Terrence Said:

Can I get a government job if I owe student loans?

We Answered:

If you have outstanding loans, but haven't defaulted or missed payments in a serious enough way to have it appear as a black mark on your credit report, then you'll be considered just like anyone else for government jobs. Some government agencies, and for that matter private employers, do background checks and some employers would no doubt decline to offer jobs if they found that a potential employee hadn't kept up with repaying student loan obligations, but the mere fact of having student loans should not bother anyone - AND, in my experience any background check usually doesn't happen until an employer is seriously thinking about offering you the job, having already done an interview.