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Ask Slashdot: Can a Felon Work In IT?

Posted by samzenpus on from the orange-is-not-the-new-big-blue dept.

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?"

18 of 720 comments (clear)

  1. America, land of the free... by Bohnanza · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...and home of the lifetime sentence for nearly every crime. Best of luck to you.

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    Sorry, I'm only a 1336 h4x0r.

    1. Re:America, land of the free... by Alomex · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well if you don't like it you can exercise your democratic right and vote against it... unless you live in one of the many states that do not allow felons to vote.

      Nice ain't it?

    2. Re:America, land of the free... by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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?

      Yes, it's pretty high precisely because of all the people like yourself with such an attitude. If an ex-felon cannot find a legitimate job they will simply turn to crime and thus will land in prison again. And because of that you will pay more and more in taxes to support that.

      So if you want a society in which recidivism rates go down and ex-felons are reformed rather than becoming life-long criminals who get repeatedly locked up in prison, we should all be trying to push for more ex-felons to be given a second chance.

    3. Re:America, land of the free... by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not hard to understand why companies might be slow to hire ex-cons in a market with a long-term labor surplus. What is harder is fixing the problems created by such policies - you release somebody from prison into society. You deny them voting rights, and employment, and even welfare and food stamps. They literally have no way to get food. And then sit back and wait for the self-fulfilling prophecy of recidivism. You could hardly design a system more likely to fail if you tried.

    4. Re:America, land of the free... by Cytotoxic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree with the concepts your are talking about, but I cannot imagine an IT shop failing to check the background of a system administrator who will be working with banking systems, for example. Think about the fallout if Deutsche Bank hired a database administrator with prior convictions for banking fraud, only to see that employee steal 100 million from the bank.

      I'm going to bet that criminal convictions are pretty important in the relevant areas, even in Europe. They probably do a better job of discriminating which information is relevant and which positions are sensitive.

      The part where they ask about prior history might also be different in Europe. In the US I think a large part of the reason for asking about prior criminal history is to set up a situation where it is easy to terminate an employee if they lie on the application. In Europe they might not have to ask before running a criminal background check. And lying on the application might not make a difference when it comes time to terminate an employee.

    5. Re:America, land of the free... by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Insightful

      what's the problem with the loss of the voting franchise?

      Aside from the fact that it's fundamentally incompatible with democracy, wasn't a huge part of the American revolution the idea that there should be no taxation without representation? Those felons are taxpayers, aren't they?

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      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    6. Re:America, land of the free... by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Problem is a huge proportion of those people are black, and in America blacks almost always vote democrat.

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      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    7. Re:America, land of the free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In (I believe) every state of the US, possess any quantity of any hard drug (e.g. anything other than pot, mushrooms, or steroids), which includes prescription drugs that aren't in your name or where you don't have them in the pill bottle with your name on it, and you'll be facing a felony conviction. One can drive drunk, possess a handgun in public, or beat up a a random person on the street and be charged with a misdemeanor. But get convicted for possessing one pill of Ecstasy, having some cocaine residue in a baggie, or a leftover Vicodin in a purse, and that person is potentially a felon for life. Now that's fucked up...

      The TV show "COPS" shows the breadth and depth of "PCS"--possession of controlled substance, which is a felony.

    8. Re:America, land of the free... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No crime should ever prevent a person from voting. It's a fundamental right to participate in democracy, and if the goal is to rehabilitate offenders then they must be able to fully participate in society after they have paid their debt.

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      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:America, land of the free... by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The question is not why the right to bear arms is a constitutional right. The question is why the right to vote is not.

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:America, land of the free... by Jhon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      " If you don't have a job, I guess you have a lower threshold for crime. "

      I've been homeless and I've been jobless and I cannot disagree with you more. I think the reason it MIGHT appear that way is that people are willing to risk potential punishment for quick rewards rather than put in the work necessary to earn them. It's really as simple as that. There is virtually no place in the US where someone who is homeless and jobless cannot get enough assistance from city/state/private agency to change their situation. The exceptions are those in similar circumstance who are UNABLE to work or manage their own care/life due to mental illness or substance abuse.

    11. Re: America, land of the free... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Anyone who doesn't understand the importance of both shouldn't be allowed to vote.

    12. Re:America, land of the free... by mi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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

      Somehow I doubt, the asker was convicted only of violating something as stupid as possession of dildos or innocent as that of marijuana — he would've said so (if any employer even paid attention to it in the first place).

      No, he was, by all appearances, genuinely guilty of at least one violent crime — plus some misdemeanors. I'm not saying, he "deserves" never to work in IT at all, but I don't blame the IT-folks — most of whom have not hit anybody in anger since middle school — for not wanting to work (be under the same roof!) with such a guy.

      Why would you choose to drag out your anti-Americanism over this, is beyond me...

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      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    13. Re: America, land of the free... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The fundamental problem is - sysadmins have more or less unfettered access to a companies' systems, and there's no good way for non-technical people to tell if a sysadmin is misusing his position. If you're the one running a company's mail server, you can conceivably intercept all sorts of sensitive information. It's the same if you're the one responsible for keeping company desktops operational.

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      #DeleteChrome
    14. Re:America, land of the free... by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, and back when speeding tickets in Texas were misdemeanors (changed in the early 2000s to the points "infraction" system used most other places), I got a conviction (overturned on appeal). I'm even on one of the blackmail criminal background sites.

      But, answering truthfully on a FedEx application (have you ever been convicted of a crime, including any misdemeanors?) got me eliminated from contention for a job there. Apparently they only want lying criminals.

      So yes, even a speeding ticket (going 35 mph in a 55 mph zone was the speed) can get you eliminated from consideration for jobs. The more applicants per position, the more it applies. When they can look at 1000 applications for one position, they'll eliminate all the people with a conviction of any kind and still be left with hundreds of people for the position. The chance of eliminating the only qualified person in that first step is near-zero, and if they don't find anyone in the remaining hundreds, they can always go back to the criminal pile. But in practice they never do.

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      Learn to love Alaska
  2. start your own business? by zr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    unfortunately i'm not speaking from experience, just spitballing ideas.

    best of luck to you!

  3. Start your own business. by yog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You really have very few choices. There are employers out there who actually seek out people with priors, but for the most part you're going to be frustrated in your attempts to land a job.

    Your best bet is to start your own business, for example web design or outsourced PC network maintenance. There are lots of people making a good living as free lancers.

    Once you have gotten established, which admittedly may take a couple of years of networking and marketing efforts, you may not wish to be an employee again anyway. You can set your own hours, choose your own customers, and take full charge of your life. It's not easy, and requires more skills than just showing up and doing a specific task from 9 to 5, but much more fulfilling in the long run, and few will run background checks.

    You're still going to have trouble getting loans; just work hard and build up equity, and the rest will follow. Best of luck.

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    it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
  4. Re:A felon with misdemeanor convictions by Wycliffe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Being a felon means he committed a serious crime.

    really???

    i got convicted of felony because i got caught with some personal MDMA pillis in 2001 at an electronic music concert.

    that's a "serious crime"??

    As someone who hires programmers, a felony like this I would completely ignore if everything else was in line.
    Honesty and theft are the big ones in IT not drug use or even assault. Other careers would be different but
    as a programmer you are entrusted with alot of stuff (like credit cards) so a felony that is theft related is
    probably going to be much harder to be overlooked. Drug use, I don't really care that much about. I've hired
    plenty of alcoholics and probably a few pot smokers but as long as it doesn't interfere with their job, why
    should I care?