On the market for TT faculty positions, is having my credit frozen a problem with University's background check?
I'm on the job market, and at least all the Universities in the US do (or will do) a background check on the tenure-track faculty candidates (not sure if schools from other countries do so for international applicants).


I’m not sure where you heard this, but if by “background check” you mean specifically something that includes a credit check (as your question seems to suggest), I’m pretty sure the statement is false. At my large university where until recently I was a department chair and was closely involved with hiring of several new faculty members, I am not aware of any practice of running credit checks on anyone; if it happened at all, it would be part of the paperwork an incoming faculty member has to go through after already receiving and accepting an offer, so would have no influence on any decision making at the department side. In other words, at least at my university this would not be a concern in connection with your tenure-track application.

Aside from my personal experience, the other reason why I’m pretty sure your assertion is false is that in many US states it is illegal to base hiring decisions on job candidates’ credit history. Thus in those states no sane hiring process would attempt to obtain such information prior to making an offer, and I can’t think of a good reason why it would make sense to obtain it after making an offer either.

Good luck with your job search.