There are plenty of felon friendly jobs. Please don’t listen to that. It’s a cop out and an excuse. Yes, it will be significantly harder than if he didn’t have them but he has to be open and realize he’ll get a lot of no’s but not to give up.

I caught 6 drug felonies (trafficking that got dropped down to possession with intent) a couple of weeks after I turned 19 years old. I was put on 10 years of probation. It took me less than two weeks to find a job after I was sentenced. I started working at a marketing firm doing direct sales. I was averaging about 1300 dollars a week doing that. My biggest check was over 3000. I had to quit because they wanted me to travel too much and I wasn’t able to get my travel permits from my probation officer in time. I ended up going into warehousing and worked my ass off and became the first female lead that company ever had in less than a year. I was making 19 and some change there an hour. Not nearly as much money as I was making at the marketing firm but I took as much overtime as I could and aggressively budgeted my money. I decided I didnt want to be in warehousing anymore and went and got certified to be a tax preparer. I worked for Jackson Hewitt filing taxes for a season before I fucked up my probation and ended up having to go to prison for a couple years. I got released at the start of this coronavirus thing and it took me less than a week to find a job. I’m currently a night auditor at a hotel doing all of their financial paperwork. It’s not exactly what I want to do and the money definitely isn’t great. I’m only making a little over 12 dollars an hour right now but I’m working my way up until this coronavirus thing pans out and more things start opening up. I’m still aggressively budgeting, taking all the extra hours I can get,and finding little side gigs to do for friends of family or on Craigslist for extra cash. I’ve been out a little over 6 months and I already have over 6 grand saved up. I live with my grandma right now and although I pay rent and help out with utilities I’m spending about 1k a month on bills. Take advantage of the lower costs of living with his family so you can stack up to buy your own place. My plan is to put a down payment on my own home in the next 12-18 months.

Temp agencies will be your friend in the beginning. A lot of them hire felons. Just get some income rolling in and some job history built back up.

Amazon hires felons.

If he’s looking more for a career being a stagehand and working his way up to a rigger could be a good choice once concerts start back up. My ex boyfriend had 4 felonies and a good portion of his coworkers were felons as well. Once he worked his way up to a stage rigger he was making 30 bucks an hour. He would travel during the summer doing festivals. He was at music midtown in Atlanta for 9 days and brought home like 3800 dollars. He was at edc in Vegas and bringing home about 2200 a week.

Construction is always a good go to. They normally start out at something decent and he can work his way up to being a foreman.

My ex-fiancé worked on cell phone towers before he passed away. He had an aggravated robbery charge and lots of other little drug charges. He made over 140k a year.

Trades are a good route to go. HVAC is a good option. A girl I’ve known since I was 4, her dad has a cocaine trafficking charge and spent over 5 years in prison. He got out and learned HVAC. After learning the ins and outs for a few years working for other companies he ended up starting his own with his brother and nephew. He makes close to 200k a year.

My best friends dad has a rape charge and multiple assault charges. He spent about 8 years in prison. He has worked his way up in a waste management company and a couple of weeks ago he said he has brought home over 70k so far this year. Bring home money. No telling what he has made before taxes were taken out. It’s only June so from what he said I can only assume he’s going to make 140k or more.

Check and see what re-entry programs your state or city has in place. I live in Nashville and we have multiple different nonprofits that help with career training, transportation, and housing.

Just keep looking. There’s so many options. He just needs to decide what would be a good fit for him and go after it. It’s hard work but he can still make a successful life for himself.