
ReformedFelonForHire.com – High quality software skills, at a competitive price - FelonForHire
http://reformedfelonforhire.com/index.html
======
joshmn
OP: Put your plea at the top to get the attention of people; "Unemployed
family man ran out of money". Also, regarding interviews, if you're very
transparent with people they can usually find a way past what turns up in your
background check.

To HN: Another felon here:

One of the hardest things is living with this label. There's such a stigma
around it. My offense is much different than OP, but it still sucks.

People seem to think "one a felon, always a felon" — which, in some cases is
very true, but for every repeat customer of the courts there are 10 people who
commit felonies once or twice and never do it again and go on to lead
otherwise normal lives.

~~~
forapurpose
> People seem to think "one a felon, always a felon"

I'm not sure that's what is really going on, regardless of what people say.
People have no problem doing business with known frauds, criminals and bad
actors, from the CEO who cheated their co-founder to Wall Street banks to
many, many more. Will nobody do business with Travis Kalanick again? The banks
who sold the shady mortgage-backed securities that caused the Great Recession?
There was a story the other day about prominent scientists who committed
massive fraud and hardly suffered dents in their careers. Pete Carroll
committed many violations of NCAA rules and ethics when coaching U. of
Southern Cal football; he became a professional football coach and nobody
talks about not trusting him; it seems to have had no impact on his
reputation. Another example is the Catholic Church's systematic sexual abuse
of children on a global scale; did everyone stop going to Catholic churches?
Stop doing all business with them? I could go on forever.

It's hard to put my finger on the formula, but it seems to have something to
do with being on the inside, 'one of ours' or the old boy network, compared
with being an outsider.

(To avoid any doubt, I think the exclusion of former felons from employment is
wrong. Once they've served their time, it's done. Employers shouldn't be
allowed to ask with only a few exceptions (e.g., former bank robbers shouldn't
be bank security guards).)

~~~
DoreenMichele
I have been sitting here wondering if the guy who made this website is a
person of color that he couldn't get his felony downgraded and keeps being
rejected after people learn of his crime of _felony flashing_ \-- which is
only a felony because it's a second offense. The first offense is only a
_misdemeanor._

(Watch that second step. It's a doozey.)

I get that there's a slippery slope element here and no one wants to say
"Sure, flash people all you like! It's only a misdemeanor forever, no matter
how many times you do it."

And I get that it's additionally problematic that he flashed a minor. But 17
year olds are kind of a gray zone.

I just feel like some element of the story is missing here and I find myself
wondering if that element is racism, in part because I know the criminal
justice system in the US basically practices systemic racism of the worst
kind.

I wouldn't hire him to work at a high school, but come on. Why is he still
unemployed after two years over what must be one of the most minor offenses
you can commit to be charged with a felony?

~~~
magic_beans
The impulse to expose your genitals to a teenage girl is pretty mind-
bogglingly disgusting. And it didn't just happen once. It happened TWICE. This
man has 5 kids. How on earth would he feel if some grown man did that to one
of his own children?

~~~
DoreenMichele
You are moving the goal posts here. He didn't do it to one of his own
children. Obviously, that would be an incestuous act, which is far, far worse
than flashing a stranger who is nearly an adult and potentially could be
mistaken for an adult.

When I was 17, I was 5'9" tall and people absolutely mistook me for an adult
at times. For that matter, at age 14, I was 5'7" and, while at the mall
babysitting a 7 year old, was once asked if I wanted to sign up for a
department store credit card.

I haven't seen the particulars of his crime. I don't even know if he knew her
age before exposing himself or if he only learned of that in the course of the
trial.

------
_coveredInBees
Op, while I hope you manage to land a gig, I'll be a bit critical here and say
that your webpage/resume could use a fair bit of work.

1\. You have zero links to projects or things you've worked on (even if it is
a simple calculator app). If you're so fluent in all the languages you listed,
surely, you must have some projects to showcase? Hardly anyone is going to
make the effort of sending an email to your listed email address to inquire
about your portfolio, but they are far more likely to send you a note if they
browsed through your work and liked what they saw.

2\. You refer to a fair amount of front-end skills, yet your site has a very
90s look and feel. While that may have been intentional, it just feels like a
lack of skills due to the jarring aesthetics. You can make a minimal
blog/website while still having decent aesthetics.

3\. Your content has a bit of a cheesy infomercial vibe to it. I feel like you
could make the same points without trying so hard. Focus more on the content,
your skills and making a good professional impression while being upfront
about your criminal history.

4\. While I understand that you made a conscious decision to maintain your
anonymity when making your webpage, it seems a bit counter to what your site
is trying to do. It's hard for a would be employer to make the effort to get
in touch with you when there is no name or face to ascribe to you, and your
contact email is a made up one. Your site seems to be your effort to own your
situation and turn things around, but withholding any information about
yourself feels a bit counter to that. That being said, I can understand why
you may want to choose to remain anonymous.

