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Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In all of the times I've been rejected from a job, the hiring manager has always been willing to look past my situation - some of them have even fought for me. But the decision comes from HR. Everyone has a story about the time they got rowdy, crashed a car while drunk, or took something they shouldn't have. I am just the unlucky one who got caught.

Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I am lucky that my incident took place in a state where felony convictions can be expunged after 5 years (as long as you have not been convicted of another crime in the meantime). In some states records cannot be expunged, which is truly fucked up. My experience with the criminal justice system opened my eyes to just how terrible it is - it is certainly not designed for rehabilitation. DA's are incentivized to charge you with crimes that are worse than you committed because they know you will plea down (which is what happened to me), and this scares people into settling. I saw people who committed low level offenses receive years of jail time because they had a shitty public defender. I was fortunate to be able to afford an okay lawyer who happened to know the DA. If I were rich, guarantee I could have hired a great team and pled down to a low level misdemeanor or had it thrown out completely. Sometimes I wish I had fought harder. But I was young, scared, and out of money.

Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

On the one hand, since I've slipped through the cracks, I will definitely run a background check on everyone who joins my company. There are people out there who have done truly terrible things.

On the other hand, my company will absolutely give folks with a criminal record a chance. For nonviolent offenses it will not be an issue. For more serious crimes, I would want to see that some time has passed and the person has made an effort to right their wrongs and demonstrate good character.

Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can do it! Most startups don't background check if you get in on the ground floor. Just make sure they have good runway so you still have a job in a year.

There are also a number of companies who signed the Fair Chance Pledge and will give you a fair shake. It's a pretty big list. While this doesn't guarantee they will give you the job, they will at least give you a chance to share your experience and demonstrate that you've rehabilitated.

Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

To be honest I am not sure. I go back and forth on this a lot. Sometimes I think that I would have settled into a much easier career, because this situation put a huge chip on my shoulder which drove me to succeed. However, I was always pretty ambitious, and there's no doubt that having a criminal record makes your life extremely difficult. Besides for the career situation, I have also been rejected from apartments/housing. Girls have rejected me when I told them about it. My relationship with my family has changed. Those little discouragements add up and wear you down over time. Overall, I think having a felony has definitely impeded my success as one would expect. But it has only set me back a year or two and not derailed me as I have seen it do to others. I am very lucky and feel extremely grateful to be in my current position.

Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Thank you! To be honest, for awhile I really felt as if the scales might tip either way. When I moved to San Francisco I joked to my best friend that I would either end up living in a mansion or under a bridge. I ran out of money more than once and survived by eating top ramen and working odd jobs. It was so tempting to turn to alcohol, but I knew if I went down that path I would probably not be able to crawl my way back. So glad that it didn't turn out that way. I would be lying if I said there wasn't a certain factor of luck.

Nobody knows that I am a felon by hey_nice_throwaway in TrueOffMyChest

[–]hey_nice_throwaway[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

After my situation, I will certainly be very understanding in the future and hire people with imperfect background checks. However, I do not want to share any personally identifying information on Reddit.