Your employer doesn't need to know anything except what they ask for. I have never had a background check or a credit check for a job.
Furthermore, if you became a freelancer / self-employed contractor, then they become your customer - definitely no background check needed.
My advice: Find some temporary work, but start investing in your long term career. Make a web portfolio. Start blogging. Post youtube videos when you learn new stuff. Opportunities will start coming. Get your income up, pay off your debts/tickets and don't ever talk about that stuff ever again.
I did have an offer rescinded for other reasons (I'm good at talking my way out of opportunities). Don't do the same :)
I agree that employers are way too nosy these days. Drug tests, background checks, credit score checks are personal; employers shouldn't be able to request them even. It should be taboo, like asking religion.
The need to reduce the risk of hiring a bad employee should not come at the expense of the privacy of all employees. The risk should be on the business to make the interview process tougher, to reach out to their connections and check the person's references, to follow their hired employees carefully to make sure they're not embezzling or muffing things up.
It is not just a personal matter if someone has a criminal background or routinely doesn't pay their bills. Credit scores are a statistically significant indicator of other kinds of behavior-- for example, people with better credit are also likely to be safer drivers, which is why insurance companies use them.
I have a web portfolio, I have three blogs, and post YouTube videos regularly for my blogs. I have commited code to large open source projects, and have released some other projects on my own.
I'm just not good at freelancing, I tried it for a short time and hated every single minute of it.
Comments
Your employer doesn't need to know anything except what they ask for. I have never had a background check or a credit check for a job.
Furthermore, if you became a freelancer / self-employed contractor, then they become your customer - definitely no background check needed.
My advice: Find some temporary work, but start investing in your long term career. Make a web portfolio. Start blogging. Post youtube videos when you learn new stuff. Opportunities will start coming. Get your income up, pay off your debts/tickets and don't ever talk about that stuff ever again.
I did have an offer rescinded for other reasons (I'm good at talking my way out of opportunities). Don't do the same :)
I agree that employers are way too nosy these days. Drug tests, background checks, credit score checks are personal; employers shouldn't be able to request them even. It should be taboo, like asking religion.
The need to reduce the risk of hiring a bad employee should not come at the expense of the privacy of all employees. The risk should be on the business to make the interview process tougher, to reach out to their connections and check the person's references, to follow their hired employees carefully to make sure they're not embezzling or muffing things up.
It is not just a personal matter if someone has a criminal background or routinely doesn't pay their bills. Credit scores are a statistically significant indicator of other kinds of behavior-- for example, people with better credit are also likely to be safer drivers, which is why insurance companies use them.
I have a web portfolio, I have three blogs, and post YouTube videos regularly for my blogs. I have commited code to large open source projects, and have released some other projects on my own.
I'm just not good at freelancing, I tried it for a short time and hated every single minute of it.
Thanks for your advice!