Good luck!

~~~
_sdegutis
1\. I do have a portfolio but was a bit nervous to post it publicly on this
website considering that opens me up publicly to scorn and wrath of anyone and
everyone who is (rightfully) offended by my crimes. Either way, I've added it
to the site.

2\. True, I wrote this website in a rush. I copied the HN color scheme and
decided to stick with that considering I only posted the link here. But valid
point.

3\. By putting the emphasis on what you get out of hiring me, I tried to avoid
looking like I'm complaining.

4\. Very good point. I've added my portfolio to the site. Sincerely hope this
decision doesn't come back to bite me.

~~~
jnsaff2
better delete this comment as you mixed up your accounts

~~~
_sdegutis
No I did it intentionally. I can't reply under the other account (rate
limited) and since I put my portfolio up, which already gives away my
identity, I may as well just stop being anonymous. This may be a stupid
decision, who knows. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and I
need a job.

~~~
diminoten
I'll put it this way: this went from being a passing thought in my mind to
being blown out of the water impressed by the volume and quality of your work.
I'm not in a position to hire you, but actually seeing your portfolio flipped
me 180 degrees on my feelings about this post.

~~~
_sdegutis
Phew, reading that was a little relief from this nightmare. Thanks for the
encouragement.

~~~
LyndsySimon
Ditto for me. After reading some of your posts, I sent your site to a few
people I know that are hiring.

If nothing else your approach has generated visibility and leads.

------
BillinghamJ
> Every company is enthusiastic to hire me. But at the background check phase
> they all retract their offer.

This kinda suggests you weren't honest, or at least up-front, about your
conviction. If it gets to the background check phase and they don't already
know, you're doing it wrong.

If an employer finds out about that from anyone but you, the answer is
_definitely_ going to be no. If they find out from you directly, it's probably
still a no, but not definitely.

> We've ran out of unemployment

Grammatical error - may seem like a small thing, but when you're appealing to
people in this way, the small things matter a lot. Change to "We've run out of
unemployment".

To be honest though, I'm not sure this part of the story is helping your case
- it doesn't paint a positive picture, only inspires pity. Maybe I'm wrong
about that though - just what I'd be thinking about.

~~~
FelonForHire
For the first 4 of the past 6 months, I've tried disclosing early (first or
second phone call), half-way through, or near the job offer phase. Every
single time, without fail, they email back (not even a phone call) with either
a generic or very brief message retracting their offer or declining to proceed
with the interview process. Smaller companies will simply stop returning my
calls and emails, and completely cut off contact regardless of when I tell
them. I only started waiting until the background check until I disclose for
the past 2 months because I'm getting very nervous about not actually getting
a job.

~~~
BillinghamJ
If a company will decline to hire you based on finding out, then there isn't
really anything you can do - they will find out one way or another.

If you're being pragmatic about it, you might as well save your time and get
rejected from these kinds of companies earlier on in the process, rather than
get all the way to the end before having to move on.

The end result is the same.

~~~
cornholio
If a company is rejecting you based on policy, yes. If it's a personal
decision based on prejudice against felons (he can't possibly be competent and
non-violent), the result is not the same, you have the chance to disprove
those prejudices and sell yourself. Since such prejudice is rampant, it may be
your best overall chance.

I believe that, aside from specialized fields like bank tellers or people
working with children, access to conviction history should be severely
restricted - the only point of such info is to facilitate discrimination.

In theory, the debt to society is repaid when the individual exits the
penitentiary. In practice, the punishment continues on an ad-hoc, deregulated
fashion from private individuals against the most vulnerable segment of the
ex-felonry: those with meager material means and education, limited family
support and in most desperate need to secure lawful employment. This extended
and unequal punishment is a clear violation of the equality before law all
citizens should enjoy, that should punish similar acts to the same degree.

~~~
plopz
Why do you make the distinction for bank tellers and people working with kids?

~~~
cornholio
It could be argued that social consequences of recidivism are so great in some
cases (ex. sexual offenses) that it's reasonable to prevent them at all costs,
provided the freedom of ex-felons to choose a wide array of other occupations
is not impacted significantly.

It would be a great progress from the current status quo, that basically
denies them most jobs, even those where the higher than average recidivism
risk of ex-felons is immaterial. I would see it as a practical political
compromise.

------
Trundle
Not in a position to hire you but I highly recommend contracting, or
presenting as a one man dev agency. People treat signing up with Top
Development Pty Ltd much differently to hiring Mr Potential Felon.

When myself and a friend were doing it for a while we were continuously amazed
at just how trusting people were. No background information, credential
checking, nothing. Just "here you go" and they hand over credentials to all of
their core business and customer information to some guys they just met.

We were also charging $90 hour as people who didn't really know what they're
doing. I understand you need money right now, but I definitely think this is a
route you should consider in the future.

------
kolpa
See also 70MillionJobs, a YC company for connecting jobs with employees that
have criminal records.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15101452](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15101452)

~~~
FelonForHire
I signed up for that site a month ago and have had absolutely no success
finding a job that I qualify for through it.

