pre employment screening for investment bank

[ZefiroTorna]

Hello this is my first post. Have been contracting since 1998. Shortly I might be offered a job with a canary wharf investment bank.

The role would probably be perm not contract but my question applies regardless as these banks do extensive pre-employment checks before hiring all staff, contract or perm. These banks need to weed out criminals and also protect themselves from fraudulent or malicious attacks on their internal systems. The checks always were intrusive and difficult but are now even more so.

My problem is twofold. a) Last year companies house dissolved my contractor company as I have not filed my accounts in time. So I am now a director of a dissolved company. b) I picked up a credit card default notice last August due to not having enough income at the time ( outgoings > ingoings ).

How bad is this?.
Will the screening pick up these bad credit markers.?
Have I any chance of passing the PES checks?
Have I any chance of getting the job or will HR blank me ?

btw the bank are hiring Alexander Mann to do these checks.

Any similar experiences welcome.

[nomadd]

Hello this is my first post. Have been contracting since 1998. Shortly I might be offered a job with a canary wharf investment bank.

The role would probably be perm not contract but my question applies regardless as these banks do extensive pre-employment checks before hiring all staff, contract or perm. These banks need to weed out criminals and also protect themselves from fraudulent or malicious attacks on their internal systems. The checks always were intrusive and difficult but are now even more so.

My problem is twofold. a) Last year companies house dissolved my contractor company as I have not filed my accounts in time. So I am now a director of a dissolved company. b) I picked up a credit card default notice last August due to not having enough income at the time ( outgoings > ingoings ).

How bad is this?.
Will the screening pick up these bad credit markers.?
Have I any chance of passing the PES checks?
Have I any chance of getting the job or will HR blank me ?

btw the bank are hiring Alexander Mann to do these checks.

Any similar experiences welcome.

I work through AM (Solutions) at the moment, and did for my last contract. Both of these roles have been with Investment Banks. AM don't do the "checks"; it's outsourced to a third-party company, and that is who you will deal with. Anything negative will be fed back to the client, not AM. This might be slightly different for permie, but I doubt it.

I really can't see what you've mentioned above as being that big and issue, TBH. Don't sweat it. But DO come clean and mention it up-front. If it's a permie role, you'll have to speak to HR at some stage, so make sure you mention it to them. You will also be required to stick it on the paperwork that AM will send to you for forwarding to the checking company.

I have to say, I've found AM to be pretty good. As for the checking company, they just do everything from a "tick list", so just keep it clean and you should be OK. In the highly unlikely event that this role doesn't come off because of your credit record, simple forget about it and move on. The IBs are desperate for good IT people at the moment; my phone has been going mental for 2 weeks or more. Plenty of other fish to catch; you'll land something if your skills are good, no problem.

[ghostrider]

pre screening

Hello this is my first post. Have been contracting since 1998. Shortly I might be offered a job with a canary wharf investment bank.

The role would probably be perm not contract but my question applies regardless as these banks do extensive pre-employment checks before hiring all staff, contract or perm. These banks need to weed out criminals and also protect themselves from fraudulent or malicious attacks on their internal systems. The checks always were intrusive and difficult but are now even more so.

My problem is twofold. a) Last year companies house dissolved my contractor company as I have not filed my accounts in time. So I am now a director of a dissolved company. b) I picked up a credit card default notice last August due to not having enough income at the time ( outgoings > ingoings ).

How bad is this?.
Will the screening pick up these bad credit markers.?
Have I any chance of passing the PES checks?
Have I any chance of getting the job or will HR blank me ?

btw the bank are hiring Alexander Mann to do these checks.

Any similar experiences welcome.

I was wondering how you got on with this, I am in almost the same situation, and am interested to find out what the screening company did, ie. were you deemed suitable?

[JoJoGabor]

As above, it WILL be picked up by the screening checks. it depends on how the bank will react to this. it can also take up to 3 months for the checks to complete. If it was me, I would be completely honest on the screening forms, but chat to HR and mention your two issues up front. That way they can tell you Immediately if they have an issue with it. Otherwise you will be sat on site every day worried that the fateful call from HR is coming.

[Bexter]

From my experience, the only things IB's are interested in when they do these checks is CCJ's.

As long as you don't have one of those you should be fine. As others have said, be honest and up front about it and generally you should have no problem.

[Wanderer]

Will the screening pick up these bad credit markers.?

Of course it will. Will it affect your prospects? I don't know.

Go to the credit reference agencies and get a copy of your credit report. Make sure it's accurate and get anything that's not accurate corrected. Also prepare your defence ready to present if you get challenged about the debts.