Felon has serious conviction and needs job search help

Hello Mr. Mayo,

I love reading your blog.  Thank you for this information.  I have been looking for a job but I have a very serious charge and it is making it very hard for me to get a job.  In 2002, I got into a fight with a guy.  I didn't start it but the guy got beat up pretty bad and later died.  I was charged with assault and involuntary manslaughter.  I have done my time but I feel that this black mark is keeping me from getting a job.

I am not a violent person but this thing makes me look like a monster.  What can I do?

Henry

 Felon has serious conviction and needs job search help

Hello Henry,

That is quite a story.  It's unfortunate that hings turned out the way they did.  It certainly could have been a lot worse.  You could have been the other guy.  Your charge is serious but it is not the end of the world.  I work with ex-offenders and felons everyday and I have had students with similar felonies and they are working to this day.  To employers, theft, robbery and other crimes involving integrity are looked down far more than offenses like yours.

When you apply for jobs you should respond to the "Have you been convicted of a crime..." question this way.  When answering this question you must list four things.  You must list the location of the conviction (County, State,) the conviction, the date of the conviction and the disposition ( final outcome.)  It should look

like this:

Cook County, Illinois,   Involuntary Manslaughter (Isolated Incident,) June 2005, Time served, 13 years.

Notice the notation after the conviction "Isolated Incident."  This tells the employer that this was something that was not planned, it was circumstantial. You will be surprised how well this works.  When you get an interview, the charge will probably come up.  You should begin your explanation of the incident with "I'm glad you asked that question because I want you to be comfortable hiring me......."  then, most humbly explain what happened.

I tell every felon I work with that finding a job is a numbers game.  The more jobs you apply for, the more interviews you will get.  The more interviews you get, the more opportunities you will get to get hired.  Apply for every job you feel you qualify for.  Never eliminate yourself by not applying.


Please Rate This Post at the Top!

Jobs for Ex-offenders and Felons: Where Ex-offenders and Felons Can Find Jobs

Jobs for Felons: What Employers want on Applications

Jobs for Felons:3 Most Common Mistakes Made on an Employment Application

Are you a felon or ex-offender who has a question about finding a job with a criminal record? You could have your question answered right here.  Email your question to: BelievePublications@comcast.net.

If you are really serious about getting a job or you want to help someone you care about get a job, check out this link: From Jail to a Job

 

   

Felon has serious conviction and needs job search help

Felon wants job as an Addiction Counselor

Dear Sir or Madam,

I came across this email on your website as I am looking for ways to help my adult son.  He is a heroin addict in recovery.  He wants to become an addiction counselor, but we are struggling to find someone to get advice from.  He is very intelligent and has a bachelor's in psych.  He wants to get his MS and applied to the program at our local university, but was turned down based on the felony, telling him they don't want him to end up with more student loans, as the licensing bd in Ohio will not grant him a license. He is very depressed, feeling that he will never be able to do what he wants to do.

He has of course had great difficulty finding any work.  He was just hired to do heavy lifting in a warehouse for low pay.  He's worked there a week, and has put in 50 hours.  He's 28, with back and foot problems, and has been coming home in great pain.  This has added to the feeling that he will never get a good job, will never be able to live on his own, marry one day, and support a family.  It doesn't help that he has a brother who is an attorney, and a sister in medical school. He would be happy to get a lesser job as a case aid or similar position so that he can prove himself.

He tells me he has heard of other drug counselors who were felons, but we can't find one for him to talk to. There is little hope of having his record expunged because he has two misdemeanor charges for behavior when he was using (non violent) , plus the felony for use.  That excludes you from expungement in Ohio.  Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you,

Trying to help without enabling,

Demi

Felon wants job as an Addiction Counselor

 

Hello Demi,

I know of  addiction counselors who have criminal records, but that is here in NJ.  My suggestion is to contact the local United Way.  The United Way supports an array of social assistance programs.  Perhaps they can refer you to a rehab center they are affiliated with.  Your son could probably
volunteer a few hours per week to acquaint himself with the facility and work with counselors.  I am sure he will meet someone who could steer him in the right direction.  He could possibly find employment opportunities within one of the agencies the United Way supports.

I hope this helps

Felon wants job as an Addiction Counselor

Eric Mayo

Ex-Felons May Outperform You in the Workplace

New research shows employers could be missing out by avoiding felons in hiring

 

 

Jordan Yadoo

For millions of U.S. job applicants with a criminal record, just making it past the screening stage of the hiring process is a challenge. New research shows that could be the employer's loss.

Using the U.S. military — the nation's largest employer — as a test case to evaluate the work performance of felons upon re-entering the job market, researchers from Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst found they were no more likely than other enlistees to be discharged for the negative reasons employers often assume, such as misconduct or poor performance. What's more, they were actually promoted at a slightly higher rate and to higher ranks than those with clean criminal records.