------
justherefortart
Good luck, my partner (startup) is a felon. I've known him for 12+ years.
Youthful mistakes have followed him longer than he was alive when he got his
felony.

Don't be discouraged and keep at it. My state (Oklahoma) removed asking if you
have a felony from all state job applications (truly shocking IMO).

------
nwatson
I imagine the Koch Brothers follow through on their commitment to "ban the
box" ([http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/koch-brothers-donors-ban-
box-...](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/koch-brothers-donors-ban-box-job-
applications/story?id=41419080)) and not ask about felony convictions in job
applications. There are other companies operated by executive teams from
across the political spectrum that probably do the same -- maybe you could be
hired by one of these companies (?) .

Software systems at times touch sensitive info, and it might be harder to
justify hiring a formal felon to work on these (might depend on the nature of
the crime), so YMMV.

Good luck to you, I hope you continue to sort out your issues and that you
good way to support your family.

~~~
PirateBay
"Banning the box" isn't going to do anything if background checks are still
legally allowed to find out the same information (felonies, convictions)
anyway.

------
codingdave
It is completely unfair for felons to be shut out of jobs because of non-
violent past mistakes that are ancient history and would not re-occur.

On the other hand, we have no idea who made this page. If they want to be
taken seriously and given a chance, they need to be transparent enough to at
least tell us who they are, and let us make our own decision on working with
them.

~~~
cjbprime
I agree that we treat felons extremely poorly.

But as a point of order, I don't think sexual assaults are (or should be)
considered as non-violent.

~~~
imustadmit
Flashing your wanger at someone passing by isn't really sexual assault though.

I've been flashed by a drunk guy, I gave a surprised chuckle and walked away.
My mum was flashed when some weirdo jumped into the back garden and started
showing his stuff to her through the kitchen window; she chased him away with
a sword.

Neither of us thought for one minute we'd been sexually assaulted, and these
instances just became amusing stories. Unfortunately it seems that doing
similar in the USA is no laughing matter.

~~~
AlexCoventry
If your typical teenage girl was inclined and legally allowed to carry a sword
and wield it against assailants, it's possible I would agree with you. They're
not, though, and we should be glad to live in a society where no one needs to
and sane people generally don't want to.

The implied threat of potential rape makes flashing a young women at least as
violent as a credible threat to beat someone within an inch of their life.

I'm sympathetic to ReformedFelonForHire's situation, and regard this
humiliating punishment as extreme, unnecessary and destructive to the fabric
of society, but I don't think that means we should minimize the harm of his
error.

------
gremlinsinc
Not a felon, but I do freelancing via /r/forhire on reddit, between 40-60/hour
is what I charge generally as an intermediate fullstack dev (php (via laravel)
and vue). -- Nobody ever asks for a background check, at least so far, I'm
sure upwork and other freelance sites might work as well.. Finding a
traditional job will probably be difficult but remote shorter term contracts
shouldn't be too hard to find.

------
forapurpose
Some honest feedback: I want to be clear that it's not a comment on you
personally at all; it's perception of a website and, sadly, perception is what
matters in this case: I've encountered many hustlers and this website looks
like a hustle to me. When you add that the author has been in prison, the
situation becomes very dubious. Not everyone will see it that way, obviously,
but I'm confident that people with my experience will share my perception.
Here's what I see:

(I know I might sound heartless, but that's how the hustles work - make a
pitch that you can't deny without looking or feeling like a jerk, and about
which you can't be certain so that it's socially awkward to doubt them.)

* The story: Lots of kids, need money for (something urgent and highly sympathetic), not a hustler just an honest person down on their luck ... I've heard it many, many times. One guy told me he had 7 young kids he needed to feed; when I pointed out he appeared to be in his 60s, he said they were someone else's kids; later the number changed to 5.

* The focus on the story rather than the business. It feels like a con, an attempt to jerk my heartstrings, rather than a business proposition.

* The extremely low rate - 'lucky for you that you caught me at a bad time!' Another one I've heard many times. To be taken seriously as a professional, charge a professional rate.

* The incredible list of projects and of promises ("I can pretty much write any software solution you need, in a reasonably short time"), both almost too good to believe.

I could go on for awhile. Given your background, IMHO you need to be very
careful to appear to be professional and not a hustler at all. Otherwise, at
best it doesn't look like you understand the professional world. At worst,
it's a hustle by an ex-con.

Again, I'm not saying you are hustling anyone, I'm saying you risk that
perception.

------
woolvalley
When I used to do independent contract software jobs, I never recalled any
background checks being done. When people hire a plumber, they don't do
background checks either. Presenting yourself as a company vs an employee can
be helpful in this situation.

Have you thought of doing odesk style work or other remote contracts to pay
the bills?

