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Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT?
First time accepted submitter Lesrahpem writes I'm a felon with several prior misdemeanor convictions from an immature time in my life. I've since cleaned up my act, and I want to go back into the IT sector. I keep running into potential employers who tell me they'd like to hire me but can't because of my past record (expunging won't work, I'm in Ohio). Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Should I just give up and change careers?"
I've hired people with misdemeanors before.
Be honest about the crime, don't have it be a surprise that I find out during the background check part of the hiring process.
I also know other managers who've done the same. Its tough to find good people. A drug offense 5 yrs ago, with proof of a completed drug treatment program for instance isn't going to stop me from hiring a good IT worker.
Min
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
While it sucks, there's a good reason why companies have asked people about their past criminal history or have done searches.
If you have past felony convictions for, say grand larceny or other similar crimes, and are hired, and then go on to commit a crime against a customer while working, it's very easy for that company to get sued for millions. It's would be incredibly easy to make the argument that the company knew or should have known that Mr. Felon (who supposedly cleaned up his act) had prior convictions and was a risk to the company and its customers. Then, BLAM, the company is out millions of dollars, all because it didn't check or didn't care.
Now, while this sucks for the felon trying to land a job, it also sucks for the company, and lets face it, the recidivism rate among past felons is generally pretty high. Why should a company want to risk it's own livelihood or existence just to give you a second chance?
This is a risk mitigation issue, and maybe it's a good thing that states are making it difficult to ask or check, but companies will do it anyway, just for the reasons I've outlined. Maybe companies in other, "more enlightened" societies haven't had their pants sued off them enough to make this an issue, bit is one here.
Or he simply doesn't know the difference. Either way, criminal background checks are required for most IT jobs I have ever applied for and have never seen anyone with a criminal history get an IT job. I have seen people get rejected for reckless driving and DUI as being able to travel and drive to remote facilities was required, let alone a rash of misdemeanors and a felony off the road.
If you want to stick to IT I would suggest trying to find (or make) friends with others in management positions over IT groups and try to get hired. Some time on the job and some strong references will help your chances, but not guarantee anything as managers' hands are often tied when HR flags a candidate with a criminal history.
I would also suggest switching your career to politics, as that career path doesn't seem to care much about criminal history.
Well, yes, in the same way that Socrates is mortal because Socrates died.
The thing is, in the good ol' US of A, where less than 10 years ago you could be a felon for owning 6 dildos, we can be pretty darn stupid. http://www.dumblaws.com/law/938. Yes, the law was overturned, but just one example of the way we are tough on crime. And here's some fun with our drug laws. http://netnebraska.org/article/news/938774/how-tough-nebraska-pot-possession-depends-county I like the quote “Let’s say you have a marijuana brownie,” Steller explained. “We would prosecute you for the possession of hash which is a class 4 felony.”
hello and welcome to my life.
it's well documented here on /. that i struggle with this same issue, and have for over a decade.
i wish i had good news for you, but i don't. it's going to be hard for you for find "regular" employment.
my advice? try to find a small company where you can get hired without a lot of fanfare. finding and owner/ceo who does the hiring, or a contracting company where they have no real interest in caring about your background because it will cost them money if they don't place you, is pretty much the only way i've been able to get back into a stable, well-paying job.
pretty much anyplace with a fulltime HR department will discover your transgressions and gleefully report to the hiring manager that they "gotcha" and are doing a really great job keeping reprobates like us away from their "sanitary" workplace.
i've started my own small consulting company and have found that it's fairly easy to work from home (im a software guy) doing the code monkey thing...it beats digging ditches that's for sure. i advertise back-end/full-stack web development/server management on craigslist and it works.
good luck...you are going to need some.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
I think there's a circular logic somewhere there. If you don't have a job, I guess you have a lower threshold for crime. If you have a job, and everything to loose, I guess crime is not so tepmting.
In most of Europe, criminal convictions is simply irrelevant to jobs. Some jobs require your record, but mostly not the full - only a limited record. For instance, if you work with kids, you need a record clean of child abuse and sexual assaults. But for a general job in IT? Noone would even ask about your record. I have not been asked ever - except for a visa application to the USA.
I believe the European system is better at integrating convicts back into soceity, stopping them from committing more crime.
Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
A felony can only delay a security clearance because the only relevance a felony has to a security clearance is whether it shows a fundamental character issue making one insufficiently trustworthy. That's fundamentally what they want to find out in a background investigation. Can we trust you? That's why a guy who's 40 with a felony charge for selling drugs but can show he's been a cleaned up citizen for 15 years can probably get a clearance but a guy with no criminal past who's had an affair on his wife or two in the recent past cannot hold one.
I'm in personnel security in a Federal agency. Given a few years of productive behavior in society, and positive evidence of rehabilitation, you will probably be able to mitigate any criminal conduct issues for basic suitability or even a security clearance.
Most agencies use suitability (5 C.F.R. Part 731). As long as you haven't done anything horrible for a few years, you are honest about what you did, and your crimes do not have a direct nexus to the position sought, you will be good to go. The OPM-FIS web site has a little more information on suitability. Beware of the "issue characterization chart" that has been floating around since the JPL lawsuit. It's not current, and it doesn't take into effect numerous additional considerations that upgrade and downgrade issue characterization.
Cleared positions will use the national security standard (E.O. 12968). Go to the PERSEREC web site and download the Adjudicator's Desk Reference. That will tell you everything you want to know about that. You might also want to find the web site of the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, and read some of the published cases. That will give you a realistic idea of how contractors with criminal records mitigate them.
I wouldn't bother with excepted service positions like law enforcement or the intelligence community.
I don't know about other EU countries, but in The Netherlands employers can ask for a "declaration about the behaviour" of the applicant. That's a document the government issues, and the employer has to indicate what kind of possibly sensitive things the job requires, like working with children, working with large sums of money, with sensitive/secret information or with dangerous substances. If you're convicted for hild abuse you still can get such a document for working in a bank, but not for a job in childcare (and in childcare the employer is required to ask for such a declaration). If you're convicted for bank fraud the opposite, you are still alowed to work with children.
That's all most employers can ask, and most won't ask it because if they indicate the job does not require to work with anything like that the declaration will always be given and it's a waste of money and effort. Employers can ask beyond this of course, but I've never eard of it happening and I even think you are legally alowed to lie, the same like an employer isn't alowed to ask if you're pregnant but if he does and you lie a court will not alow the contract to be broken for that.
In Europe convictions are considered "spent" after some time, and you don't have to report them even if they ask. Credit reference agencies and the police are not allowed to reveal those convictions to employers, banks or anyone else.
So, the OP should move to Europe.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
No, he was, by all appearances, genuinely guilty of at least one violent crime
This is rubbish. Usually it's laziness on the part of HR.
You have two candidates; one has a felony conviction, the other does not. Do you really think that the HR person is going to invest hist/her time to find out whether person with the felony was only arrested for eating a hash brownie or robbing a liquor store?
The mountains of madness have many little plateaus of sanity - Terry Pratchett.