I recently read a post here on RecruitingBlogs.com that suggested a need to run a credit check on any recruiter or individual that may, as a result of a new position, have fiscal responsibility or even any kind of responsibility within a corporation or search firm. A good FICA score proves a worthy recruiter or employee. If this were the case, I never would have been allowed in the profession. Many of you know the story of my start in the industry, so I will give only a brief overview...

As a newly-single mom of four children aged four to fourteen, I was working three jobs and taking fifteen units to earn my degree all while just trying to get by. I answered a job posting pinned to the wall of the theater department at my college: part-time administrative work at a home-based boutique search firm near where I lived. They were willing to work around my hours and the job sounded very interesting. I was hired before my interview was even over and set to start work right away. My credit score was in the dumpster, I was barely making it and life was very tough. I found a new life in recruiting. Before long, I was working as an Executive Recruiter full-time and supporting my small family quite well, alone. 

The last go round of economic strife and a second divorce put me back in the dumpster and I have worked very hard to pay off credit cards and get ahead. Had my ability to do my job been based on my credit, I would never have been hired by anyone. Currently, I have no credit card debt, none, and I paid my car loan off within two years of securing it. I have a student loan and a mortgage that weigh about my neck like a boat anchor. Hmmm..., How's that for transparency?

I guess the point of my telling is that had every person that was recently able to land a job been required to submit a credit score in the seven or eight hundreds..., what kind of further hot mess would we be in? Sometimes life laughs at us. Sometimes other people laugh at us.  But I refuse to cry. What's the best way to disprove those who think I deserve to be in a debtor's prison based on my FICA? Work even harder. Which I do, every single day, alone.



by rayannethorn