[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-r...
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Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?
Hello HN, Does anyone have experience getting back into
tech/startups post-felony? I have been looking for work since I
was released for an assault charge in November 2022. Previously I
worked in Information Security as a SecOps Eng, most recently at
Tinder. Between lack of recent job experience, and my record, I
have been through a series of offer reneges, recruiters ghosting
me, or going into HR resume black holes. I am eager to get back
into tech and feel like my old self adding value to a great
team/org. Anyone have leads on companies that are open to taking
chances on good candidates with less than sparkling backgrounds?
NOTE: My offense was not computer/finance/fraud/selling
drugs/physical violence/based at all. Here is my linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saunderscaleb/
Author : publicprivacy
Score : 154 points
Date : 2024-01-03 18:53 UTC (4 hours ago)
| VirusNewbie wrote:
| Assault charges but not physical violence? What in the world? I'm
| so sorry you got that on your record.
|
| I would look at smaller startups that might make it easy to just
| escalate to the CEO if you have a good explanation, rather than
| having an HR department stop you right away.
|
| EDIT: I thought assault meant physical violence, but not harm
| while battery meant harm. I was wrong I guess?
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| Given that urinating in public can result in sex offender
| charges in some locales, I'm not surprised that you can have
| non-violent assault charges.
| badrequest wrote:
| This basically doesn't happen, mostly an urban legend.
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| Some quick googling says that while highly unlikely, it is
| technically possible...so we're both right?
|
| Apparently public urination can overlap with indecent
| exposure, depending on the situation, and the latter can
| result in a sex offender registry.
| edgyquant wrote:
| I know someone it happened to, so it does definitely happen
| local_crmdgeon wrote:
| Would recommend verifying their charges yourself, people
| tell you this so you don't go peeking around. It's often
| a cover for a significantly more serious act.
|
| Look on the registry yourself - you won't see anyone on
| there for peeing in public: https://www.nsopw.gov/
| local_crmdgeon wrote:
| This doesn't actually happen, it's only possible when there's
| a sexual component.
|
| You hear the concept a lot, because it's a cover - "I'm on
| the sex offenders list, but I was just peeing. Didn't realize
| it was a playground, whoops!" is different from the true "I
| raped a girl, and despite the incredibly high burden of proof
| in that charge I was convicted, and now I have to tell you
| about it because I moved next door."
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > I raped a girl, and despite the incredibly high burden of
| proof in that charge I was convicted
|
| What burden of proof?
|
| This is a crime where you can be accused of having
| committed it several years in the past, with no supporting
| evidence of any kind, and convicted for no other reason
| than that you give someone a "rapist" vibe.
|
| https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedet
| a...
| ceejayoz wrote:
| > Assault charges but not physical violence?
|
| Physical violence is battery.
|
| https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault_and_battery
|
| "Assault refers to the wrong act of causing someone to
| reasonably fear imminent harm. This means that the fear must be
| something a reasonable person would foresee as threatening to
| them. Battery refers to the actual wrong act of physically
| harming someone."
| mgarfias wrote:
| Not always. For example: oregon doesn't have battery, it is
| all assault. Just varies in degree (4th->1st).
| nsxwolf wrote:
| Regardless, it's pretty brutal to have such poor legal
| representation that an act with no real physical attack
| couldn't be pled down to a misdemeanor.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Misdemeanor is still a criminal record.
| hiddencost wrote:
| Keep in mind that battery is the charge that encompasses
| physical violence; assault specifically does not.
| fr0sty wrote:
| > Assault charges but not physical violence? What in the world?
|
| "The legal definition of assault is an intentional act that
| gives another person reasonable fear that they'll be physically
| harmed or offensively touched. No physical contact or injury
| has to actually occur, but the accused person must have
| intentionally acted in a way to cause that fear."
|
| https://vindicatelaw.com/assault-vs-battery-are-they-the-sam...
| birdman3131 wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38858468 They mention here
| some more info.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| There are a couple of folks here that run organizations
| specifically geared towards helping felons in tech.
|
| I can't think of them, right offhand, but I'll bet they pipe in.
|
| I'd suggest making the title a wee bit "pithier," to make sure
| they understand it.
|
| For example: "I Have a Felony, and it is Making it Difficult to
| Find Work."
|
| I have known many folks with felony records that have found work,
| but it tends to be challenging. Stubbornness and not reacting to
| the dicks is an asset.
|
| I sincerely wish you luck.
| codegeek wrote:
| Find startup/smaller companies, be totally honest about what
| happened and make your case. Large companies will filter you out
| during application/HR process itself.
| milkshakes wrote:
| checkr
| milkshakes wrote:
| for the haters downvoting: https://checkr.com/company/mission
| publicprivacy wrote:
| Thank you all for your perspective, and suggestions.
|
| I was on a bad psychedelic trip, accompanied with some other
| issues at the time and ending up making threatening statements to
| a very high level official, but no battery occurred whatsoever.
| Thank goodness, or I would _probably_ not be writing this message
| runjake wrote:
| You said in your post it was not drug-related, but here you say
| it was a bad psychedelic trip. Which is true?
| publicprivacy wrote:
| I meant drug sales, thank you I updated
| x0x0 wrote:
| You could also consider working as a consultant or external pen
| tester. When we hired our pen testers, we did not run
| background checks on them, not least because they have no
| access to customer data so it's much less of a concern.
| zamadatix wrote:
| If the people you're paying to find weaknesses in the
| security system are assuredly never going to find a way to
| access internal data then how did you conclude you needed a
| pen tester in the first place? I mean, it's probably the
| right conclusion but only precisely because they'd find a way
| to access things they shouldn't be able to.
| mkii wrote:
| It could have been for a service that was not in production
| yet, and in an isolated environment.
| x0x0 wrote:
| We spin up a clone of prod and point them at that.
|
| Certainly if a weakness is found in the clone it's also
| present in prod, but that's what contracts are for. And we
| also review logs to make sure.
|
| edit: a clone of prod w/ only test data in it, not prod
| data.
| randomdata wrote:
| How do you know what you are looking for in the logs?
|
| If you have the foresight to be able to recognize a
| malicious action from the logs, why not have the software
| block those actions from the start?
| x0x0 wrote:
| We log all accesses and flows. So eg if our pentesters
| found a vulnerability in an endpoint, we can retrieve
| every post against that endpoint and (1) verify the
| pentesters didn't exploit it against prod, and (2) verify
| that it hasn't been exploited by anyone else.
| randomdata wrote:
| Of course, that only works if the vulnerability is
| reported. There is no reason for the malicious actor to
| report the vulnerability they have chosen to exploit.
|
| What percentage of the vulnerabilities discovered are
| independently discovered by multiple pen testers?
