Getting the Financial Job: Part 1

So you want a job in the financial sector, perhaps as a broker or as a financial analyst? Before you apply for a job in the financial field, you need to know your own personal credit worthiness. If you can’t handle your own money, it's a statement about your trustworthiness to a firm.

If you don’t have good credit, you won't be hired. If you have bad credit which isn't your fault or can be repaired, you need to take care of this first before you apply. I've provided a link which explains thing in more detail here at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre13.shtm .

You need to be careful in repairing your credit. When younger, I once paid off a bad debt which I incurred because the department which handled my bill lost my check. I naively assumed all was well, except, the business listed the paid debt as a bad debt that was paid off. It still counted as a bad debt.

Also sometimes paying an old debt's worse than not paying. A debt that's about to fall off your credit report that you reopen by paying may be listed for another 7 years.

In any case, your credit represents you. People sometimes act as if they were hit by a meteor when they have bad credit. Though unfortunate things happen like a lost job which can hurt credit if we can't pay bills, people often choose to have bad credit by not paying bills or by not checking their credit report annually for false items. ( You can receive your credit report for free once a year from each of the 3 major credit reporting agencies ).

There are no gimmicks to repair bad credit which you earned, except time and a commitment to having good credit from now on. Sometimes you can call a company that has been injured by you not paying a bill, and you can ask them them if they'll re-categorize a bad debt as paid with no stigma attached to it if payment arraignments are made.

Again be careful. Make no commitment which can be construed as reopening a bad debt without something firm from them in writing to change the debt's status. I also recommend buying a cheap fax machine. You can pick one up for less than $ 40. You get better results if you make the other person’s job easier, so think ahead.

I don't recommend you use a credit repair agency as the link I listed explains because they will charge you for what you can do for yourself. If you choose to use one and they want money up front or promise you that they can remove bad credit items, run. Remember, your credit's on a report for seven years. Repairing it doesn't mean that anything bad from the past will disappear from a report because it is repaired in the present.

In other words, if you get a hospital: for instance, to list a bad debt as good because you promise to make timely payments, it does not mean that the 2 years where you made no payments will go away.

Finally, be polite and kind. These people deal with mean people all day, so it will be a plus. And if you get no results, ask for a supervisor. None of the rules people say no to you about were written by the finger of God in the sky. There are always people who can change the rules if they want to provided it breaks no law.

By

Jeffrey Ruzicka

Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania and is a contributing writer to FinancialJobBank,FinancialJobBankBlog and Nexxt.