Employment After Bankruptcy

Things have changed a lot over the years and while the government continues to try and keep up with our changing society to make things fair for everyone there are still practices that go on every day that seem unfair, and probably are unfair, but they are still used widely in our world today.  One of the more daunting things you can face when your financial world has been turned upside down is employment after bankruptcy.  It used to be that employment after bankruptcy was not too big of a deal because employers sometimes did not ask and if they did ask, and you were feeling adventurous, then you could deny your bankruptcy.  Of course lying on the application usually gets you fired and if they find out then you are gone.  But today employment after bankruptcy is a lot more complicated because up to 70% of employers now use a complete background check of a potential employee as early as the first interview.  In those background checks is a credit check and that is where it can get ugly.

Here is where the game of employment after bankruptcy gets a little confusing and potentially frustrating.  An employer can deny you a job, or release you from a job, if they find that your credit report is not up to their liking.  Employers today directly associate a credit report with a person's reliability and while this may not seem totally fair it does make a lot of sense.  However an employer cannot deny you employment, or terminate you from employment, because of a bankruptcy.  You would think that this change in the law would help in employment after bankruptcy but most people that have gone bankrupt have a pretty bad credit report so if an employer really doesn't want you then they can point to your credit report as the reason and not your bankruptcy.  Your only saving grace is if the bankruptcy is the only bad thing on your credit and you can prove that.  Even then an employer can point to any other of a number of reasons for denying you employment.

When It Is Really Hopeless

In some cases employment after bankruptcy in certain fields of work is probably just not going to happen.  Government work where a clearance is required is not going to happen, a job in the gambling industry is not going to happen, and more than likely that banking job won't get you a call back either.  Even though an employer cannot deny you employment after bankruptcy based on the bankruptcy they can still point to other factors to deny you employment.

If you go into an interview for employment after bankruptcy and you know they are going to look up your credit then probably the best thing to do is to try and head it off at the pass and talk about it right up front.  Usually if a company asks for you social security number and then has you sign a release then they are checking your credit.  In many case honesty is always the best policy.