNED ON by people who think they hold the moral high ground on debt. Rich white people who were perfectly able to pay their way through college off their parents' trust funds or their own, or who managed to get well-enough paying jobs while they were full-time undergrads to be able to pay their own way entirely without loans. Or full-ride scholarship babies. And so on, and so forth. The entitled rich come up with opinions like that. When I got raked over the coals at Immigration on the job only after I transferred out of San Francisco which has a high cost of living and where people in general UNDERSTAND being drowning in debt IN GENERAL not just "fresh out of college" to a lower-cost lower-consciousness part of the country, the Pacific Northwest - and suddenly started getting raked over the coals on a regular weekly basis about "the background check." Nine months at the same job in the same capacity and at the same pay scale, in San Francisco and I never once got told in any fashion that I "shouldn't have gone to college if I couldn't afford it" like I was in Seattle after I transferred there to the same pay level with the same government agency. Different part of the country, different expectations of debt level. Washington vs California.
A Bachelor's degree is necessary if you want to become a teacher. A law degree is necessary if you want to become a malpractice lawyer. These are not "luxuries" or "frivolities" the way I was treated by the background-check personnel agents in Seattle. Now, in some states the cost of living is so much lower than, say, San Francisco, New York, or Boston, that the prevailing attitude of employers is that they won't understand why you're in so much debt just from staying alive and will grill you endlessly about what THEY think is an "irresponsible" level of debt. If you go to college/live in Boston, NY or San Francisco and then try to get a job in some lower-cost-of-living part of the country that is what you will face. It also doesn't help that I'm a minority and minorities just GET raked over the coals for every little thing more than our white counterparts (same schools in elementary through high school, same degrees from same universities, same skill level, etc...when I go to my high school reunions I find that my peers from high school who went to similar colleges as I did, with the same degrees, have an EASIER time getting and keeping jobs than I do and all else is the same except our skin colour and perceived "race.").
And yet the overprivileged over-entitled people who tend to be disproportionately represented on this and other Internet forums, and actually on the Internet as a whole, just up and say that anyone with "bad credit" and drowning in debt from college is automatically "irresponsible" for having, basically, gone to college anyway even if they couldn't pay for it. That's the gist of the fact that most states' Bar admissions seem to take that same attitude. Drowning in debt from law school - denied. "That's financial irresponsibility." "If you didn't have a spare $200,000 sitting around in a checking account you shouldn't have gone to law school." Law school should be left to the rich white boys whose parents can pay for it out of pocket. And so on, and so forth.
I kind of wish people who thought like this would drop off the face of the earth, or at least go back under the rock they crawled out from under. But alas, they comprise most of the decision-makers of the world!!
I am not from a privileged background. I joined the military to pay off my student debt.
And, yes, I will be one of the country's leaders one day and will likely be in the 1%, while you keep whining and throwing pity parties.
It sounds like Cristo666 does have a privileged background afterall.
Yeah. I was interested, but with a chronic health condition and mental illness... couldn't join. Now, if I could join the military as a civilian meaning clerical or desk work... I would sign up in a heart beat. But everything I've seen even with clerical, you have to join the military as a soldier.
Good luck with that. The 1% earn $340k per year minimum. That is a nice salary (or earning on capital), but not everybody gets there.
that's good information to know as I wasn't sure what does a 1%er need to earn to earn the stripes for being a 1%er. I thought it was $250k+.
I'll be in financial bliss earning $100k year - I'm single, and no kids. I don't need to be a 1% to have financial freedom.
But back to the thread topic. I think it's unethical for an organization to actually hire someone without completing a full background check. It's not fair to have someone quit their other job, get 'hired' at the new place, only to be fired because of something in their background check. This makes NO sense at all.
About 10 years ago I rescinded a job offer because an applicant had really bad credit. The job opening she had applied for paid about $45k, her current position paid $60k, and she was behind on all of her bills.
I talked to her and asked how she was going to be able to make it on a 25% pay cut, when she seemed to be having difficulty at the higher rate of pay. She had no plan. I felt that it would be unwise to provide a person in that kind of financial situation even more money stress and keys to the business.
Uh yeah, it sounds like you made the right decision there. I can see how a credit report would come in to play in this situation. How in the heck could that woman justify the interest in applying for a job that paid 25% less while she was in such dire financial straits?
Good luck with that. The 1% earn $340k per year minimum. That is a nice salary (or earning on capital), but not everybody gets there.
It's within reach as long as you aim for it before you get old.
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Now, if I could join the military as a civilian meaning clerical or desk work... I would sign up in a heart beat. But everything I've seen even with clerical, you have to join the military as a soldier. 
I don't need to be a 1% to have financial freedom.
