Interview historical qns!

A customer recently asked me (Don), “How are you supposed to answer, Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”

That’s a tough one… 

Hopefully you can just say no.

Keep in mind that a felony and a misdemeanor are two different crimes, with the latter one being less serious.

So if they ask you about a felony, and you have a misdemeanor, you can honestly say no.

They might also ask you if you have been convicted of a crime, thus covering all their bases.

Your best bet is…

If you have been convicted of a crime, get your record expunged (wiped clean) and then you can truthfully answer no to any type of crime related questions. 

If getting your record expunged is not an option, you’ll want to come up with a brief story about what happened and why you don’t deserve what happened to you.

I’ve known good people, and I really mean good church going people who have been convicted of a felony who were either in the wrong place at the wrong time or ended up taking the fall for someone else.

I’ve known of corporate controllers who made some seriously bad accounting errors that got them in a heap of trouble and spread the blame to other people who had no idea what was going on, thus earning themselves a criminal record for their reckless ignorance.

Employers can be very understanding of a past criminal record, as long as it’s not violent.  A business owner and friend told me that he interviewed a guy who said he had a felony for US Postal mail fraud. 

But once the guy explained what happened and since it had been many years since the crime, the business owner did not care at all, and hired the guy on the spot and didn’t even run a background check on him.

I do know this…

If you have been convicted of a felony, I don’t believe any US banks are legally allowed to hire you because they are all FDIC insured, and that’s a law handed down from the Federal Government to all US Banks.

But other than US Banks being off limits, having a non-violent criminal record should not necessarily keep you from getting hired.

Keep in mind that larger companies are more likely to perform background checks on all employees, whereas small businesses are less likely, but that doesn’t mean small business will and big business won’t.

Hope this help