One explanation as to why relates to the additional review process felons undergo to secure a criminal military waiver. The holistic screening takes into account the nature of the crime and time since conviction, along with any compensating skills and experience, and could result in the selection of above average recruits. The other possibility is that, having received a second chance of sorts, felons are more committed to their work and getting promoted given the scarcity of employment opportunities elsewhere.

"We see these results as very promising in terms of thinking about how, given appropriate screening, those with felony-level criminal records seem to make very promising employees," said Devah Pager, a Harvard sociologist who co-authored the study with Jennifer Lundquist and Eiko Strader from UMass Amherst. "Employers may be missing out on a huge amount of talent by screening out all those with felony-level records."

 

The study is one of the first to assess the actual performance of felons in the workplace, according to the authors. Previous research has focused on the employment barriers themselves that result from a criminal record. A 2003 study by Pager, for example, showed that ex-offenders are roughly half as likely to receive a callback relative to equally qualified applicants with no criminal record, and that black candidates suffer disproportionately. The study found that whites with criminal records received more interview callbacks than blacks without past arrests.

The new research, which used the Freedom of Information Act to collect administrative data on 1.3 million ex-offender and non-offender soldiers who enlisted between 2002 and 2009, lends support to the so-called "Ban the Box" campaign spreading around the country that aims to persuade employers to remove the check box on hiring applications that asks candidates whether they have been convicted of a crime. Supporters of the campaign say the box unnecessarily narrows the pool of qualified applicants.

Some 23 states, over 100 cities and some of the largest U.S. private employers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., and Koch Industries Inc. have already taken steps to remove barriers in the hiring of those with a criminal record.  The federal government last week proposed a rule that would prohibit federal agencies from asking about a job applicant's criminal history until after making a conditional employment offer.

The "Ban the Box" campaign "isn't saying that employers shouldn't do criminal background checks," Pager said. "It's just saying to first focus on skills and qualifications that are relevant to the job."

If adopted nationwide, such measures could help lift employment barriers for millions of ex-offenders. Today, the U.S. incarcerated population is about four-and-a-half times larger than in 1980, with more than 2.2 million people held in federal and state prisons and county jails in 2014, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Even after adjusting for population growth, the incarceration rate grew by more than 220 percent from 1980 to 2014, according to a White House Council of Economic Advisers report issued last week. More than 600,000 individuals are released from prison each year.

Given the increase of job seekers with criminal pasts, Pager sees legitimate consequences for the broader labor market if otherwise qualified candidates are weeded out.

"We know that finding a quality, steady job following release from prison is one of the strongest predictors of desistance from crime," she said. "For that reason alone, reintegrating ex-offenders and supporting employment as a key part of that process is in everyone's interest."

Eric Mayo

I Never Use Indeed To Help Felons Get Jobs

I often hear of people using Indeed to look for jobs.  In fact, Indeed says that it gets 140 million unique visitors to its website every month.  Out of that number, I wonder how many real job leads are found there and out of that number, how many people actually get jobs.  When you click on the "apply" links on the Indeed website, what happens?  When you click the "apply" link you are asked for your personal information but I'm not really sure if the application actually reaches the employer.

My experience is that when you sign up with Indeed your email address is sold  and you will get tons of emails from career schools, how to make money at home schemes and other things that have nothing to do with getting jobs.  I never encourage the ex-offenders and felons I work with to use Indeed.  A lot of the job listings are stale and the jobs are no longer there.  I have also seen instances where the job didn't even exist.  For instance, I saw one job listed that I always see in my area here in southern New Jersey.  I mean that I see the same job listed all the time.  It was for a job at a nationwide retailer.  It was one of the companies on my list of companies that hire ex-offenders and felons.  So, I went to the store to talk to the manager, who I have known for years to see if the job was actually open.  The manger told me that he had no openings and that Indeed has had that job posted for months.

I Never Use Indeed To Help Felons Get Jobs

Can Indeed be valuable in any way?  I teach my students that if they must use Indeed,  never sign up for their website so they don't get bombarded with a bunch of spam emails.  Secondly search for jobs their area but don't click the links on the Indeed website.  Instead of clicking the link, look up the company on your own.  For example, if Indeed lists a job at XYZ company, don't click the link on Indeed, go directly to the XYZ website.   Once you get there look for the link to the company's own employment section.  It often is at the very bottom in small print and it may say "Employment" or "Careers."  Click on the link.  You will be surprised at what you will find.  You will find all of the actual open positions along with the job descriptions, requirement and how to apply.  If the company is nation-wide the job listings will be listed by geographical location.  You will often find more jobs than are listed on Indeed.

You will find that this will result in more and better job leads.

Best of luck in your job search.  Please feel free to comment on this article.

Eric Mayo

  Jobs for Ex-offenders and Felons: Where Ex-offenders and Felons Can Find Jobs

Jobs for Ex-offenders and Felons: Ten Steps to getting a Job with a Criminal record

I Never Use Indeed To Help Felons Get Jobs