Bad credit can hurt your job hunt
From the mailbag:
I have less than a year before I graduate. I will be in the IT field, most likely a Network Administrator. The pay rate is pretty nice in these parts. Though I am at the top of my class, as far as my credit goes… I am scared for my future! I would like to know if cleaning up my credit starting next pay period, lol, would help my chances at landing the so-called perfect job when I finally get out of here? I am 29 so imagine how much damage I have created since 18, with that first “so you are off to college?” credit card everyone receives.
I guess what I’m asking is, does HR look up credit scores?
-TR
I fear a little bit for you too TR. HR departments do often pull credit reports and use them to evaluate candidates. And even though governments do it quite a bit more than the private sector, it has been rising in use there as well. A recent study by SHRM shows that 35% of employers use credit background checks as part of their screening process. That means, if you are applying for three jobs, one of those, on average, will be hitting your credit profile and seeing your “whoops” and “oops.”
But how they use that information is another thing altogether. Many employers are looking for consistency of what story your resume tells about you. So if you say you’ve been in school in Atlanta but all of your credit records point to an address in Michigan, there might be a problem. Many HR vendors have said that the use of credit reports has gone down though and that adverse action taken because of information contained in a credit report is around the 5% range. If you have a criminal record or have lied on your resume, you are much more likely to get your job offer revoked than a credit blemish or two.
And really, in the scheme of things, that 5% isn’t a huge figure to worry about.
But…
You are talking about a Network Administrator job. This would be one of those jobs that has “high sensitivity” written all over it. I am not surprised to hear about double standards in background checks for people in sensitive positions (IT, accounting, finance, executive, HR). When you have access to information that most other people in the company do not, that’s certainly a risk factor.
So yes, HR is likely to check your credit background and in some cases, bad credit may disqualify you from a job. Your mileage may vary though.
Is it enough of a concern to pull your credit report and start to understand it and correct any mistakes? I think so. You have time to get some of those mistakes cleared out and get some of your current issues out of delinquency status in time for a sweet, well paid job. Not to mention that a good credit score can help you in other ways too.
Dress codes should be unnecessary
But they aren’t.
We revised our dress code at work and I was reminded about how much I hate enforcing, creating and working with employee dress code issues. And even though we moved in a net positive direction (we decided to allow jeans for all employees), any sort of change always brings handfuls of questions to go along with it. How good do the jeans have to look? Do they have to be blue? What happens if I just have one rip, is that okay?
My automatic response to all dress code questions is just to say no. This takes care of most of the questions. I believe if you have to ask the question, the answer is probably no.
No, there is no scientific reason or study behind it. Just a bit of experience.
Now people that decry dress codes are typically people that have never worked for a company that doesn’t have a dress code. And in my experience, that is scary.
I worked for a place that did telephone surveys. Mainly we did surveys for governments, educational institutions and broad consumer products. There was no dress code. You could wear whatever you wanted. And it showed.
And it was awesome. At least for me personally. I showed up to work in my pajamas, bathrobe, slippers, stocking cap and gloves (it was snowing and cold). That’s convenience (no changing clothes).
What wasn’t awesome was what other people wore. Including the middle aged lady that wore short shirts with jelly rolls around her stomach. Or the guy that came to work every day after the gym in his sweaty outfit stinking the place up for the entire shift. Or the guy that has so many holes in his t-shirt (the same one he wears every day, stains and all), you thought they were made on purpose for the copious amount of hair he had all over his torso. Last but not least, the 16 year old that dresses like a dancer (and I don’t mean no ballerina).
So yes, workplace policies, like the laws of our country, are made because of bad people in the world. Regardless of legality, I am doubting that most people would steal or murder people. There still needs to be a law about it. About 90% of the people at the survey place dressed appropriately but the 10% were just so awful, it deserved a policy.
Luckily, I am in a place where that is a reality.
Happy (Belated) National Boss Day
So I forgot to write about National Boss Day yesterday and I feel kind of bad about it. After all, the boss is a pretty important person. Someone who is up there as far as power is concerned but always looking out for us working class folks. The boss sticks up for us and has never let us down (maybe in the early to mid 90’s but that was a tough time for everyone). Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks to the boss for writing all those great songs like “Born in the USA” and …
Wait, what?
National Boss Day is actually about your actual boss (not The Boss, Mr. Bruce Springsteen). That’s too bad because that probably would have been my best post to date.
So if you are reading this today and you forgot to tell your boss how special they are, you might as well forget it now. You don’t want to be late on this like you are late on everything else. And you know why they say there is no “National Employee Day”, right? Because every day is Natio…
Alright, I guess that’s what Labor Day is all about. But now you know the difference because Labor day is a national holiday and National Boss Day is just a random Tuesday that isn’t about Bruce Springsteen.
More Generation Y Problems
I already posted about Generation Y on Vault today so I won’t double up on it other than to point out that this could be a serious problem for the future of major companies that are losing talent to retirement and new ventures at a rapid pace.
Not that I am complaining (says the reluctant Gen Y member) but I am hoping everyone else will be able to step up.
