Credit Inquiries for the Jobless - Insanity

This is absolutely insane: http://tinyurl.com/msglu8

The New York Times reported that companies are now using credit checks to narrow down a pool of candidates - you're kidding me, right? I understand for finance positions, government jobs and other positions that would require stellar credit, but for data entry clerks and personal trainers? Give me a break!

It is hard enough in today's economy for people to find a job opening, stand out enough to get noticed with a cover letter and resume and now we are going to discount them if they have a low credit score or foreclosure.

Businesses are cloaking the activity by saying " they have an obligation to be diligent and to protect themselves from employees who may be unreliable, unwise or too susceptible to temptation to steal, and that credit checks are a help." Right, it is only people who are behind in their credit card payments, house payments and car loans who are going to steal from you. Everyone else with great credit will play by the rules and not be tempted to abscond with your resources. I am sure Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling, Richard Scrushy and Bernard Madoff had outstanding credit scores - guess they would have passed right under the radar screen.

The road to recovery is long and along the way what people need is support and understanding, not brow beating and rigidity. This to me seems like an unfair approach to the candidate selection process.

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Comment by Marilyn Waitkus on August 12, 2009 at 2:52pm: Sorry Jason, but you must be thinking about standard reference check, in healthcare you never call the references listed and the questions I ask are very specific to skills and abilities. And yes some companies ref to the work# but its your skill as a recruiter to get past that. Also its very easy to get false SS#'s Drivers etc. but its very hard to pass yourself off as a physician so what I do goes beyond what most recruiters do for reference checks, and same for my IT clients. In my area of recruiting its very incestuous and in most cases one call and I know more about the persons abilities than they do. Therefore Credit Checks are not necessary.

Comment by Mat von Kroeker on August 12, 2009 at 6:48pm: I have no credit-- because I've never had a credit card. Does that mean I'll do no work??

Credit debt is the American way--- does that mean you're against Americans???

Irony: The people who's credit are being checked (financials, etc.) are the ones most likely who can and will "cook the books", as it were, to make sure their credit's clean. (Or at least, the credit they're allowing to be checked.)

It's intrusive, anal retentive discrimination-- coming real close to breaking right-to-privacy laws.

Comment by Saleem Qureshi on October 18, 2009 at 3:44pm: Credit checks van be used as an effective tool in compensation negotiations. In today's fiscal climate, it is not uncommon to have bad credit, and bad credit does not have any correlation to the level or skill or talent that one might have. Having said this, if you find talent that has bad credit, and has a mortgage etc, then you know you have negotiating advantage.