------
komali2
At first, I thought this was a service for connecting felons to jobs. I always
thought that'd be an awesome idea, especially if some sort of job training
could be set up (jail is SUPPOSED to be for rehabilitation, right?)

Anyway, best of luck with your job search.

You seem very transparent about this, so forgive me if this is too forward -
do you face difficulties being on the sex offendeder list with attending
events for your children? I.e school plays or whatever.

~~~
AlexCoventry
> jail is SUPPOSED to be for rehabilitation, right?

The prison I volunteered in, there was a classroom full of computers, but the
inmates weren't trusted to use them. There was some discussion of a "paper-
based" computer-science course.

------
jeffmould
As a convicted felon, and someone working to help returning citizens find
employment opportunities, several pieces of advice:

1) Look into the Federal Bonding Program. This may help some smaller employers
overcome fears of working with you. Everyone qualifies and it is free for the
employer and job seeker.

2) Be ready to take any position at any rate. You may even consider finding
non-developer jobs for the time being, at least until at little more time has
passed since your conviction/release. I can't emphasize how powerful it can be
to build trust again with employers. Working a warehouse job where you show up
everyday, work hard, and always go the extra mile, even if you only do it for
six months or a year, can be a powerful step to getting bigger, better jobs.
You can always do consulting, freelance work on the side to keep your skills
up.

3) Unfortunately for you sex offenses are tough to overcome and even harder to
convince employers to hire you for. Your inability to travel out of state with
ease, plus other restrictions associated with the registry, can make hiring
decisions for sex offenders difficult. Your best bet is to aim for small,
local employers or remote contract work. Possibly even starting your own
business.

4) Your web page comes across as downplaying the severity of your offenses or
as if they were just little mistakes. No offense, but this was a thought out
sex crime. While they may be minor crimes, in the eyes of many any sex offense
is a major red flag. Even more so when those crimes center around child sex
offenses. I would work on getting letters of recommendation from influential
people in your life. Your therapist, pastor/priest, probation officer, etc...
Let potential employers know that you have these letters instead of just
saying that "Everyone I know agrees I'm a different person".

5) Personally, I would avoid the paragraphs of what other offers you received.
While you say "competitive rate", you flaunt the offer amounts and you don't
mention what that competitive rate is. As a potential employer I may be
skeptical that you are looking for a salary around those numbers.

With that said, I will put feelers out to my contacts to see if anyone is
looking for a programmer with your skills.

Good luck!

~~~
jahlove
Agreed. definitely remove that whole "highly sought after" section

------
iheart2code
Can you work as a contractor? Generally, you shouldn't have to provide a
background check if you're just contracting your services.

------
rconti
I'm not sure if it's relevant, but my mind keeps coming back to it, which
means it's probably throwing other people for a loop, too. I doubt the
confusion would stop anyone from hiring you, but I can't help but wonder:

What were the two offenses? I see the one that's cited. I'm not clear on
whether that's the first one, or the second one. Or were they both the exact
same offense? Was the cited one the 'worst' of the two? Was the first one just
shoplifting some gum? Again, I don't really know if it's relevant, but I kept
re-reading the statement trying to parse it, and couldn't.

~~~
DoreenMichele
He has one felony. That felony is for his second time flashing someone.

~~~
imustadmit
I've been flashed before. I found it an odd mixture of WTF and amusing.

Weird that the US deems it necessary to jail people for months just for some
surprise nudity. Cultural differences, I suppose.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Fun American Puritanism Trivia:

The European version of _I, Robot_ shows Will Smith taking a shower so the
audience can both learn he has a prosthetic limb and also see the extent of
his prosthesis. It happens to include a shot of his butt.

Or so I gather. As an American, I have not actually seen this shower scene
because the US version cut that scene as too risqué, requiring them to find
some other (less effective, less natural, more awkward) means to inform the
audience that the character has a prosthetic arm and the prosthesis reaches
well down into his rib cage.

------
spacesword
I would take a risk on him as a remote employee. But no way would I be willing
to take a risk for an on site position. Especially with #MeToo

OP maybe you should focus on remote jobs and be transparent upfront?

~~~
noitsnot
He's hirable. I'm not sure about the other companies, but would take a guess
that a big name company like Goldman or Expedia wouldn't take the chance with
him before #metoo, not to mention now.

------
tluyben2
Offtopic a bit (too late for this to be relevant to OP, but I am curious
nonetheless) and not very popular probably, but why 6 kids? I am aware that
some people are just really bad at planning (never learned how to?), but OP is
a programmer so he can lookup facts and knows how to do statistics. A quick
Google search shows that raising 1 child to 18 y/o costs $233k now in the US,
let's say you can bundle resources a bit, so assume raising 6 children to 18
y/o costs a little over $1m without doing crazy stuff (long, lavish vacations
etc). That is going to exclude the more extreme health issues I really hope OP
will never have to deal with, but, statistically, based on number of children
and genetic properties / lifestyle choices of the parents should be
considered. I am really curious how it seems a good idea or plan to have 6
kids instead of, say, 2 (or 0 if you are financially not sure if things will
ever be ok) when you are not considered rich (enough to catch hick-ups like
the one for very long periods) in this day and age? Again, I'm asking this not
in general, but of someone who clearly has an analytical brain.