| unethical_ban wrote:
| It sounds like you're suggesting that pen testers by
| default will not reveal discovered vulnerabilities with
| clients.
|
| Then you talk about "discovered and revealed
| vulnerabilities". But, your first sentence talks about
| "discovered vulnerabilities not revealed".
|
| What you may be wanting is a honeypot, where a pentest
| client intentionally puts some vulnerabilities of various
| exploit difficulty into the clone environment to ensure
| pentesters are doing their job.
| debo_ wrote:
| It's relatively common to have pen testers attack a cloned
| environment w/ sanitized data. This is especially true in
| cases where your policies (or those you've agreed to from
| customers) require you to present evidence that you are
| having a pen test done every X years.
| gnfargbl wrote:
| The challenge here is your choice of specialism. Security is
| fundamentally a trust-based business and the industry is pretty
| wary of anyone with a perceived black mark against them. The
| reasons for this are mainly liability ("if this guy does
| something wrong and he already has a record, how will we
| look?") and reputation ("what will our government customers
| think about us if we hire this person?").
|
| Could/would you consider a sideways step to something less
| directly security based? For instance there might be data
| engineering roles that might suit.
| jstarfish wrote:
| My experience is different. I'm not a felon but I come across
| them in the workplace fairly often as an internal
| investigator. We have infosec personnel working for us with
| nonviolent sex offender convictions who _also_ maintain
| security clearances (defense contractor). Life does not end
| with a conviction; don 't wear a sandwich board broadcasting
| it but honesty goes a long way. It's the lies that _I 'll_
| eventually hang you with.
|
| Go west if you can. If you're on the east coast it's hell.
| The "liability" concerns are (IME) a pervasive east-coast
| racist myth from the 60s, but it's a real threat. The same
| justification was used to expand routine drug screening from
| forklift operators and truck drivers to keyboard jockeys.
| Equifax did drug testing of white-collar employees and did
| not hire criminals; so much for their liability and
| reputation following the worst data breach in history. It's
| all bullshit; both justifications are veiled cause to not
| hire blacks.
|
| Mind your co-workers inclined to cyberstalk everyone around
| them and using your skeletons to raise PR hell to advance
| their own career. We've unfortunately thrown employees under
| the bus due to public outcry. Social "justice" in action!
| (What was the prison sentence for, if not justice...?)
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| it's been 14 years since my felony, and every IT job I've had
| started out good but they looked me up. I got a unique name I
| can't change right now. so they always find me, I've been hired
| by billion dollar companies for technical member of staff
| positions paying 165k, only to be fired the day before I was
| supposed to start.
|
| I can't do it anymore. I can't try anymore. I've tried for years
| and years and I can't handle this rejection. I can't handle
| knowing at the drop of a hat I'm gonna lose my job again the
| moment they find out. I just can't do this anymore. I really
| can't. I can't be this good, this friendly to people, this
| competent, and still judged so badly from something that happened
| while I was on drugs 14 years ago. I've been clean for as many
| years. It doesn't matter. I've tried explaining, doesn't matter.
| I've treid playing dumb and hoping the background check won't
| find it. I've relied on the right-to-be-forgotten laws and the
| fair credit reporting act-- billion dollar companies still refuse
| to follow the procedure. they didn't get me any chance to dispute
| what they found, even when they said they would. And no, suing
| them doesn't work. No one will take the case and I aint got money
| for it so no.
|
| there are no solutions. I'm paid to find solutions to any
| problem... and I have none. I can find none. :(
|
| People judge harsh these days. Good luck, you need it. Even if
| you get a job, it's a hell of a thing to have a coworker you've
| worked with for 18 months walk up to you with a printout of your
| case, saying, is this you? and then he pretends it didn't bother
| him.
|
| oh it bothered him.
|
| they walked me out not long after that for something seemingly
| unrelated. that job lasted exactly 2 years.
|
| My next, I got walked out at just 4 months for "defacing company
| property" yeah I wrote my name on my custom chair they ordered
| for me. I was financially responsible for that chair, I know
| because I built the inventory system to keep track of the serial
| numbers. Do you think this mattered? Hell no. Do you think people
| cared to reason? nope. they kept a straight face even, said that
| I was lucky they weren't calling the cops.
|
| well joke was sort of on them. my unemployment claim went before
| a magistrate and he took one look and said to them, did you get
| him a chance to wipe it off? and I'm like "I had multiple sovants
| on hand that would have worked. they never even gave me a
| chance." and they were like "...." and that was it. ruled in my
| favor.
|
| but how it left me. it just devestated me. I brought my a game to
| that job. I grew that company from 29 employees to 165. I had
| microsoft hybrid local/cloud running and the dell laptops would
| auto provision all the user had to do was login with their
| username and password. it all unfolded, installed everything they
| needed. a perfect image. it was done in 20 minutes. it was
| amazing, microsoft really has some powerful tools to help IT get
| new employees working fast.
|
| it just sucks. it sucks more than anything. it's unfair, sure.
| the world is unfair. but it is beyond unfair. and it has cost me
| everything ... this latest one just... sent me into a spiral. and
| I just gave up. I lost all my possessions, a lifetime of them. I
| just walked. how can I care anymore?
| altdataseller wrote:
| Can you change your name? (dumb Q perhaps)
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| not presently. but soon. I'm between addresses right now,
| basically. The last state I lived in wouldn't let me do it
|
| I'll still have a social security number that won't change,
| and I'll have an alias and anyone who really wants to find my
| info will find it even with a name change.
|
| What a name change does is get me off a simple google search.
| which isn't legal, fair credit reporting act defines very
| clearly what you are and are not allowed to do to investigate
| potential employees.
|
| and yet, do you really think I can start any business
| relationship by telling someone they can't do things like
| look me up? It's effectively what that is, and it's
| unreasonable.
|
| The industry is still stuck in a "no one knows what to do
| about this problem"
|
| can't stop people from googling you. but I can change my name
| ... but it's not going to stop the ones who look futher. and
| so far, all of them have.
| giantg2 wrote:
| 'The industry is still stuck in a "no one knows what to do
| about this problem"'
|
| It's not that nobody knows - nobody cares. The lawyers will
| always advocate for not hiring anyone "risky". Be that
| criminal convictions, dismissed charges, or people with
| disabilities.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| Sure but there are laws designed to prevent how far back
| they are able to look to find thaat information. And the
| laws aren't even being followed-- the lawyers should be
| telling them to follow them ... and yet.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Yeah, and there are laws about not discriminating against
| people with disabilities and they aren't being followed.
