Get a credit report on the company you're interviewing with

You and I don't deal with such things every day, but it turns out that there are credit reports available for companies. This can be an invaluable tool for you as a job candidate to assess a company where you're interviewing, especially if you don't know much about the company.

When an unknown company calls me to ask me to work for them as a consultant or recruiter, and even in the case of some known companies, I regularly order a credit report. It costs me $35-50. If you look in the yellow pages, you will find agencies in your area that do this. Nowadays they can email you a PDF; or they can fax it to you.

They may tell you that an individual can't order such reports, only a business can. Baloney. In such a case, surely you have an accountant or know someone who deals with money or business in some fashion: someone who owns a business of any kind, even a gardner; a banker; an investment counselor. Ask that person to order the credit report, and offer to pay the fee.

If you're not familiar with credit reports, you'll want such a person to take 5-20 minutes to explain what's there, and what it means when the report shows:

• State tax Lien from the state in which they are located
• Lawsuit
• Taking longer and longer the last six months to pay bills

All of which I have seen on credit reports.

Such information can help you gauge whether you really want to work at the company, and help you get an idea, how stable they will be in the longer term. I have refused to recruit and/or consult for companies based on such information, and I don't regret it. Let me give a concrete example of how it could affect you as an employee: A friend went to work at a well-known company in the Bay Area. I had already run the credit check and seen that it took them forever to pay their bills; they had asked me to recruit for them, and I gently declined. My friend took the job as a hardware designer. Later he tried to place an order for some parts. The part supplier refused the order, saying they hadn't been paid yet for the last order. How was my friend supposed to finish the project?

Thus, if you don't know a company well, one tool you can use is a corporate credit report.

I've put together some other recommendations for job candidates. There is also a list of currently available job descriptions.