~~~
aklemm
It can be nice to have more time with babies and the other stages (they do
grow quickly, you know) and it's also fun for siblings to have each other.
Considering people ignore financial realities in all kinds of spectacular
ways, ending up with a bunch of kids isn't too hard to imagine.

~~~
tluyben2
I agree, that's why I was asking it from someone with, maybe, some analytical
rational. With the reason your provided being absolutely viable, just not my
experience. Anecdotally, my friends all did the calculations and planned kids,
houses etc based on those calculations. So I am wondering how someone who is
aware of this goes that far and then gets in a position where he has to ask
for help. It is sad (I do not believe he should have been put in prison, but
he should've gotten mental help right off the bat, imho), but one can ask the
question. Maybe it is good to say that it is absolutely weird in my neck of
the woods to have more than 2-3 kids. Everyone will look at you like you are a
religious nut, so that probably plays into my curiosity.

------
theparanoid
I feel for you, being convicted of a sex offense makes you persona non grata
in the US. If nothing works you can freelance via Upwork, it can pay OK for US
workers.

------
amorphid
Hey OP, base on my personal experience, almost every company I spoke w/ back
east did a background check. It's much less common in California, at least w/
startups & smaller companies.

Also, try putting your resume on Dice.com. Specify some geographic regions
you'd consider relocating to, as well as the fact that you're willing to work
remotely. You'll have to filter through a lot of junk communication, but it's
worked well for me in the past when I was in a pinch.

Also, when talking to the company, here's one way to be sneaky about your
background. Apply to every job twice, once with your real profile, and once w/
a similar, but not identical profile. With the 2nd profile, if and only if the
company gets back to you, just say you got a DUI about 5 years ago, and have
been sober ever since, but some employers have rejected you because of that,
so you'd like to know if they do background checks. It might be seem shady,
and maybe it is, but it's not your fault company's spend so much time wasting
your time, so you gotta do what you gotta do to put your energy where it will
get results.

Good luck!

------
jamesbrink
I feel this is an important subject. I to have recently become a felon as
well. Finding reasonable employment after the fact is a constant de-motivating
battle. I have been working the ops side of things for over 10 years for large
well known companies such as Edward Jones, Yahoo, and GoDaddy. I made a series
of stupid decisions within a 3 hour period while having an argument with an ex
girlfriend over text messages (never any violence, threats, etc). I decided to
be vindictive with her, troll her, be a dick continuously out of anger.
Needless to say, I broke the law and it came down hard on me. I have never had
any issues with the law in the past, and this was my only run in with the law.
I was indicted on 12 charges, 8 of them felonies, further more the prosecutor
claimed that there was aggravating circumstances which allows them to charge
me as a repeat offender because a few of the crimes took place on multiple
days (violating a court order by texting my ex girlfriend.)

Of the 12 charges I had to sign for 3 felonies to avoid going to prison over
being a troll to my ex girlfriend, the worst part is if I had beat her within
an inch of her life I would have been in less trouble. Unfortunately that's
not my MO or in my character at all. So now I am an engineer with over 10
years of great work history with 3 felonies for Computer Tampering,
Harassment, and Stalking (In AZ this is Harassment + Fear of property being
damaged) charges.

I was no doubt guilty, and I don't try to minimize my crimes and stupidity,
but I am highly annoyed that I will have to be judged by this over and over
again long after a judge already did at sentencing.... There are companies
that claim to work with people for a second chance but I personally have never
seen this during my job search.

Nothing more fun than becoming a felon at 35 :/

------
hasingh
Put you resume on a google doc, and share the link here. You do not have to
provide personal details, but at least provide more detail on your skills and
a contact #. We hire for remote working contract positions from time to time.
I would admit that I have second thoughts about this outreach, but there
should be hope for everybody!

We do not have something available right now, but requirements do open up. I
wish you luck!

------
downandout
I’m curious why you are so focused on working for someone else, when it’s
clear that most will not hire you. A friend of mine was raised on the streets
of Philadelphia. He was very talented with computers from an early age, but
unfortunately nobody would hire him after he pled guilty to a felony as a
result of being found with drugs and a gun.

I met him after all of this happened through an Internet marketing forum,
where we exchanged ideas for a few years, before working together on several
projects. He makes ~$50k/mo working on his own as an affiliate marketer.
Affiliate marketing is only a part of my personal business, but I make more
just from that than I could if I were a senior engineer at Google or Facebook.

So it’s something you should consider. While you won’t be curing cancer, as a
reasonably intelligent programmer, you’ll have a leg up over most others doing
it, and you can pretty easily make a very comfortable living. It’s also
something you can do on a moonlighting basis even if you do manage to get a
job.

------
tyrankh
OP, the website doesn't specify which part of the country you're looking for
work. That may be a good thing to add.

------
ythn
Seems like places that have remote employees would be perfect for hiring
reformed felons. If I ever made a company as successful as GitLab I would have
no qualms hiring this guy for remote work. Nothing wrong with hiring them for
non-remote work, just saying the liability is even lower.

