Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#1

Post by anonyfelon » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 3:08 AM UTC

Committed a white collar money crime, over two decades ago. Did time for it. Left that behind. Completed parole, even got pardoned for the crimes. NOTE: pardon != expungement.

I have an extensive IT background, including sysadmin, support, automation coding, HPC admin.

Jobs and gigs since then have had me working on critical systems and having Administrator/root access to sensitive data.

It just seems harder lately to get past this, and it's extremely discouraging.

Would you hire someone with those creds, or does the presence of a past felony just automatically preclude them from consideration?

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#2

Post by gamechangr » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 3:36 AM UTC

If someone I knew would recommend you, I wouldn't care at all about the record. You need to build a network and you'll be golden.

If on the other hand, if you just applied on a website - I would not hire you. Some people will not say that on here, but you're looking for honest feedback. That's mine.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#3

Post by taprun » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 3:42 AM UTC

Relevant discussion on the 70MillionJobs launch note [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14911467

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#4

Post by anonyfelon » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 4:05 AM UTC

gamechangr wrote: post #2

If someone I knew would recommend you, I wouldn't care at all about the record. You need to build a network and you'll be golden. If on the other hand, if you just applied on a website - I would not hire you. Some people will not say that on here, but you're looking for honest feedback. That's mine.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#5

Post by jackgolding » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 4:08 AM UTC

gamechangr wrote: post #2

If someone I knew would recommend you, I wouldn't care at all about the record. You need to build a network and you'll be golden. If on the other hand, if you just applied on a website - I would not hire you. Some people will not say that on here, but you're looking for honest feedback. That's mine.

completely agree with this as far as the recommendation overthrows the record

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#6

Post by joshuaellinger » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 4:49 AM UTC

A friend of mine had a similar issue. Drug-related. No big company would hire him. Hell, my contract with a large company said I couldn't hire him even if I wanted to.

Oddly enough, the way he got around it was to start his own consulting company and hide behind it. Nobody would hire him as an "employee" but they would hire his company without asking about his personal history. Seems like a big loophole but it worked.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#7

Post by jakobegger » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 9:40 AM UTC

I never asked candidates about their past if it wasn't relevant to the job. It's hard enough to find any people at all that can do the job, so I can't afford to turn away people for things they did or did not do a long time ago. If you are qualified for the position, I'll hire you.

The big problem is of course, finding people that are qualified, and most people that replied to my job ads were just utterly unqualified for the job. (I received applications from programmers with "15 years of experience" who have never heard of source control.)

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#8

Post by awaywopassd » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 4:23 PM UTC

Personally, I would not care so much but I work for a big company and background check is done by HR. I only ask technical and work related questions.

HR tend to be risk averse but I cannot really say what their policies are. In my company, I have never heard of anyone who was made an offer by hiring manager, had that offer rescinded after background check.

Also if you volunteer your felony during interview and I have another strong candidate, I will probably go with them. That is because I would be afraid that HR will not allow us to go with you and we will waste everyone's time. I rather go with safer option.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#9

Post by anonyfelon » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 4:48 PM UTC

awaywopassd wrote: post #8

Personally, I would not care so much but I work for a big company and background check is done by HR. I only ask technical and work related questions. HR tend to be risk averse but I cannot really say what their policies are. In my company, I have never heard of anyone who was made an offer by hiring manager, had that offer rescinded after background check. Also if you volunteer your felony during interview and I hav…

This part is so discouraging. I've experienced this many times.

Re: Ask HN: Would you hire a felon for technical work?

#10

Post by awaywopassd » Tue, Dec 18, 2018, 5:04 PM UTC

anonyfelon wrote: post #9

awaywopassd wrote: post #8

Personally, I would not care so much but I work for a big company and background check is done by HR. I only ask technical and work related questions. HR tend to be risk averse but I cannot really say what their policies are. In my company, I have never heard of anyone who was made an offer by hiring manager, had that offer rescinded after background check. Also if you volunteer your felony during interview and I hav…

This part is so discouraging. I've experienced this many times.

To be honest, don't voluntarily give any negative information. Don't lie if someone asks directly about criminal background.

Normally, job application is filled out after hiring manager makes an offer. This where you might need to fill out any felonies. If during this phase something goes wrong, I would not hold it against you. And if someone does, you tell them you have been working for 20 years at different jobs and didn't think your felony was an issue anymore.

One of these days, I will ask someone from HR about this.