A bankruptcy doesn’t have to ruin your job prospects if you follow these tips.
The whole purpose of a personal bankruptcy is to provide you with a clean slate so you can start to rebuild your credit and get on the path to a better financial future. However, if you can’t get a good job after bankruptcy, you will obviously be very limited in what you can accomplish in the future. You may even end up right back where you started (or close to it), with significant debts after just a few years of living with an income insufficient to your needs.
But before you get discouraged, remember that there are plenty of employers that will be perfectly happy to hire someone with a bankruptcy on their record. Here are some tips that will help you better manage the job search process so you can get hired after filing for bankruptcy.
- You do not have to answer questions about your bankruptcy history. It is actually illegal for an employer to ask direct, personal financial questions related to bankruptcy, debt, wage garnishment, etc. during an interview. You should not ever volunteer this information. If the employer wants to find out, let them run a credit check.
- Don’t be afraid to give permission for an employer to check your credit history. According to a poll from the Society for Human Research Management, only 13 percent of employers routinely run credit checks on all job candidates, and only 9 percent say that good credit is a top qualification that they look for in an employee. So, it will actually be rare for an employer to ask you to authorize a credit check. But if they do, don’t be afraid to allow it. They may still want to hire you even after discovering your bankruptcy.
- There are very limited circumstances in which a bankruptcy in your past can serve as a disqualifying factor for a job. Legally, employers are only allowed to reject candidates purely for bad credit if the job is a highly sensitive financial or accounting position. However, a bad credit report can color an employer’s perception of you and make any other flaws in your application seem worse.
- Prove you’re the right person for the job and an employer will be more willing to overlook a bankruptcy. If you know the employer plans to run a background check and will discover your bankruptcy, you may want to get out ahead of the potential problem by briefly explaining the extenuating circumstances that led to the bankruptcy or by strengthening other areas of your application. This could encourage the employer to overlook the bankruptcy and see you as a trustworthy candidate they want to hire.
Considering Bankruptcy? Think Carefully Before Filing!
Remember, a bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for 7 to 10 years, so you should not enter into a bankruptcy proceeding lightly. Be sure to consult with an experienced bankruptcy attorney who can explain the process to you in detail and ensure you get the maximum debt relief benefit from your filing.