Some workplace traditions are ready to go out the window
Over at Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk deals with five workplace habits that should be over. Ugh, yes! Can we get started on this today sometime? Here are the five with my comments:
- Voice mail - The sooner we get over it, the better. Voice mail is dead, long live voice mail. In some organizations, this is the mode of communication. Middle managers spend their work days sending broadcast voice mails to fifteen different distribution lists mindlessly droning on about whatever is going on in the company. Is some of it important? Sure, if you can get through it.
- Reply-to-all - An e-mail button that seems to be ever slowly dying. Here is a hard and fast rule for reply-all: more than three e-mails and you either need a meeting or a conference call. You go past that threshold and you are just being unproductive. Just don’t leave a voice mail, that is still probably worse.
- The
crackcandy machine - Working from home, I know I have to limit what I have in my home or else I eat it. A candy machine is an extension of that work environment. I realize there isn’t a veggie vending machine yet but is it such a bad idea to encourage people to walk to one central location, out of the work area, to get their fill of coffee, candy and pop? - Soliciting money at work - My parents never let me do this when I was a kid so I guess I don’t understand what the problem is. I don’t think fund raising is all bad but it should revolve around officially sponsored corporate events if it is going to be allowed at all.
- The mega huge office party - The best parties I have been to are the ones involving those you directly work with on a day to day basis. Seeing them outside of a work environment can be a fun and rewarding look into how they tick. I thought a big 150 person party was big though so what do I know?
Any that you would add to this? I think maybe the whole “Come into work when I am sick to show how tough I am and get everyone else sick” thing would be on my list.
Job Hopping Revisited
From the mailbag:
Hi Lance the HR Guy,
I found your blog on the web and read that fascinating guest entry on job-hopping… and thought that you might be able to answer some of my questions.
I am a recent graduate, have been working for 3 months at a large professional services firm, and am already thinking about my “exit.”
I think I’ve just discovered that I’m not suited to the work or the 90-hour weeks it requires. However, as I’ve only been working there for 3 months, I know my options are limited. Is there even any point to looking for a job now? If not, my goal is to finish a year, then look for other positions. Will that brand me as a “job-hopper”? I was under the impression that young grads have some more leeway, but perhaps I’m
wrong.
Any insight you can give is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Looking For a Change
Ah yes, that awful job that you are all excited about coming out of college only to find out it is hell. And it sounds like your job isn’t an ordinary sort of hell, it is probably the one preached about from big pulpits in big loud churches. Fire, torture, a mean slave boss (probably with some horns)… Yeah. I got that.
No matter the circumstances though, looking for a job at this juncture is going to be extremely difficult. If you get a call back (and you will, most likely), this will be one of the first questions out of their mouth guaranteed. And that’s not fair but we’ve also been burned before by flakes and losers who jump around from job to job. There are a couple ways to approach this:
- The company has a reputation for driving their employees to exhaustion. We all know these sorts of companies so I don’t need to mention names but some companies need no explanation as to why you are leaving. In fact, I would seriously question you if you hadn’t started looking until a year out.
- You have a great work history otherwise. This might be hard to grapple with if you are just out of college and don’t have a steady work history but it could work for other folks. Explaining that it is out of character for you to be doing this but that you made a poor decision to take this position and you’d like to find something more fitting.
- If the above two don’t work, you are going to have to weigh your options. You might have limited choices due to that and get into a less desirable (but better) situation. You’d have to put in more time there to be seen positively. You can also do your best to explain the situation politely (WITHOUT throwing your current employer totally under the bus and WITHOUT coming off like someone who wants to work 30 hours a week and take long lunches.
There is no doubt in my mind you will have a more difficult time but your sanity (and your cardiologist) may thank you for making a premature departure. Even if you can’t get into the most ideal scenario of finding a great fit, you can help your chances of success by finding a place where you can at least moderately succeed.
Who is reading Recruiting.com?
Is anybody reading recruiting.com as of late? On the front page right now, the top article has six total votes and there is a mess of single vote articles right now. A large majority of articles are more than one day old as well. According to my count, there were all of FOUR stories posted on recruiting.com on October 3rd (that includes two from the editor).
This is not a slight or some passive aggressive attack on recruiting.com, it is simply an honest question. Looking at alexa, their traffic has tanked.
I guess I am curious as to who is still reading, why the drop off and what big plans are in store for recruiting.com?
Failure isn’t fatal
I ordered two sweatshirts from Amazon.com and I was a $1 and change under the $25 free shipping so I looked and saw if I could find anything and the book Fail Better was on sale to push me right over the $25.
I got my sweatshirt, tried it on and it feels great. I also read through the “book.” I use the word book loosely since it is a collection of quotes and anecdotes. One of my favorites is the story of Michael Jordan:
In his sophomore year of high school, Michael Jordan failed to make the varsity basketball team. He has said, “I was very disappointed and I thought the coach had make a mistake. But my mother said the best thing for me to do is to prove the coach wrong. And I started working on my game the day after I was cut.”
Anyway, I don’t know if I would recommend it if you aren’t getting it for nearly free but it is pretty good reminder about how failure isn’t fatal and can make you better.
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About
Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...
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