| losvedir wrote:
| Sorry to hear all this. I feel bad suggesting this, and I
| know it's disrespectful and could be hurtful to others, but
| since it sounds like you're at the end of your rope: could
| you pretend to be trans?
|
| I have had a number of (wonderful!) trans colleagues, and
| I'm fairly sure they've all chosen new names, and I haven't
| a clue what their old names were. Being trans would give a
| socially acceptable (in tech circles anyway) reason for
| having a name change, and trying to "deadname" you is
| sufficiently disrespectful that it may hold off some of
| your more busybody colleagues from trying.
| 13415 wrote:
| Move abroad. Unless you apply for a security-related position
| or in childcare/education, it is not common outside the US to
| demand a background check. In any case, in most countries they
| need to ask the candidate and do not have the power or right to
| demand the data for themselves.
| 20after4 wrote:
| You can't move abroad with a felony record and no money.
| withinboredom wrote:
| Depends on the country.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| thank you. moving abroad takes major bank, and I have a
| partner here where I'm living now. We've got dogs. I'm not
| leaving everyone behind and we're not moving to another
| country it's just not in the cards.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I think being upfront is important. There's a lot of stuff that
| doesn't need to be said (I've been clean 43 years, and no one
| ever knew, in my jobs -I just wasn't much fun at the office
| party), but felonies will always come up; even obscure ones.
|
| HR depts hire these companies that break out the digital
| proctoscope, and they do things like find your social media
| accounts. Also, if you piss someone off, they can rat you, and
| you can be fired with cause.
| sjfjsjdjwvwvc wrote:
| Being upfront won't do you any favours.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That depends. Different companies have different policies.
| I've seen folks marched out the door, a couple of weeks
| after being hired, because they pretended otherwise.
|
| As I've said, I've personally seen a lot of felons do fine.
|
| "Being upfront" doesn't mean immediately stating it up
| front, but it also means not lying or pretending it won't
| come up. Also, there are time limits on this kind of thing.
|
| I know a chap that graduated from Brown, in finance, and
| got busted in college, with misdemeanor pot, and that
| haunted him for decades.
|
| I also know a chap that did four bids Upstate, retrained,
| and got a job as an IT admin for BNL. He did great, but
| burgers killed him.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| there is no universal technique. you should try to be up
| front. you don't want things to be discovered later that
| will walk you out. but if being up front makes them pass on
| you, just what is the option?
| pennaMan wrote:
| Move to another country. Open a LLC and work as a contractor
| via your firm. Bootstrap a B2B startup, you seem to have
| valuable skills you can bring to market. There are many
| solutions but they do require you to make a hard trade off.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| moving to another country isn't an option. the only ones I'd
| be willing to go to won't let felons in. I can't even drive
| to canada 10 miles from where I live, here at the border, to
| see friends. no felons are allowed in canada for life. they
| will arrest you immediately for trying, signs for it
| everywhere.
|
| I have an LLC. I'm a published author, but sales are nothing
| I could live off of.
|
| I'm not sure I have what it takes to bootstrap a b2b. It's
| why I like working with others. I literally enjoy helping
| other people solve problems. I was an SRE two positions ago
| and I took on the IT role for an extra 5k/year. and I happily
| answered calls to change peoples passwords, because it was a
| small company. and everyone really respected each other.
| everyone was grateful. I had cards all over my wall that
| people sent me, thank you cards. covering half of it by the
| end. this is what I need in life, all I need. I'm old enough
| now to know the difference between wants and needs.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| > Move to another country.
|
| Your plan sounded perfect except for the complete
| infeasibility of it. Countries don't let felons from other
| countries immigrate.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| thank you for that, it can be really frustrating to get
| suggestions when people don't even know what they're
| suggesting.
|
| Lets say a felon immigrates to germany. their policy is
| they won't ask. but if they find out you were a felon in
| the US, at any point in your life, they will immediately
| deport you. and your life in germany however much you
| built, is forfeit. yay! at any point in time.
|
| that is not an acceptable risk
| deadbabe wrote:
| People underestimate how easily they can travel and how
| it's really just a privilege.
|
| You end up on a no fly list or become a convicted felon and
| that's it, your life of travel is snuffed out.
|
| I really feel for the OP.
| withinboredom wrote:
| When I moved to the Netherlands to start a company, they only
| looked back 10 years for a background check to get the visa.
| I highly recommend leaving the country and starting
| completely fresh if the algorithms got you fucked.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Sounds a lot like having a disability. They aren't allowed to
| discriminate, but they find ways around it.
| NoZebra120vClip wrote:
| Have you worked with social service agencies which specialize in
| such employment?
|
| In my metropolitan area there is a significant network of
| employment agencies. Many are faith-based and many work with the
| homeless and disadvantaged, and it is not unusual for some to
| cater to ex-cons and felons. They will not advertise this stuff
| publicly, so you will need to get referrals and inside
| information on how to find them, but once you hook up with such
| an agency, your chances should improve drastically. Many of them
| will counsel you on how to approach applications and interviews,
| they will broker connections with employers who can overlook such
| a record, and they really know the communities they work in.
|
| Do not discount the power of your State agencies to help you as
| well, such as through Vocational Rehab programs.
|
| One drawback I've found to working with these folks is that
| they're geared to low-income jobs, manual labor, call centers and
| food service type stuff. They're not well-equipped to handle
| professionals in industries like IT, but you can certainly help
| them adapt, and recognize that we're worthy of assistance too.
| The more professional ex-felons who approach them, the better
| equipped they will be to serve people like us.
|
| 26 years ago, they parked me in a homeless shelter with a
| newspaper and a public phone to apply for jobs. Not even a
| typewriter to create a resume. It was a joke. When I was finally
| motivated and qualified, I found the right agencies and the right
| assistance, and it made all the difference in the world.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| the last state agency I worked with was at utah. and they told
| me I had a 6% chance of finding a job in the tech industry
| without someone on the inside. they were very blunt about it,
| and apologetic. The statistics don't lie and they were like,
| you are not going to get a tech job before you win the lottery.
|
| Only way I could collect unemployment was if I was working
| every week to find a new job and putting out applications, and
| they were helping me. but no one wants to touch me, through
| those channels. not so far.
| runjake wrote:
| I don't have much helpful to add, but I had a colleague who had a
| bad night, acquired some felony charges for a firearm-related
| assault and they got fired/blacklisted for a few years.
|
| Subsequently, they did IT contract work behind the scenes with
| small contractors, kept in touch with his professional network,
| was super helpful to the rest of us, and after serious concerns
| and much debate, got back into his prior career with a new
| employer.
|
| I don't even know how, because normally a felony would be a no-
| hire, but he pulled it off, likely because he was so helpful and
| giving to his professional network throughout this mess.
