A. First off I am sorry to hear about your current situation, and while yes it can hinder you job search it may not be as large as a factor as it once was.  Good news is that if you are being asked if they can pull your credit reports than you know you are a top tier candidate.  Pulling reports is time consuming and costs the company money, they generally will not do this unless you are in the top tier for the job you are trying to get. So that’s good news! Also since you did not say what field you are going into that it may never get pulled. In most cases the only time they will pull your reports is if you are working int he financial field or a similar field. So if you are not, then I think this will should be much less of a concern for you.

If you are in a position that you will be required to have your reports pulled then you should be prepared going in. The best way to get prepared is to view your credit reports, and as always if you just want to view a single report then head over to Annual Credit Report to get your free credit report once per year.  This will not tell your score, but will let you read what is on your reports. Personally in your situation that you are living on credit I think this would be the best place to start. If things pick up, then I would highly recommend signing up for our credit monitoring service. Credit reports are not static, and they can change on a daily basis, a monitoring service will be the best way to stay up to date on exactly what is on your report so you have no surprises when it comes to job hunting time.

Now that you have a copy of your report you will want to check it for any errors. Anything from your name misspelled to accounts or inquiry that are not yours. (Read all about inquiry’s) If you find anything out of place, then take the time to dispute it to have it removed.

This is where the concern comes in for job hunters, what if I do have bad credit, or it shows that I am late on my payments. This is what your potential employes will be looking at. Your reports show a file of how you have handled yourself financially over the years. And what they will be looking for is are you a stable person? Have you the track record to back that up. I would not be concerned about from the time you lost employment until now. Everyone out there knows we are in a deep rescission and that we are doing what we need to do in order to get by. Its the overall picture they will be looking at, if you do happen to have a history of late payments stretching out for years, then yes you do have reason to worry about being passed up on a job. The best thing you can do is to lay it on the line, and explain exactly what your side of the story is.

If you are turned down for a position for reason of credit, you have the right to ask for a copy of the credit report and a detailed explanation of why this decision was made.  So for the majority of us out there whose credit is in a bit of a down turn because of unemployment or underemployment  then I would not let this keep you up at night worrying. We are not living in a perfect world right now, and potential employers know this and should make a decision based on your long term credit history.

 

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