You put on your best suit.  You had copies of your resume to take with you.  You know you wowed them during the interview.  You’re sure the job is yours. Then two weeks later you get a call that says, “sorry you didn’t get the job.”

Huh?  What happened?  You are clueless on why you didn’t get the job. But this is the third job that you were sure was yours that you didn’t get. You are qualified, have the right degrees, and handled the interviews superbly. You can’t imagine what went wrong.

It’s your Credit Report.  It looks like a war zone because you do a poor job at managing your finances.  Late payments.  Collection accounts. Your credit report is hurting your job hunt.

Early in my career, I was a bad money manager of my finances.  I had a great accounting career that had just begun.  I was making a nice salary.  I thought I could buy whatever I wanted.  And I bought many things on credit.  I just didn’t make sure that I was paying back those creditors on time.  When I got laid off from my great accounting position, things got worse.  I didn’t have an emergency fund to help me ride out my unemployment.

As I went about my job search, I kept not getting hired. I was getting all sorts of interviews.  Prospective employers were telling me they loved me and that the job was most likely mine. Somehow things kept going downhill after the interview and I wasn’t getting hired.

Turns it I wasn’t getting hired because of my credit report.  Most states allow a prospective employer to review your credit report as part of the hiring process. My potential employers were definitely reviewing mine and falling out of love with me.  I got lucky and one employer decided to take a chance on me regardless of my terrible credit report.  But it took several months for me to find that employer.  I was unemployed longer than I had to be because I didn’t pay attention to my finances when I had a job.

I learned my lesson.  I worked hard at repairing my credit and paying my bills on time.  I promised myself that I would never be in that position again.

Would your credit report allow you to hear the words “You’re Hired”?