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Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

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Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#161

Post by justsomeoldguy »

eli wrote: post #121
justsomeoldguy wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

I tried. they wanted money up front I couldn't afford. The job was a relocation to boston, mass. and they had the check the box laws and all that. It didn't matter.

They did it in writing, too. every step of the way. from the job offer, to the acceptance, to the background check after, to notifying me of adverse information being found, they gave me a chance to explain, and I'm like, you said you wouldn't look back further than 7 years, the law says you can't, in both california and boston. They didn't care, and they in writing terminated me because of information that was 9 years old, my felony.

I have had a LOT of things happen over the years, many of which should have been suable. I'm afraid it isn't like in the movies or the media. the 2 year statute of limitations ran out in 2021, so. here we are only talking about it.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#162

Post by NanoYohaneTSU »

Yes, but my answer isn't the one you want.

My long time acquaintance got out after a number of years, in his late 20s after committing a crime at 19, was intelligent and knew computer science extremely well after teaching himself in prison and after he picked up projects on github and grinded leetcode.

He did gig work, but that wasn't sustainable so in the end he bought someone's identity and lies on resumes and background checks. He can obviously hold no job that does serious background checks. He has a high school education.

Hope you find employment without having to resort to this, but that's a harsh reality.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#163

Post by retrac »

justsomeoldguy wrote: post #129
infamouscow wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

could you explain this further? what benefit would there be?

I assume they're suggesting create a false identity, and pose as a foreign national illegally living in the United States.

It's a rather ...unconventional suggestion, that clearly was not thought out. There is a high risk someone doing that ends up stateless, i.e., with no documentation or paperwork establishing citizenship in any country. The US may arrest such a person at the border - and then imprison them - and then try to deport them back to their country of origin. But what is your country of origin? It may mean a stay in immigration detention indefinitely. There's no guarantee authorities would believe a claim of US citizenship at that point. Citizens who've gotten in that position (usually cases of mistaken identity and/or misbehaviour by US customs) have been deported, and they don't always make it home. It is a potentially Kafkaesque nightmare and I would not advise intentionally putting yourself in that situation.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#164

Post by topkai22 »

I do not have personal experience on the job seeker side, but I do know some (2) people who have managed to get government jobs with a record.

I suspect the nature of your offense would make it harder or impossible, but the public sector is a weird place- they often have very specific scoring criteria that they must follow for hiring decisions and if criminal record is not part of it they really will not consider it (at least that is my interpretation of what one of my friends said.)

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#165

Post by jstarfish »

felon1234567890 wrote: post #72

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…

> Ps some states have laws against asking if you're a felon. Cali and Colo might be

If you've been convicted of anything in the last 10-15 years, every script-kiddie docket scraper will attribute the conviction to you.

This is only useful to people willing/able to compartmentalize their past under a deadname. Then applicants can mislead the employer into running background checks on a synthetic identity that comes back clean.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#166

Post by justsomeoldguy »

tonetegeatinst wrote: post #109
nope00 wrote: post #49

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…

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 specif…

sounds reasonable, but I can't tell you how combative it is if you're applying for a job in a state that forbids them from asking if you have any felonies, and there it is on the job application, staring you in the face.

so what are you going to do, tell them no? you won't get the job. tell the truth? you won't get the job. sue them? good luck. you'll need it and that does not get you the job and the settlement, if you were to win is years away, so there is no remedy. you start out combative, it's over.

there is frequently just no way to win since the ones paying are the ones not following the rules.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#167

Post by jstarfish »

98codes wrote: post #149
helsinki wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Felony charges are a lot different from felony convictions. Was he convicted?

The gap in the Linkedin history says yes, and how cagey OP is being with what they did (there was definitely physical violence involved, just not battery), I suspect they would absolutely mention it if they weren't convicted.

Speculating, but it sounds about right for someone who might have threatened to kill a cop and resisted arrest while publicly intoxicated. Spitting on government employees and attempted bribery are frequent additions to these types of charges.

Public intoxication can dig yourself into a really deep hole, really quickly. Don't do it.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#169

Post by hluska »

gwbas1c wrote: post #136
nope00 wrote: post #49

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…

> [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 b…

Why did you let the conversation drift around to “if you were making big bucks why are you cooking for us now”? That’s a remarkably rude thing to ask for absolutely no reason other than ego.

Re: Ask HN: Any felons successfully found IT work post-release?

#170

Post by justsomeoldguy »

felon_in_texas wrote: post #42

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 ti…

I do not have any employment at this point to risk with my identity, and given that I have lost it over and over again from people who did not know about my past finding out about it and objecting to it enough to cost me my job, it's easy for me to be open at this point. what have I got to lose?

I'm an ancient linkedin account, because I made it way back when linkedin first came out. it's an easy one to remember, lol.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/werewolf/

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