~~~
theparanoid
The legal liability is the same.

~~~
ythn
Yeah I'm talking more from a company incident perspective. Say you have a
reformed felon who committed rape. In an on-site position, they may relapse
and rape an attractive coworker. However, in the remote case, you can't rape
female employees if you don't know where they live.

------
0x4f3759df
Does anyone know if it would make a difference if he started a company (ABC
Consultants) and then contracted out himself through his company? Seems like
that might get around the background check issue.

~~~
cik
Unfortunately that's not really doable. A shocking number of contracts specify
that the corporation not hire known criminals. I have seen lax ones specifying
only that a background check is conducted.

~~~
sjsjxhhc
What would the risk be if violating that provision? Breach of contract that
may just give the client an out, or something like fraud that may put the
contractor in jail?

------
some_account
I would hire the guy if I needed something. I don't see why it matters if the
guy used to be a felon previously. Is he going to be violent over some
software specs? I very much doubt it.

~~~
milesdyson_phd
I wonder if one issue could be the company's fear that the public/clients/etc
might latch onto a very narrow context of this gentleman's history like: "x
employs sex offenders." It's not fair but when you have other candidates that
don't have this stigma why would they even try?

~~~
Nelson69
I had a client get quite uppity because we bought their domain name through
GoDaddy (i had a guy that went with one of the cheapest, spent their money
like it was our own.. etc.) and GoDaddy had just presented risque ad during
the Super Bowl. They weren't particularly upset about GoDaddy itself so much
as what if someone found out they patronized them. For that particular
business, I'd swag a guess that the extra price in switching to Network
Solutions plus our time in undoing the damage and "returning" the domain to Go
Daddy will be less than what they'd make from the customers they will have had
lost that simply will not patronize companies that buy domains from GoDaddy. I
don't know. I don't think most users click on the pad lock, let alone explore
the certificate chain, let alone do a lot of advanced whois stuff.

I think this poor guy is going to have a rough go of it. Maybe a contracting
firm can help provide some insulation. I'll also admit, hearing that it's a
bit of a sex crime involving youths (highschoolers are still 'youth') combined
with the heightened awareness in the currently climate about sexual harassment
and such, it seems a bit scary to take a risk on someone like this. I'd think
contracting off site might be the way to go.

------
jiveturkey
i think the site as it is now, is fantastic. actually it’s a refreshingly
honest presentation. i think you might actually be undercharging. value is
perceived, not absolute.

good luck.

------
throwaway42018
Contracting is probably the best bet for short-term cash. Lower risk and less
reason to check background.

If you get contacts from this post but they are hesitant, consider offering to
set up an LLC in your wife’s name (assuming the cost in Illinois is not
prohibitive). There are probably a few startups or smaller businesses willing
to give you a shot given your experience, but given the history they might
need the plausible deniability of an abstraction layer.

------
epylar
Given "everyone I know agrees I'm a different person now," it is important to
know when the felony was in relation to the 10 years of experience.

~~~
FelonForHire
It happened 2 years ago.

~~~
epylar
Well, it seems unlikely that you forgot your professional skills in that
time.. good luck!

------
revnja
Damn. I hope someone can give this dude a second chance.

~~~
sontek
He had a second chance. He did it once and got a misdemeanor and was able to
move on with his life. The problem is he decided to do it _AGAIN_.

Maybe there is an argument for a third chance? But a repeat offender is a
repeat offender.

------
subsubsub
I find the complete lack of scepticism here to be pretty problematic.

reformedfelonforhire.com links to someone's portfolio website.

What evidence is there that these two websites are owned or run by the same
person?

The whois both have privacy settings from different companies.

They may be the same person, but surely it's not beyond the realm of
possibility that this is someone trying to hurt the reputation of a different
person.

~~~
BryantD
Google the owner of the portfolio website. There are news stories about the
crime with his name on them.

~~~
subsubsub
whois before google! what is wrong with me.

------
sireat
One tiny practical suggestion:

Add some basic CSS to the site such as lightly shaded boxes for paragraphs.

The stark red and black styling defaults on chrome leave an unsettling
impression.

As others have commented, your best practical course would be becoming an
independent contractor and providing your services remotely.

If you provide your services as SD Consulting LLC it should open a few more
doors.

