Going bankrupt is a tough time indeed for anyone and it becomes even more stressful when a bankrupt individual decides to try and get a job in order to make his financial position more tenable. There are a veritable host of questions in his mind that might make the prospect of future employment quite daunting. However, it is not as bad as it looks. Here is why:
Effect of Bankruptcy on Job Applications
When it comes to government employment, no agency in Canada may consider your bankruptcy when deciding whether to hire you. Unfortunately, this rule does not apply to the private sector. And it is certainly possible that a prospective employer in the finance industry would be wary of hiring you especially when it comes to dealing with sensitive tasks such as making or supervising the disbursement of payrolls, general accounting and the like.
Honesty is the best policy
The key thing is to be upfront about it and to refrain from hiding your financial history if your prospective employer asks you. Rather than ‘fudging’ the question or out rightly lying (an almost certain way of losing out on your prospective job just when you need it the most) it is always better to speak the truth. If not for any other reason than the simple one that many prospective recruiters conduct a summary credit check on almost all would be employees as a matter of course. All details of your bankruptcy would be shown in that report and if you have lied, it would seriously tarnish your reputation as well as any chances of gainful employment in that organisation, since its altogether very easy to find out any information about your bankruptcy from your credit report.
While it is certainly true that all potential employers do require your specific permission before they can extract details of your credit history, however not giving consent to access such information would almost certainly compel any prospective recruiter that you have something to hide and so deny you any employment opportunities in that organisation. Therefore, it would always be in your own interest to be honest and up front about your bankruptcy during the application process.
Losing a job due to bankruptcy
As a general rule being bankrupt does not automatically mean that you would end up losing your job due to the fact that your personal financial history should not have any visible affect on your work. Your employers have no legal ground to dismiss you per se.
However, that does not always hold true and there are certain cases where your financial history may prove detrimental to your current and future job prospects, such as:
- Being employed in the financial industry including banks and other money lenders that deal with their clientele’s money (and therefore trust)
- If you are a credit councillor or an insolvency and bankruptcy lawyer, your current employers may not wish to allow you to continue in that position.