| helsinki wrote:
| Felony charges are a lot different from felony convictions. Was
| he convicted?
| giantg2 wrote:
| It's insane that charges that get dismissed are used against
| people. Maybe for some position of power or sensitive work
| like police or classified work dependingon the actual
| details, but there's no reason innocent people should be
| discriminated against.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| you sound reasonable. the problem is, not everyone is all
| the time. people make emotional decisions that aren't even
| supported by laws or ethics. Some people are just mean,
| some people just want to see the world burn.
| runjake wrote:
| He was charged _and convicted_ on multiple felonies. Thanks
| for asking, that 's an important distinction.
|
| There's a good chance he's on HN and may pop into this
| thread.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| I was charged and convicted with assault with a deadly
| weapon. I shot someone. he accepted my apology, I was high
| af and didn't even know what was going on. and I have no
| history of violence, nor after. but. welp. it was
| considered domestic violence cuz that someone was my
| husband. and california wouldn't let him drop the charges.
| they don't give you that, they just run with it.
|
| its a messed up story. he was devastated. and so angry he
| drove to the cop station after I was sentenced and flew
| over the counter and attacked the very first PD officer he
| saw. She, and a few other officers, beat the living dogshit
| out of him. made him look like a racoon. broke her wrist in
| the process-- and so that's felony assault on a police
| officer WITH GBI. They stuck him one floor above mine. I
| felt bad, now worse. Dude was a nerd, had no criminal
| history. he did that for me? I didn't deserve it.
|
| in any event, we divorced while I was in prison. he got
| permission to see me there towards the end. took a lot of
| paperwork, but he did it. so we could have closure in
| person. got the warden to sign off. had to say a million
| times over that no, he was not brainwashed. no, I didn't
| shoot him because I love him. it was nothing like that.
|
| only reason I got off parole was I had no restitution. and
| the only reason there was no restitution was because my
| husband remained adament that I wasn't all there. an
| advanced medical directive was in effect, he was actually
| my legal caretaker at that point. it was a lot of
| paperwork, notarized even. annnd it counted for nothing.
| there were no medical bills to pay-- his insurance covered
| it, there was nothing but the court costs. He had a clean
| entry and exit, thank god. else it would have been murder
| huh. went through his chest, he spent a week in the
| hospital. made a full recovery.
|
| officials reached out to him one last time and asked, and
| he said something like "you fucks took my husband. eat shit
| and die." He said similar when it came to getting a
| statement from him. Unfortunately someone was shot, and I
| did shoot him, so ... there was no question on if I had
| committed the crime or not, even without a statement. the
| powder was on my hands.
|
| I completed a 9 year sentence, all 85% of it.
|
| today it would never happen. the judge had no ability not
| to send me to prison, or even run the charges concurrent.
| he straight up said he did not want to do it, but his hands
| were tied. there were three, assault with a firearm, great
| bodily injury, and domestic violence. because a gun had
| been involved. minimum mandatory sentencing. no concurrent,
| must be consecutive. They gave me the low, a 3/3/3, so 9
| years.
|
| it doesn't exist these days, but oh well.
|
| I did my time, I didn't let my time do me. I wrote and
| published a sci fi trilogy, which is really hard to do in
| prison, but all you have is time.
|
| I like who I am now, and what I've turned into. I worked
| well at various companies, but ... I wish that was still
| the case.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| I've had four great tech jobs since I paroled ... I'm old. You
| want windows 3.11 for workgroups, or you want server 2019. you
| want *nix, you want macos, I'm into it all. kubernetes,
| virtualization, hell I used to run vmware GSX for companies
| before ESX existed. My resume is very strong, and my skills are
| good. and.... it isn't enough. not so far. it's going to take
| someone who knows from the start, somehow.
|
| I've made companies a lot of money in my lifetime. I worked at
| places like exodus communications, netapp, netcom, @home. Some
| old names people prolly recognize. I specialize in storage, you
| want ceph? Ceph and I get along great. My last cluster was over
| 2 PB and it started out just 150TB.
|
| It's simple in the end, I work for companies, solve their
| problems, make us all money. Should be simple right?
| jfray2k22 wrote:
| hello fellow excommie!
| lostlogin wrote:
| > I had a colleague who had a bad night, acquired some felony
| charges for a firearm-related assault
|
| That's one hell of a bad night.
| rthkljlkrj wrote:
| > Previously I worked in Information Security as a SecOps Eng,
| most recently at Tinder. Between lack of recent job experience,
| and my record, I have been through a series of offer reneges,
| recruiters ghosting me, or going into HR resume black holes.
|
| I "look good on paper" and recruiters ghost me too.
| ecmascript wrote:
| Maybe move to another state or country? If nothing else helps I
| guess that could be your best option.
| isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote:
| What country would allow a documented felon to live there?
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| I became self-employed in early 90s after moving to a very
| different job market (difficult to get work without connections).
|
| I stayed self-employed after my wife's disabilities started
| impacting my schedule. By the time my wife moved on, I had
| reached the ageism stage of my career.
|
| I'm still self-employed. Being uninsured sucks but the schedule
| is pretty okay.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| If you have got the time and energy, why not start creating an
| application related to the area you want to work in? It will be a
| positive at any interviews. Maybe it will bring you some new
| contacts or consultancy work. And if it gains traction you could
| start your own business.
|
| (I've run my own 1-man software business since 2005. But I
| realize it isn't for everyone.)
| itsoktocry wrote:
| > _If you have got the time and energy, why not start creating
| an application related to the area you want to work in?_
|
| I agree, start "working in public" and networking a bit on
| places like Twitter. Those things aren't really my cup-of-tea,
| but what I _love_ is that the idea of pseudonymity is becoming
| more accepted. In the IT world, a lot of people don 't care
| much about you except your ability to produce work.
| hermitcrab wrote:
| >I agree, start "working in public"
|
| That is one approach. I kept all my code proprietary. Depends
| on your goals and personality.
| lauralifts wrote:
| Have you contacted https://www.nextchapterproject.org/?
|
| They do training and placements aimed at getting formerly
| incarcerated people into tech roles. I don't know if they work
| with folks like you with experience already but I'd say it's
| worth a try.
|
| I used to work at Slack, which founded this program.
| publicprivacy wrote:
| Thank you, checking them out now!
| tauntz wrote:
| Move to a different country.
|
| I'm in an EU country and it's really rare to see a company do any
| background checks at all. Be honest, if/when you're asked about
| it of course - but just from personal anecdotal experience, it's
| rare that somebody even bothers to ask. (this might vary of
| course from country to country)
| elchief wrote:
| the company might not do a criminal background check, but the
| immigration officer sure will...