------
glangdale
To me the site doesn't work very well, as it mentions _two_ offenses and
describes one. It seems evasive; people aren't specifically interested only
the crime got you the mandatory felony conviction. It would work better if
there is full disclosure as people are going to want to Google you and they're
going to find it anyhow.

~~~
_sdegutis
Sorry, it was worded differently at first and a commenter here (a writer)
suggested some edits and I made the changes, but I guess there's been some
confusion since then. They were two identical crimes, but they happened about
5 years apart.

------
HackerThrow1337
That really sucks that you are having so much trouble! I technically have a
felony non-violent drug possession charge on my record, but it hasn't caused
me any problems since I switched to software from another field.I even got an
entry-level position this year.

I was never convicted (No Contest or something similar), am having to go
through unsupervised probation (basically I am in big trouble if arrested
again but am not bothered at all by probation), and then after another year,
it will be cleared from my record.

I don't think I was ever asked to disclose any crimes in any of the
applications. Out of a few hundred applications, maybe 5 even mentioned the
position was pending passing a background check. I did not disclose this for
any job that I applied for, because I did not think it would be found on my
record currently, but I now know that I was wrong. Airbnb banned me from their
service for my one drug possession charge after redoing my background check
(Such utter bullshit, their statement of purpose claims it is at their
discretion if they think the crime was bad enough to ban from the service. It
was simple nonviolent possession and I don't understand how having that on my
record from almost 3 years ago is going to make having me as a guest any more
dangerous).

There were two jobs that I thought for sure I had gotten, but did not receive
an offer. One didn't write me back for a month before I finally got the
information that I wasn't hired out of them. They didn't inform me of any
background checks, but they may have completed one anyways. It definitely
seemed like their attitude changed completely a week after my onsite.

My current employer did not complete a background check, at least to my
knowledge. I am at an extremely small startup. Hopefully nothing ever comes
back to byte me in the ass. Obviously nonviolent drug possession should be
lowest priority for all offenses that show up (it really shouldn't be a felony
to simply possess any drug).

I actually got really sick and didn't know why, couldn't get much help from
doctors when I started using opioids to combat the multitude of symptoms. I
got caught with an opioid, was never one to get super fucked up in a
recreational manner. Instead, I was always trying to simply feel normal enough
to make it through my grad school classes. Anyways, found out later I
basically have fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue, and I am having better control of
my symptoms with medical marijuana and legally prescribed adderal.

~~~
magic_beans
Now THIS is a felony that is 100% forgivable. You really, truly did nothing
wrong and I hope all is going well for you.

OP on the other hand...

~~~
Rjevski
From what I understand reading this thread, OP has a record for showing his
junk in public... now I’m not saying it’s okay to be doing this, but it’s not
like he actually assaulted or raped anyone either. I’ve seen unsolicited junk
before (both male and female), and I’m still here and it hasn’t affected my
life in any way; I just laughed it off and forgot about it 5 minutes later. I
really don’t think this “crime” warrants a lifelong record, unless the offence
was repeated multiple times.

~~~
jamesbrink
You have to remember this was a crime where the victim was a child. Adults,
especially men will have a much different perspective on this. If someone did
this to my teenage daughter you better believe I won't be so passive about it.

~~~
Rjevski
How old were those children ? There is a difference between a 5 year-old
_child_ and a 16 year old “child”.

~~~
jamesbrink
If you want to walk that line ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

------
RafiqM
Have you considered applying for (remote) jobs outside of the US? At least in
Europe background checks are very unusual, although with a unique name maybe
even a simple Google search would "out" you :/

(I'm not saying you should be dishonest and lie about your conviction, but if
they don't ask then no harm no foul)

~~~
pliftkl
Independently of the background checks that European companies might not do,
any European government almost certainly knows that he's a felon and would bar
entry. That would preclude showing up for an in person interview or ever
showing up for a company event.

------
gtsteve
OP, perhaps you might consider TopTal or similar? I have never worked for them
but I hired a few of their guys for several momnths who were very good and
they seemed to enjoy it. You might be barred from some kinds of projects but
I'd give it a shot regardless.

~~~
_sdegutis
Thanks. I applied at TopTal about 9 months ago or so, but did not pass their
algorithm-heavy coding test. That said, I've passed every other algorithm test
and coding test I've been given by other companies. But TopTal has the hardest
one by far considering I never went to college for coding and university-style
algorithms are not my strong suit.

------
_o_
Why don't you just write you are js developer? Like jsforhire.com? It directly
suggests you are a felon to the computer science. :D But joke aside, as far as
I am conserned, I wouldn't care what you have done (except js... :D).

------
oceanghost
None of this information makes sense. How did the gentlemen in question come
by roughly 30,000 ink cartridges, or induce people to turn them in, in his
name?

I'm guessing that's the fraud bit.

------
XR0CSWV3h3kZWg
Sounds like this a perfect situation to try and talk to a recruiting firm.

