
Seeking Advice for a Career Change (31 Y/o) - stealthology
I&#x27;m not in the greatest situation in life, and I&#x27;m looking to get some advice&#x2F;ideas from you all. Thanks.<p>Right now I&#x27;m 31. Growing up in school, I was quite intrigued by the Internet and specifically with creating websites and figuring out ways to make money. With a bit of luck, these efforts culminated in creating an e-commerce website which my business partner and I sold about 7 years ago for a healthy sum. Keep in mind I&#x27;m not a developer, we had a full-time developer. For several years after that, I tried to start a web design company with another partner, which we eventually abandoned. For the last 4 years or so, I&#x27;ve been trading short term in the financial markets. I got a little overconfident and made some riskier bets which didn&#x27;t turn out too well. I did manage to get a B.S. in Business IT from a USNews top 75 school.<p>My criminal history is probably going to be the biggest impediment here if I&#x27;m going to be looking for employment. When I was 19, I was convicted of felony eluding police. It was just a split second, bone-headed decision I made for absolutely no reason. Non-violent, no injuries, no drugs involved, and I got a jail sentence of about a week. I also have 2 DUI&#x27;s, the last one almost 5 yrs ago.<p>I was pleased to find out recently that ~10 states have adopted a law where co&#x27;s can&#x27;t go back further than 7 years on a BG check (including CA &amp; WA). My felony will be hidden but my 2 DUI&#x27;s are still barely within 7 years. I also discovered that ~10 states now have &#x27;ban the box&#x27; law prohibiting employers from asking any  criminal history Q&#x27;s until after an interview (includes CA &amp; WA).<p>I&#x27;m brainstorming now what I can do. As I said I&#x27;ve never been a developer. I remember being in middle school and buying lots of development books but never being able to plow through. My specialty back when we had our business was SEO&#x2F;online marketing, but it&#x27;s been several yrs since I&#x27;ve been involved with that.
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kjksf
Giving life advice is hard.

That being said, full time employment is not the only way to make money as a
programmer.

For example, if you freelance via website like upwork.com, your criminal
history is probably irrelevant.

I imagine the same applies if you do consulting/freelancing in person.
Companies probably don't do background checks on those.

Another option is to start your own business, like you did in the past.

If you want to learn to program, you can start by taking free udacity courses
or complete some of their paid nanodegrees.

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PaulHoule
Some employers do background checks, others do not. Of those that do, being
straight about your record is the best policy and some will be understanding.