|
| another country is very unlikely to let someone immigrate (or
| even visit) with a criminal record
| filoleg wrote:
| Yeah, that's a big one. Hell, you will most likely get
| grilled (and likely denied entry) by Canadian Border Patrol
| driving in for a short tourist trip as a US citizen just for
| having a misdemeanor. Not even talking about immigrating to
| Canada or getting a permission to work there, or more serious
| offenses.
|
| I have a squeaky clean record, was driving an 8 year old
| toyota camry at the time, and by all accounts appeared as the
| most boring non-offensive person out there trying to cross
| the Vancouver border with my mom and sister (who were both US
| citizens by then too, so it isn't like I was transporting
| non-citizens across the border) for a daytrip during a
| weekend. And CBP went on a 10-15 mins long line of
| questioning about what exactly I do for work (was in a
| somewhat niche area of MSFT at the time, so it isn't like
| they would be suspicious of the employer being shady or
| anything like that, but also it was really difficult to
| explain exactly what i do for work to someone who sounded
| like they just discovered the existence of software
| engineering and have zero idea what any of it is). Only after
| that got cleared up and answering a few more strangely
| personal questions (from me, as well from my mom and sister),
| they let me in. For context, they were visiting me from GA,
| and I was the driver. The entire process took close to 20
| mins. And something similar happened at least every other
| time I tried to cross the WA-Vancouver border.
|
| In contrast, crossing the border back into the US was as
| smooth and efficient as I could have possibly imagined every
| single time. Despite my passengers occasionally creating non-
| happy-path situations for crossing the border. On that same
| trip I mentioned above, my mom decided to buy some really
| nice looking grapes and bring them back home (which was not
| known to me at the time). The US officer, as we were crossing
| the border back into the US, asked if we were bringing
| anything back. My mom honestly said "oh, nothing, except
| these grapes." Unknown to us, those grapes were considered
| invasive/harmful species that weren't allowed to be brought
| into the US. All that did was adding less than an extra
| minute to our trip, because the border officer just calmly
| explained to us the situation, profusely apologized, and said
| that our options were to either eat the grapes or watch as he
| throws them away into a trash can in front of us. The whole
| experience from start to finish took less than 2 minutes.
|
| P.S. Major apologies for going on a massive side-tangent. All
| I wanted to say was that, yeah, with any sort of a criminal
| record (even as minor as a misdemeanor), a lot of
| international options are almost instantly axed at the visa
| stage. Way before even getting to the "will the employer be
| ok with my criminal record" stage.
| felon1234567890 wrote:
| EU let's you in. Canada will not though. I know from
| experience.
| icepat wrote:
| You need a clean background to move to another country if
| you're not a European. I specifically had to submit a Canadian
| RCMP fingerprint based background check when I moved to
| Iceland. EU nationals have it much easier, since the relocation
| process in the EU does not require that level of scrutiny.
| infamouscow wrote:
| If you're in the US, cross the border into Mexico and re-
| enter as an asylum seeker.
|
| Until the idiots in charge change this (by enforcing the
| existing laws), you should take maximum advantage of its
| opportunities.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| could you explain this further? what benefit would there
| be?
| felon_in_texas wrote:
| This is a "throwaway" account for obvious reasons.
|
| I did some terrible things when I was 19 that I won't go into
| details, but after working as a developer for a few years, served
| a six-year sentence from 2003-2009.
|
| Upon release, I leveraged some old contacts to get a bit of
| contracting work. In time I found more contracting work, mostly
| working for smaller companies on a 1099 basis. (direct, not
| through a firm) In time a local contract turned into a job, and
| I've been with the company since. I'm the lead developer and own
| the entire stack, from the cloud to the front-end. I've made
| myself very valuable to them, and earn an income that's well over
| market (early on they offered me a percentage of profits as
| compensation)
|
| I still continue to do contracting on a small basis (small
| companies tend to not bind you with onerous terms keeping you
| from doing so). Some of them I've even found on HN.
|
| Anything involving a background check is a no-go. Most
| traditional employment situations, especially with "big"
| companies is a no-go. Sometimes you have to hustle a bit more,
| but honestly, I feel like owning your career with an
| entrepreneurial mindset is something everyone can benefit from.
|
| Most of my clients have no idea about my past. A few have
| learned, but it didn't disqualify me. I was transparent when
| asked.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| My job two jobs ago did start out with their eyes open. I was
| up front about it and it was a question on the application. I
| wasn't going to lie. They told me it wouldn't be a problem ....
| and it wasn't. Until someone else found out and wasn't so non-
| judgemental. that's kind of how this goes-- whoever I first
| start working with, whoever is doing the hiring, whatever. I
| get the green light. I get hired even. It's ... what happens
| next.
|
| You got new coworkers? A lot of people start digging. I don't
| survive that digging.
|
| Part of the problem is I went to prison for eight years. And I
| am just a computer nerd with no criminal background, I've never
| even had a parking ticket. I act like every other nerd in a dev
| environment. I love hardware, I'm very passionate about
| operating systems, making them run juust right.
|
| Where it's a problem is when people look me up and are like,
| holy cow this is a hardened criminal! but I act... so...
| normal. and you wouldn't guess. it actually flips people out.
| it feels like I'm lying about a whole lot of things suddenly. I
| must be. I have to be. and it goes downhill from there.
| Whatever trust I earned gets taken away because people are
| judgmental and often not reasonable about that judgement.
| felon_in_texas wrote:
| I know it's a possibility, so all I can do is mitigate the
| risk. I've intentionally focused on very small companies (<5
| employees typically) where I almost always report to the top.
| I put myself in positions where I'm not just rank and file,
| but am essentially a hard dependency. Also in contracting
| roles you're usually not around that long. It's tedious
| finding work, but so is looking over your shoulder.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > This is a "throwaway" account for obvious reasons.
|
| You should know that if you also have a non-throwaway account,
| HN will unify your accounts in their backend records.
| dnissley wrote:
| Is there proof of this?
| tomduncalf wrote:
| Proof definitely needed. Honestly this doesn't sound like
| something HN would have any interest in doing, they don't
| serve ads or anything like that so why would they care?
| bigbillheck wrote:
| Ban evasion?
| woodruffw wrote:
| No, they don't do this. It's not even clear how they would;
| the closest thing would be merging based on IP or
| fingerprinting, but both are extremely noisy.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| You can easily demonstrate to yourself that they do.
|
| And the situation here is that felon_in_texas visits HN in
| his usual manner, views a topic he wants to comment on,
| creates an account on the spot, and leaves his comment. How
| noisy do you think the IP identification can be?
| arp242 wrote:
| > You can easily demonstrate to yourself that they do.
|
| How?