------
jakobegger
I can’t believe so many companies make background checks. Is that a US thing?
I don’t think companies in Europe do that (or do they?).

~~~
stordoff
In the UK, employers are limited to what they can ask about based on the
position and the length of conviction. I've posted about this before
recently[1], so won't repeat myself here, but basically an employer will not
know about short (<4 year) convictions (and you aren't required to tell them
about them) unless they are recent or relevant to the job (e.g. working with
children/vulnerable people).

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16637419](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16637419)

------
anonlastname
My man you can't be flashing high schoolers

~~~
coding-saints
AMEN. I can only have so much sympathy here. You are flaunting this "offense"
like it's petty. If it were ANY OTHER crime catagory, I might not even bat an
eye.... but when people go out exposing themselves to kids, it makes me wonder
what they haven't been caught for. I think you need to remove your post, be
happy if you get work, and don't use the community for an issue that is so
personal.

~~~
imustadmit
> _but when people go out exposing themselves to kids_

Come on, it's not like he was waving his todger at five year olds. Seeing a
spot of unexpected nudity at 17 years old is not a big deal.

------
theyinwhy
Why is the annual employment rate offered to him so high but rate per hour so
low? Is that the norm? What hourly rate do you get?

~~~
sincerely
Isn't 65/hour like 130,000$/year? That seems in-line with the salaried
positions

~~~
toomuchtodo
It's $124,800 assuming zero downtime and fully booked weeks all year, with no
PTO. Don't compare 1099 hourly to a W2 with benefits unless you've made a very
careful comparison of total comp.

~~~
cimmanom
How does that math work out? $65/hr = $130K/yr is using a pretty standard 2000
hrs/yr estimate.

52 wks/yr * 5 days/wk * 8hrs/day = 2080 hrs.

So the 2000hr ($130K) estimate assumes 2 full weeks PTO.

$124,800 works out to only 1920 hrs/yr, which is 48 weeks of 40hr/wk work.

ETA: but yes, once you take into account benefits, taxes, and other expenses,
one would want a significantly higher 1099 rate anyway.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I wasn’t aware of the 2000 hours a year estimate. TIL!

------
lgregg
I'd suggest changing the narrative. I've read through several of the comments
already.

I agree I think your biggest con (pun not intended) to an employer is the
risk/breach of public trust of your prior convictions. However, I think that
your messaging can be reframed pretty easily.

I would separate your backstory from your pitch on your landing page. I know
you're in a tough spot, but waving a flag of desperation is not your best move
right now.

This is how I'd reorganize your pitch if I was in your situation:

[Current Summary, with portfolio link]

[What you offer, with links to portfolio projects and articles where you know
a lot about a certain technology]

[Stub of your backstory with a link to another page (see below)]

[You can see my letters of recommendation from... (this is very important)]

[Due to my current circumstances, I'm offering my services below market rate
of $25 per hour as I get on my feet.]

[Call to Action, to view portfolio or contact you.]

This is how I'd organize your backstory page:

[I was convicted for...]

[I learned and reformed in jail by x,y,z, give a glimps]

[Now that I'm out, I've done X, Y, and Z but my prior criminal history has
made it very difficult to find employment. These people vouch for me, (letters
of recommendation)]

[I'm currently at the end of my financial means as a family man with 5 kids...
(I'd avoid mentioning unemployment directly, I'd say all government services
available to me or something like that.)]

I'd say out of all of this, you should not position yourself as a victim or
desperate. We, as humans, aren't inclined to that -- especially in hiring
situations. u/jeffmould mentioned the Federal Bonding Program; I really think
you should try to get that. I looked at their site and it seems promising. I'd
remove the highly competitive rates, they mean nothing if you can't secure
them. Your problem right now is potential employers likely don't trust you.

However, honestly. I'd make your reformed URL the about page and make your
portfolio the pitch. I wouldn't worry about anonymity because: 1) it's already
out there in the newspapers; 2) background checks will happen and you're
wanting to get in front of this issue, not hide.

Ideally, you want to create a landing page that people can share.

Lastly, I know you can't move but if ever can or reach the need. I'd check out
[https://defyventures.org/](https://defyventures.org/). Also, most churches
have "compassion", "care", or "mercy" ministries run by volunteers or the
church deacons that help people in need. It might be worth a shot.

------
anonlastname
Something is missing here: his name

~~~
danShumway
As is yours. It's entirely rational and reasonable for OP to stay anonymous
here.

You cannot reasonably expect people to be vulnerable in situations where it is
obvious they will face discrimination and attacks. OP does not have a moral
duty to give others an extra opportunity to hurt them.

------
twayComment
Tough situation and it’s clear you’re desperate. If you want some honest
feedback, your pitch conveys that you do not understand the magnitude of your
crime and how it is perceived by others. Perhaps you can ask your therapist
about this. For instance, I had to post this from a throwaway over concern
about your mental state. Best of luck.

~~~
jamesbrink
This is someone who is owning their shit, and you chime in anonymously like
this. seriously?

