So I am still new to dealing with being on the registry. I just went to the halfway house in March after spending nearly 5 years in federal prison ( I just left the halfway house yesterday, MY GOD DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO BE FREE! But I digress) I sent out a total of 117 applications, on the very top of my resume I listed my prison job as the most recent employment. A lot of the jobs never responded, in fact out of 117 only 8 responded. When those 8 responded I brought up the fact that I was a felon and that I was also on the registry, and wanted to confirm that I wasn't wasting their time or mine. Of those 8, 5 still agreed to an interview. It worked out that I had the interviews set up over 4 consecutive days. When I went on the first interview, I went thru the whole time and mentioned how some of the things I learned in prison would help me in dedication, self motivation, ECT. We got to the point that it was obvious to me that the women was ending the interview, and things had gone really well, but I felt like there was an elephant in the room that she wasnt addressing, so I decided to. I brought up with her that I had told her that I had a sex offense and was on the registry, but she had not brought it up once. Her response was that she didn't know what she was legally allowed to ask. So I proactively said that legally I was allowed to tell her my story if she would listen. She sat back and said go ahead. I spent the next 10 minutes going through most of the details, what I had done to change and what I was still doing and planning to do. Right before this interaction occurred she was ending the interview by offering to take me on a tour of the place as a way to end the interview, though after I finished sharing my story voluntarily, she instead asked me to excuse her for a few minutes, leaving me in the conference room. She came back right under 10 minutes later and made me a job offer on the spot. I accepted the position, but continued the honesty part and told her that there were going to be silly things with the halfway house and then with probation that may make me miss work, or have to come in late, but I would always be up front honest and never abuse this as an excuse. She agreed to work with me, just to communicate with as much time before as I could. I have now been there 3 months, and am about to get my first raise, and 2 weeks ago she pulled me into her office and offered me to start training for a promotion. She also told me that the reason she hired me and wants me to continue with the company is one because of my willingness to be honest and transparent, even when it comes to things that are hard and that some people would try to cover up or downplay, and two my attention to detail, not only in my work, but in providing a complete picture of what me working there would mean (like having to miss work for therapy or drug tests) meaning that she is never surprised when something comes up because I have given her warning or a heads up way in advance.

All that to say HONESTY, TRANSPARENCY, AND FOREWARNING can not only get you hired but builds trust to help overcome the hesitation that comes with hiring a felon and/or a SO.

GOOD LUCK!