| dnissley wrote:
| How then? No need to be cagey
| jcrites wrote:
| It's fine to have multiple accounts on HN as long as you use
| them with good judgment. I do. I have spoken with DanG about
| this before and he seemed fine with it.
|
| Yes, you should assume that the moderators will know, and you
| should be fine with them knowing, because you're not using
| the multiple accounts to escape moderation, but rather for
| greater anonymity in the comment thread.
|
| The rules that I follow, which I think are implicit in "use
| good judgment":
|
| 1. Don't vote on the same thing from multiple accounts.
|
| 2. Don't participate in the same comment thread with multiple
| accounts (or if you do, only separate parts of the thread).
| Don't create a fake impression of consensus or have your
| accounts interact with each other.
|
| Those are probably the two big ones I would imagine.
|
| Whether the accounts are actually tied together on the
| backend, I don't know. I would suspect that they are not
| automatically linked, but could probably be linked if the
| moderators are investigating you for bad behavior (like
| voting on the same thing with multiple accounts).
| nope00 wrote:
| Nov'22 is very recent, and won't be your experience forever. It's
| been a little over 20 years for me. Now, I get background checked
| every year. It doesn't show.
|
| Initially I worked in food service and on phpfreelancer. I spun
| that into consistent consulting work until a client offered a
| full time position (less than 15 people, no background checks).
|
| As the years rolled by, I kept moving around. Eventually I tried
| at a large company(around 8 years ago) and nothing showed on the
| background check.
|
| I do NOT recommend being upfront, unless there are no formal
| procedures in place and being honest actually helps. We are
| talking about your ability to feed and shelter yourself, so give
| up on the "honesty" thing. I have -never- been able to provide
| for myself after having been "honest". [edit: after reading
| felonintexas let me update this. If someone point blank asks,
| tell them. Don't volunteer this information. There is nothing to
| be gained]
|
| Also, you are now an edge case. That means most advice doesn't
| apply. This is both exciting and horribly anxiety driving at the
| same time. You will have to become comfortable blazing your own
| path and doing things others say is not possible.
|
| Seriously, good luck. It is possible. It is amazing what you can
| do that everyone else thinks can't be done.
| tonetegeatinst wrote:
| Not a felon but grew up with everyone telling us that colleges
| would search our social media etc.
|
| A friend told me that the 2 important rules to surviving
| corporate environments is the following in no specific order.
|
| 1. Never lie to someone, and own what you did. Wordsmithing is
| a gray area but never lie, the reputation of not being truthful
| can follow you for decades.
|
| 2. Never volunteer information that isn't specifically asked
| for. This isn't a free pass to not provide critical info when
| your working on stuff like a project, but keep in mind that HR
| always can dig up info when they want to fire you or not offer
| you a job. Be honest and to the point, but don't volunteer info
| that can put you in a bad spot.
|
| TLDR: if they don't ask, don't tell. But if they ask, be honest
| bfuller wrote:
| tell the truth, but don't always be telling it
| gwbas1c wrote:
| > [edit: after reading felonintexas let me update this. If
| someone point blank asks, tell them. Don't volunteer this
| information. There is nothing to be gained]
|
| My Fraternity's cook, when I was in college, was a former
| fellon. He worked for us for a few years before he told me
| about his background.
|
| I don't remember the details, but we had a conversation where
| he mentioned he had experience in IT. Eventually he very
| briefly mentioned some high level details about his criminal
| record when the conversation drifted around "so if you were
| making big bucks, why are you now cooking for us?"
|
| I personally appreciate that he warned me about the
| consequences of the super-illegal (but "grey morality") thing
| he did. But, I must agree, it's best to keep things like a
| record quiet as long as possible.
|
| I don't know if other fraternity brothers knew about his
| background. It seems like the kind of thing that would be kept
| quiet until someone started veering into the super-illegal (but
| "grey morality") area that got our cook in trouble.
| realmike33 wrote:
| I do a lot of non profit work with the formerly incarcerated.
| Here are some resources I hope helps you out:
|
| https://jailstojobs.org/second-chance-employers-network/
|
| https://www.centerforworkforceinclusion.org/our-work/formerl...
|
| ---
|
| Not sure if you have linkedin or anything but I'd like to stay
| connected
| publicprivacy wrote:
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/saunderscaleb/
| publicprivacy wrote:
| My linkedin if anyone has career opportunities or wants to talk:
|
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/saunderscaleb/
| SillyUsername wrote:
| Tldr; I made a possible career ending move (see p.p.s below main
| comment), here's what I did to fix it and end up in successful
| employment again.
|
| Not the same but I was sacked during a probation period because I
| refused to give my proof of ID details a 5th time to the HR, the
| same 3 pieces requested multiple times or lost. I told them to
| reuse those I uploaded a day or two earlier.
|
| HR dismissed me after a single warning to give them by my line
| manager, and in dismissal point blank refused to say why (in
| probation in the UK they have no legal requirement to tell you).
| Obviously I cannot say HR at xyz company were incompetent and I
| was the scape goat.
|
| What I did say in my next interview was what I learnt during my
| probation there, they needed somebody with more SQL/database
| skills. I had them as a senior developer, but I deliberately
| pushed back as it wasn't what I was hired for. In the interview I
| simply said I was "let go because I _believe_ they wanted
| somebody more database oriented and that was not what I wanted to
| do " with the emphasis I was being hired at the new place as a
| developer not as a database specialist. That was therefore not my
| error and it's justifiable to want to do work you were hired for,
| they didn't give me an actual dismissal reason, and based on what
| I was told day to day could have been true.
|
| It also helped that I completed a 2 month project (for the sacked
| from place) without any flaws in 3 weeks (yes they were average
| developers there at best).
|
| The point being, distract and do not linger, use the disadvantage
| and stuff that is positive to your advantage, make no excuses
| because that validates their (any) misconception.
|
| I would:
|
| - Prep and learn as many responses for awkward questions that you
| can think of.
|
| - Find relatable ways to justify the offence, but make sure you
| show it's been apologised for (it broke the law but anybody could
| fall into that trap). This may not be 100% coverable because
| perhaps it's unrelatable, but people wouldn't invite you to
| interview unless they thought you had or can redeem yourself. So
| for example, you mentioned drugs, I've not done them but I have
| done stupid things when drunk, so I can at least understand your
| position/state of mind.
|
| - Find ways to (importantly, indirectly, don't dodge because
| being evasive will work against you) bring the topic back to
| accomplishments at the previous role (the one you were let go
| from). E.g 'I apologised to the official and the staff I worked
| with before I left, although shocked they thanked me for my hard
| work on xyz (a project that I believe went live with great
| success a month later)".
