Will filing for bankruptcy affect my job or my job prospects?

First of all, federal law does forbid employers from firing anyone for filing bankruptcy. If you file for Chapter 7, it’s likely your employer won’t find out anyway, so it’s not a huge problem. If you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will probably have your wages garnished as part of the plan, in which case your employer might find out. This might cause some embarrassment, but it cannot be cause for termination.

Furthermore, if you apply for a government job (federal, state, or local), you cannot be denied employment for having had filed for bankruptcy. However, there are no such prohibitions on private employers, and if a private employer runs a credit or background check and learns that you have filed for bankruptcy, the employer may find that to be indicative of your character and refuse to hire you under the belief that you would be an irresponsible employee. This, however, is probably very rare, both for your prospective employee to find out about it, and for that same employer to deny you a job based upon it.