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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?

#201

Post by stanleykm »

rdiddly wrote: post #183
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 maki…

[flagged]

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

#202

Post by technick »

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…

I'm mostly on board with your proposal as I've seen a felony speeding conviction stop a friend from getting tech jobs over 5 years after it happened. His situation would have been totally different if he was caught 2 weeks before, it wouldn't have been a felony but the state arbitrarily changed the law. He didn't wreck, cause a wreck, or wasn't participating in street racing.

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

#203

Post by sneak »

tapland wrote: post #187
andy99 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Many private sector companies handle data that the general public probably shouldn’t. Extending special protections to the state that are not allowed to private employers is ridiculous and unsafe.

Companies like credit bureaus or banks or the telcos or airlines or hospitals are effectively arms of the state at this point. You don’t get to opt out of the oligarchy with consumer choice.

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

#204

Post by felon_in_texas »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #101
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…

> 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.

Generally speaking, not really worried about it. I don't see HN as a risk vector. If I was worried about it, I would have run it through a standalone browser on a fresh machine (or VM) behind a VPN, and not spoken in my "voice" (I would have used ChatGPT to rewrite)

Not the first time I've used a throwaway, and they've never merged my comments into my main account (only use throwaways for these types of discussions - I assume abusing it, such as ban evasion, would be a different story)

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

#205

Post by sneak »

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…

I think crimes of violence are relevant to any/all roles.

I don’t want to hire or work with anyone who has ever at any point in their life used violence to attempt to solve problems.

I am fine with a percentage of human beings being blacklisted permanently from access to much of society. Violence has no place in our world.

I won’t even hire former cops. It is, unfortunately, illegal in the US to explicitly avoid hiring ex-military.

I don’t really care about whether or not they have “changed their ways” or “grown as a person” - there are lots of people out there to choose from who have never been violent.

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

#206

Post by felon_in_texas »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #117
woodruffw wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

Very noisy, because I'm not concerned about HN. Not the first time I've used an alt, whether as a throwaway or logging in via my employer's account. I have comfort in HN's integrity when I'm not abusing the privilege.

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

#207

Post by hyperbovine »

technick wrote: post #202
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…

I'm mostly on board with your proposal as I've seen a felony speeding conviction stop a friend from getting tech jobs over 5 years after it happened. His situation would have been totally different if he was caught 2 weeks before, it wouldn't have been a felony but the state arbitrarily changed the law. He didn't wreck, cause a wreck, or wasn't participating in street racing.

Was he endangering the lives of others? Was it his first time?

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

#208

Post by NegativeLatency »

sneak wrote: post #205
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…

I think crimes of violence are relevant to any/all roles. I don’t want to hire or work with anyone who has ever at any point in their life used violence to attempt to solve problems. I am fine with a percentage of human beings being blacklisted permanently from access to much of society. Violence has no place in our world. I won’t even hire former cops. It is, unfortunately, illegal in the US to explicitly avoid hiri…

Specifically about violence: people make mistakes, and people change, not everything is black and white.

White collar crime/theft and the indirect killing of people through occupational risks (ex black lung from mining), class traitorism (ex being a cop) is a much greater kind of bad than someone who got in a fight or something.

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

#209

Post by x0x0 »

randomdata wrote: post #82
x0x0 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

> What percentage of the vulnerabilities discovered are independently discovered by multiple pen testers?

Zero because we patch them as soon as we are notified. Generally at the end of the test / before the retest, but if they found something serious they would notify immediately,

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

#210

Post by akira2501 »

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…

It should be like a credit report. If it's been at least 7 years since your last public criminal record, they should then just fall off your "report," and no longer be visible except to the courts.

It used to be that you could pay your debt, and unless your crime was infamous, the "memory" of it would fade from society rather quickly. The internet and private databases have definitely hampered this facility and perhaps it should just be regulated with the same forthrightness we apply to credit decisions.

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