|
| In the last point you leave that open because it's a distraction
| point, it's not you saying "despite what happened, I did loads of
| good work like xyz" (which is misconception validation, direct
| topic changing -evasive- and now requires further detail on your
| part which blocks them talking -they may feel they're not getting
| answers).
|
| I did this approach on my follow up interview and got the
| position.
|
| At the end of the day it's about owning the mistake, learning and
| no longer apologising (because perhaps you have already done
| that).
|
| It ultimately also gives you real life street cred as a secops
| guy, i.e. you've can relate to a criminal element, although I'm
| uncertain if you could turn that into a positive - if you found
| out new stuff behind bars well that's a win - that could at least
| be an anecdote based on how relaxed/personable the interviewers
| are (e.g. if one tries to put you at ease by saying they did
| time).
|
| Final point, don't rely on recruiters, use LinkedIn directly.
| Recruiters have a pool of people you join who they often field
| one at a time, you will be in a queue possibly at the back
| because the recruiter wants the best chance at getting a win with
| the least hassle when fighting against candidates from other
| recruiters. Unless you have a stand out skill they may secretly
| bias against you _and there 's no way of knowing_.
|
| P.s. also refer to yourself as ex-felon, it's reinforcing that
| you're over it.
|
| P.p.s somebody down voted me, don't know why since if anybody has
| ever been sacked for refusing to give ID you should know you're
| basically shooting yourself in the head if the word gets between
| HR departments that you won't identify yourself during reference
| checking, potentially career killing.
| bigbillheck wrote:
| > Not the same but I was sacked during a probation period
| because I refused to give my proof of ID details a 5th time to
| the HR, the same 3 pieces requested multiple times or lost. I
| told them to reuse those I uploaded a day or two earlier.
|
| That's no way to survive a career (as you found out). That's
| the kind of thing you use to build team camaraderie, after the
| 3rd time or so start posting about it in the team chat, if
| you're in an office put up a little sign saying "it has been ##
| days since I was asked for my ID", play along with any jokes
| about it, that sort of thing. And also politely ask your
| manager what's going on, and if that's normal, and send a
| polite email to the HR manager.
|
| I get that it's a nuisance, but surely it couldn't have been
| more than a few minutes out of your day every time (and getting
| faster with repetition, right?).
|
| > (yes they were average developers there at best)
|
| Sour grapes?
| dang wrote:
| There used to be a YC startup dedicated to this, which
| unfortunately no longer exists. I don't know the backstory on
| that, but I do remember that there was quite a large Launch HN
| thread:
|
| _Launch HN: 70MillionJobs (YC S17) - Job board for people with
| criminal records_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14911467
| - Aug 2017 (506 comments)
|
| I link it here in case there might still be useful information or
| tips in those comments. If there are other related threads, we
| can list them here too.
| RajT88 wrote:
| Contract work is a good option for when you have any kind of
| black mark that recruiters are going to skip over you for.
|
| I see a lot of people who got laid off / fired who ended up with
| the dreaded "Resume Gap", and it's very common to spin up your
| own consulting/contracting firm. That way - you can claim you
| were self-employed, and there's no obvious resume gap.
|
| I'm sure it doesn't fool all the recruiters, but it's got to fool
| a lot of them who are lazy and suck at recruiting.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Just curious how felony assault is not a physical violence
| offense. I understand there could be differences in state laws,
| but most felony assault charges require use of force wither
| resulting in an injury or involving a weapon.
| wolverine876 wrote:
| It may depend on jurisdiction, but often assault is a threat,
| assault and battery is violence.
| mkl wrote:
| Yes. https://quinnanlaw.com/criminal-defense/assault-versus-
| batte...
| silisili wrote:
| Definitely jurisdiction dependent. I know at least some
| states combine them both under 'assault.'
| giantg2 wrote:
| I get that. However, to reach felony status it usually has to
| involve a weapon, or protected class of person even if
| battery is considered separate. That's why I was curious.
| felon1234567890 wrote:
| I have a felony dui from 2010. No deaths, injuries or crashes or
| anything like that just found myself over the limit a few times
| in the days before lyft/uber.
|
| I had to focus on jobs with small companies that did no checks.
| There were so many times I declined jobs when I saw the
| background check just to avoid the shame. It's a waiting game
| until it falls off the threshold of places caring.
|
| Eventually I got a job as a federal contractor working with semi
| sensitive metadata. I didn't need a clearance but had to get a
| public trust. Was still grilled by DIA trying to determine if i
| could be compromised. I am so glad I don't have to check the box
| anymore and have stayed out of trouble. 2 months of jail, 3 years
| of probation and another 10 years of shame. Good riddance. Today
| I make 170k as one of the main senior engineers. Good luck!
|
| Ps some states have laws against asking if you're a felon. Cali
| and Colo might be 2. Look into remote jobs in those states after
| researching that.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Start an LLC if allowed in your state. Work under the LLC or work
| as a 1099. Less chance of employers looking you up if not a W2
| employee. Select small companies to work for, or even work for
| yourself.
|
| My wife had a misdemeanor that was eventually expunged and this
| seems to work.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| I think you're missing just how nosy people are these days. If
| you have a name and it traces back to your case (like mine)
| then that kind of obfuscation is just not going to work. It
| hasn't yet.
| linuxftw wrote:
| Start going by your middle name professionally.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| yeah. but my last name is very unique and there are only
| five of us in the country. none my age.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Worked for my wife less than 10 years ago. Just saying.
| mynameisnoone wrote:
| (Throwaway)
|
| Defending yourself against a group of 5 assailants who assault
| you and appear intent on causing you great bodily harm, even if
| battery to you is stopped, no one was injured, and you use no
| force in excess of defense, in the current political environment,
| it will result in a maliciously prosecuted assault charge if they
| happen to be PoC and you happen to be a white man leading to:
|
| - Stress and uncertainty for months to years
|
| - Legal costs between $15k and $50k
|
| - Loss of rental housing
|
| - Moving costs, say $6k
|
| - An inability to be hired by a major corporation because of
| background checks until after the charge is expunged (another $5k
| in legal costs and many more months of uncertainty)
|
| ---
|
| I hold the Scandinavian view, that after 20 years, a person can
| be very different, especially if they had a rough childhood. The
| US is organized around punitive prosecution and maximizing
| carceral suffering, has a net average problem with over-
| prosecuting PoC, a very high incarceration rate, over-prosecuting
| some crimes that aren't there, and not prosecuting thieves and
| vandals enough. There also isn't enough community engagement, de-
| escalation intervention, counseling, and diversion from the
| school-to-prison pipeline to care about people on a troubled
| path.
