How to land a job, even with bad credit

I'm almost entirely certain that when I went to apply for a job @ Radio Shack a couple years back, the background check was what stopped me from obtaining a position there as I had bad credit due to a past incident with Sprint (who are in cahoots with The Shack). I had my phone stolen years earlier and there was a big mess up, they put something negative about it on my credit about it and so that's what I believe I didn't get the spot. Oh well... went on to better things.

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I read about this all the time, this was a republican driven law that was enacted in the 1990's, and this is wrong. (Newt and company was behind it.) I hope Mr. Obama tackles this issue in the 8 years he will be in office so good people with bad credit can get back on their feet and make their credit good again. I have a hard time believing I live in America anymore with laws like this on the books.

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I'll never understand why it is the employer running credit checks on potential employees instead of job applicants running credit checks (and background checks) on potential employers. It's the little guy that's going to get burned here. Seems there are lots of things you might want to know before you sign on with a company, for example, that your prospective employer has a massive layoff about every three years, (like Sprint here in KC) or that no bank in town will loan your employer money so when things get tight, your check may bounce.

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" Power to the People"!!!

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I want to clear the air here about what (PISSED) said above, He is not correct about a Republican driven law for employer credit checks. There is no law that prevents them from checking, but there are laws as to what extent depending on the position applied for.

Employer crdit checks have been going on since the late 70's and have greatly increased in the late 80's and early 90's.

To make it short, (PISSED) is a liar and is using this form because he is a Bush Hater.

Lets take a close look at who is really screwing up this Country...Its scary...OBAMA !!

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I run a credit / background on Every person I employ.
WHY? BECAUSE I WANT TO KNOW THE PERSON IS TRUSTWORTHY AND HONEST.
IF HE IS IN A POSTION WHERE HE HANDLES MY MONEY OR HAS ACCESS TO PAPERWORK / RECORDS, I WANT TO KNOW I CAN TRUST HIM.

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God help us if Obama is in office even for years, much less 8 yeras. Dems were stupid enough to place him in office .... but America is already revolting against him... can you say impeach?

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Having bad credit and being honest and trustworthy have nothing to do with each other. I'll bet Bernie Madof had great credit !!! I'll bet the guys that ran Enron into the ground had great credit. Need I go on? Sometimes life deals a bad hand and people have credit problems. A good job may help them correct that problem. I agree with employers doing a criminal check, but unless your applying for credit, credit checks for jobs should be banned.

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Why would someone just assume that someone with bad credit is untrustworthy?? I have bad credit right now..after having excellent credit for years. All because of my Dad losing his business because of the recession. and now I'm trying to pay for their bills and mine, and it's a choice of should I buy food this month or pay a credit card? I have no criminal record, I've never once stolen anything from anyone, and I work hard everyday to make a living. I don't ask for a handout. But knowing I could possibly not get a job all because of my credit really ticks me off. This should never be a consideration for employment...This could be hindering an otherwise excellent candidate for a job. And think about it, the longer someone is without a job, the less bills they can afford to pay which = lower credit score. The longer they are out of work just means more taxpayers money having to be spent on unemployment for someone who could be very qualified in the jobs they are applying for, but cannot get hired because of credit. Obviously credit isn't an issue when it comes to being in the congress or the senate, if that was the case, half of the people in there now wouldn't have been able to be elected...AND THEY ARE SUPOSSED TO BE MAKING SOUND JUDGEMENTS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

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. . . and workers comp claims don't effect your ability to obtain a job also.

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Almost 100% of employers conduct some sort of background verification on prospective applicants. Under FCRA certain information is limited to 7 years whereas in most states criminal histories can go back indefinately! Data vendors commonly report data far out of the commonly requested seven year look-back period because a change in federal laws allows them to do so even though data may be erroneous. It's a sad fact that livelihoods can be destroyed over something adverse from yesteryear all because someone was able to purchase a snapshot of your life for a few measly bucks! Even worse, most employers are now "Google-ing" and under federal law what they discover is considered fair-game! People are now being denied employment because they have filed bankruptcy or civil law suits in the past, have distasteful blogs on social networking sites, or perhaps purchased objectionable reading material on Amazon. No one knows where it's going to end, so welcome to the new world folks!

