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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?

#181

Post by operatingthetan »

hluska wrote: post #169
gwbas1c wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [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.

This my friends is the danger of making judgements without context.

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

#182

Post by nsxwolf »

whiddershins wrote: post #120
nsxwolf wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Misdemeanor is still a criminal record.

The impact is absolutely nothing like a felony conviction.

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

#183

Post by rdiddly »

kypro wrote: post #147

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…

The funny part about your third paragraph, is that if someone took you up on this "bad employee database," it would look a lot like China's Social Credit System. Which is probably not desirable. (And maybe the other funny part would be just how many of the public employees who would otherwise be in charge of administering this database, would end up being in it!)

Nonetheless I agree with the point you seem to be making rhetorically, which is that the reason this is a failure is because one thing (criminal record) is being used as a proxy to measure another (job qualification).

And perhaps a larger point, given that things are the way they are, would be that our society cares only about punishment, not rehabilitation of individuals and not even (surprisingly) helping business.

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

#184

Post by andy99 »

kypro wrote: post #147

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…

Why would government work automatically allow for a background check? If anything, government should be more neutral than private employers who should be allowed to use their own discretion when spending their money. Government procurement is so focused on appearances. I'd definitely support government not discriminating based on crimes for which someone had paid their debt to society.

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

#185

Post by dharmab »

justsomeoldguy wrote: post #166
tonetegeatinst wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 y…

No need to sue. You can notify the state Department of Labor and move on.

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

#186

Post by pwarner »

lauralifts wrote: post #33

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.

Slack had a great talk about this project at their conference back in 2019 I believe. They really seemed committed to being a change agent in this area which struck me as awesome.

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

#187

Post by tapland »

andy99 wrote: post #184
kypro wrote: post #147

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…

Why would government work automatically allow for a background check? If anything, government should be more neutral than private employers who should be allowed to use their own discretion when spending their money. Government procurement is so focused on appearances. I'd definitely support government not discriminating based on crimes for which someone had paid their debt to society.

I agree with the previous persons point, which you just flat out disagree with but for some reason veil in some private vs public wording.

Many government functions handle data that the private sector probably shouldn't, and you can't easily choose other govenment providers.

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

#188

Post by al_borland »

yieldcrv wrote: post #159
ericpauley wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with this is that, if you ban employers from getting signal about employees, they will attempt to infer the same information by other means. This inference can often be unfairly biased. See related issues with racial discrimination caused by Ban the Box initiatives: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/upshot/ban-the-box-an-eff...

> Before the regulations took effect, candidates with criminal histories were far less likely to be called back, irrespective of race. > After the regulations, lacking the ability to discern criminal history, employers became much less likely to call back any apparently black applicant. They seemed to treat all black applicants now as if they might have a criminal past. “show us your linkedin”

When I was involved in hiring I was told we couldn’t do any online research on potential candidates, like LinkedIn or Facebook, as it might give us information on them being part of a protected class. It’s easier to justify not picking someone based on merit when there is no knowledge of those things.

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

#189

Post by jph »

dang wrote: post #64

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…

Thanks @dang. 70 Million Jobs CEO Richard Bronson wrote a moving update for HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31598978

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

#190

Post by prosqlinjector »

kypro wrote: post #147

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…

The elephant in the room is legal liability. If something happens with a criminal employee then the question is raised "what precautions did you take from letting this dangerous person into your workplace".
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