| schizo89 wrote:
| I've been released 2 years ago and no I've been unable to find a
| gig. No one would reply lol. I m doing open source projects, ai
| and indie games. I've got more stress Cred than before. I think
| getting back to Normie workforce in police state such as us is
| impossible. Peace man
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| it really sucks. If I had known I'd lose my jobs the way I did
| each time, I would never have applied to begin with. it was
| really traumatic each time, and very sudden. it PTSD'd me, not
| that I have any shortage of that. But just the way everyone
| gets when you go from "everyone knows you and respects you and
| likes you" and suddenly it's ... uhh ohh. everyone being quiet.
| is this... again?
|
| yes. yes it was. and I just can't do that anymore. that isn't
| living, it's dying.
| schizo89 wrote:
| Lol what are you talking about?
|
| If you have something to eat and a working pc and stable
| internet connection you can make the way. That's a hard
| lessons learnt in startup years. It's the same
| schizo89 wrote:
| Well I think best move would be staring a trade union in discord,
| to aid eath other. We strong in unity.
| eli wrote:
| Sounds like you're in California. I'd start by making sure you
| know your rights under their "Ban the Box" laws.
|
| In general I don't think an employer can ask about or consider a
| prior conviction until after they've made a conditional offer.
| justsomeoldguy wrote:
| they do not honor those, sorry. they ask anyways. and if you
| wanna put up a fight with HR about why they're asking when they
| can't, you are already fired before you've been hired.
| eli wrote:
| Fight with HR? No, they are breaking the law.
|
| You should talk to an employment lawyer. You could
| potentially get a cash settlement, force them to consider
| your application, or an injunction that would force them to
| treat future applicants better. Could also file a complaint
| with the state and they will investigate on your behalf. Good
| lawyer can advise you of options though.
| system2 wrote:
| In the United States if you start your own IT company and sell
| your services to your clients there won't be any questioning who
| you are or where you even studied. As long as you solve the
| business problems they will pay you greatly.
|
| If it is a matter of survival, I'd pick this route. You can
| easily make 6 figures or even 7 figures within a few years. You
| do not need to find a full-time job at a fancy company.
|
| Long story short, nobody needs to know your past as long as you
| know how to fix computers and handle network systems.
| Ckirby wrote:
| Yeah, this is a fairly sensible answer
|
| start a private LLC and subcontract the work to yourself
| throwawaymypot wrote:
| (Throw away account for obvious reasons)
|
| I experienced this. Due to various undiagnosed mental health
| issues I ended up with a serious record in the UK - a total of 15
| charges, all computer related.
|
| Due to the clear lack of malicious intent I didn't serve any
| time, but did get shackled with: 12 months suspended for 12
| months; 10 years on the sex offenders register; 7 years sexual
| harm prevention order; and 5 years of something else I can't
| remember.
|
| Every computer I touch - whilst in the UK - should have
| "monitoring" software installed, which pretty much ruled out any
| office job, let alone tech.
|
| So after 2 failed suicide attempts and a stay in hospital I
| decided to completely reinvent myself and start from scratch.
| Time to hit the big reset button. Legally I have to reveal my
| convictions ahead of signing a contract in the UK. I got frog-
| marched out of several buildings by security after the interviews
| were terminated immediately when I revealed my convictions. I was
| basically unemployable in the UK and decided to leave and never
| return. Even after the 10 years is up I am still required to
| declare "spent convictions" for 5/6 years. This would take me
| close to my 50th birthday until I no longer have to say anything
| - 15 years from conviction date.
|
| It took 1 year to "create" a new identity, including complete
| change of name, severing any connection with friends, and faking
| an employment history.
|
| I moved abroad with my new identity and hoped for the best... and
| so far have had an incredibly successful career (post-
| conviction), and the one thing which has driven me is being good
| enough that IF my employer learns of my past, they will weigh up
| what I offer them vs. what I have done in my past.
|
| I remain forever optimistic because _I have to_ . There is no
| other option.
| tinktank wrote:
| Sorry to hear all of this. Did you end up in Europe or did you
| have to go further?
| bigbillheck wrote:
| > Due to the clear lack of malicious intent I didn't serve any
| time, but did get shackled with: 12 months suspended for 12
| months; 10 years on the sex offenders register; 7 years sexual
| harm prevention order; and 5 years of something else I can't
| remember.
|
| What did you actually do, and what did they get you for?
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| I'm okay not knowing the details. I'm not reacting to you or
| the parent here. I'm just weary of society being compulsively
| hostile toward redemption. Let the past be there.
| fell_on_knee wrote:
| Clicked on this expecting the guy who repeatedly flashed his dick
| at teenage girls, got caught, prosecuted and jailed, twice,
| several years apart, and now posts on HN begging for employment
| help every few months, while trying to hide what he did.
|
| I was relieved to see your charges are basically nothing compared
| to his. You'll be fine but be up front with recruiters about your
| felony. For the right candidate, they'll work around it.
| SeattleAltruist wrote:
| There's a great program for currently and recently released
| incarcerated: https://www.prisonscholars.org/what-we-do/our-work-
| impact/
| whalesalad wrote:
| FWIW I would not hesitate to hire a felon if they were talented.
| Smaller companies and startups won't really have a problem here.
| Larger companies doing background checks might - but then again
| they might not. TBH I would use this opportunity to help find an
| even better match. If a company is going to blindly say no to
| you, they are probably not worth working at. Unless of course
| they have some kind of legal issues where they are barred from
| having a felon on their team.
| kypro wrote:
| I know this is a controversial view, but I think employers should
| not be allowed to run background checks unless important for the
| role (government work, access to children, etc) and where it is
| important for the role it should only return the criminal
| convictions that might be relevant to the role.
|
| If you were arrested for robbery when you were younger perhaps
| because you had a drug addiction then that person should have a
| right to serve their time and change their ways later in life
| without the state holding and distributing that to any potential
| employer, practically ensuring that individual is unemployable
| for a mistake they made in their youth.
|
| The reason I think this is not a good assumption to assume that
| someone will be a bad employee simply because they did something
| criminal in their past. There are terrible employees out there
| who don't break the law. If we're so concerned about employers
| hiring bad employees then state should instead build a
| centralised database of bad employees and their reason for
| termination at previous places of work. I'd argue this would be
| more effective if we're concerned an employer might hire a bad
| employee.
|
| Secondly, making it difficult for those who have committed crimes
| to get back into the workforce increases their risk of
| reoffending. Having a good job and a nice life to lose is a great
| reason to not commit crimes while having nothing to live for is a
| great excuse to do whatever feels right in the moment.
|
| Best of luck op. If I was an employer I'd consider you if you had
| the skills and seemed like you could do the job. I have no idea
| why your past would be relevant to your ability to work outside
| of select roles.
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