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I recently went through this twice and did not have a problem either time. The first time in 2007 I was going through a bankruptcy at the time of landing a job as an accountant. I told the recruiter about it but the company never asked any questions. It was not a problem. The 2nd time about a month ago I knew the bankruptcy would show on my report. This job was for an accounting manager. I told the recruiter who was more upset about it than my future boss. He understood that things happen. I interviewed with that company 3 times, so from personal experience I dont see it as a dealbreaker.

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Hi Bishop,
I am here to tell you, anyone that judges a person only on a paper that a machine generated is a fool. I know many true scum bags that look stellar on paper, for example the one accountant friend who was arrested for the third time for embezzlement, seems he keeps getting jobs like:
bank president, corporate controller and CFO running several charity's since each time he gets busted the employer chooses to drop all charges as to not suffer the public embarrassment and make the papers.
I can also tell you it is a shame that businesses now a days are just too lazy to take the time to meet individuals and actually use a humans senses to decide if a person may be honest.
I assure you a credit report proves nothing about a persons character, honesty or dedication. It only proves that they may or may not have the ability to pay their bills. And I do not know if you have been paying attention but the country is in real trouble and an enormous amount of people are in serious financial trouble, also currently it would appear that the biggest thieves seem to have perfect credit ratings, after all stealing, cheating, swindling and lying is very profitable just read about the banking industry...
I had a business for 14 years and used all of my senses to decide if a person had what it takes, did they show up on time, were they dressed proper, were they respectful, were they calm, did they smell, did they swear, could they look me in the eye, were they organized, I asked questions to decide if they were intelligent or if they had been to prison you know the stuff that is really important.

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this is crazy! this should be ilegal! how can we allow this to happen? are we stupid or what!

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Unfortunately, any good job will do a credit and background check which I believes makes it easier for employers to make hiring decisions with the demand of job seekers. The smaller companies tend to not do as much checking. I had the experience of telling a prospective employer of my credit problems when they informed me of the credit/background check. I was totally upfront and it was a deal breaker for me. I had all the skills and background for the position but I had credit problems stemming from a divorce and raising children on my own. It has been a constant struggle in this economy and only continues to get worse. I have had to become creative and learning more skills and make myself more marketable to include going back to school. Times are tough is an understatement.

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John,
I need to know the name of your recruiting company! For the past 21 years I've been in Territory Sales Management/Store Management. Due to the recession, my PART-TIME work has been few & far between. Companies want me ASAP until they find out about my bankruptcy that I filed this year (I had no choice). Then, they drop me like the plague. All I need is some Consumer Goods Company etc., to call my references which includes my former Boss. They can attest to my work ethics, honesty etc., despite the fact I couldn't pay my bills without a full-time job! Days turn into weeks, weeks into months etc., And without someone taking a chance on me, I will not be able to pay my bills, help the economy & literally, SURVIVE.

P.S.
Hanging on by a thread

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Considering the recession and the number of unemployed individuals that it has created out there, it's easy to see that employers are jumping on this bandwagon and are happily turning to legal discrimination to help them sift through the massive piles of applications they're receiving. It's all too timely and all too convenient right now. As per usual, the little guy, including many women and members of ethnic minorities, are getting summarily shafted, but this time under the guise of going through the "proper channels". Of course employers are looking for a quick and easy way to weed out "undesirables" and this is just their ticket to do that. It's discrimination, pure and simple. I hope that eventually citizens will get just pissed off enough to take on this issue and bring change about but unfortunately this probably won't happen until more big wigs get tossed out on their arses. It seems that pretty soon no one will be deemed eligible for any sort of job. When credit is getting screened to hock makeup at the mall, you know things are really going downhill. It's pretty disgusting.

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