Advice for felons seeking employment!!!

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by sexystuff911, Mar 28, 2013.

  1. sexystuff911

    sexystuff911 Light Load Member

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    I'm sorry, but I don't have advice on companies that will hire you. However, may I suggest a book that may make your search a little easier? The book is From Jail to a Job, by Eric Mayo.

    Eric Mayo is a well-known authority on barriers to employment for ex-offenders. His book is an easy read that provides a strep-by-step guide to applications, resumes, and job interviews.
    He teaches you how to best present yourself and your qualifications to hiring managers. He specifically addresses how to answer questions about your past incarceration on applications and during the interview. Most importantly, he provides "scripts" for you to follow at every stage of your job search.

    The book is available at most one-stop career centers, libraries, and for purchase at Amazon.com. It retails for somewhere around $10.00. The book is not specific to any industry, and the advice the author gives will be equally beneficial to white collar office workers, sale people, truck drivers or those seeking warehouse work.

    I hope this helps at least one or two people who are seeking to turn their life around become gainfully employed.
     
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  3. bigdogpile

    bigdogpile Road Train Member

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    I say just lie about any arrests/ convictions and when/ if you get caught just lie again and say its not you,its someone else with the same name,what do you have to lose? Something you dont already have.Get a job at ALL costs..Most truck companys are ran by crooks anyway they are very good at stealing from the drivers, whats at little turn around to eat anyway gonna hurt?
     
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  4. sherlock510

    sherlock510 Road Train Member

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    Hope that was sarcasm....

    Dishonesty probably got them in the position they're in, in the first place smh.
     
  5. I50

    I50 Light Load Member

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    You see that? Trucking companies will hire all sorts of people. They just relate to their own kind better.
     
  6. WV_Daddys_Girl

    WV_Daddys_Girl <b>Crusty Ole' Wifey</b>

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    Just because someone has a felony on their record and/or has spent time in jail doesn't necessarily mean they are a piece of garbage. People do make mistakes - some learn from those mistakes and move forward in their lives and become a beneficial member of society, and others continue their bad ways.

    Just my 2 cents....
     
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  7. truckon

    truckon Swamp Thing

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    Yup, I think they proved that when they hired you....
     
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  8. ethos

    ethos Road Train Member

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    SMACK!!!!!!
     
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  9. sexystuff911

    sexystuff911 Light Load Member

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    Obtaining a job through deception about their background isn't accomplishing anything. Sure, they may get the job, but they had to act like a criminal to get it!

    Imagine you are the parolee who was recently released from prison... Your crimes started as a juvenile, so by the time you got sent to the penitentiary, your rap sheet was pretty extensive. Now, you've sat in a cage for five or more years, Your days were filled with fear. Your nights were filled with memories.

    You remember your mom's weeps and sobs on the day you were convicted. You remember your father, ghost white, but stoic, trying to console your mother as they led you away in chains. You ache take it all back... you were just a kid trying to grow up too fast and be a man.

    You wish you had had a chance to tell your dad that you weren't lying when you told him about that after-school job at McDonalds. You really did have that job... for a week... until they caught you slipping the happy meals your parents couldn't afford out the back door to the delight of your little brother and sisters.

    And you were looking for a new place to work when you met those guys on the corner.. the ones with the fancy shoes and fast cars who gave you the money to pay for the pilfered happy meals when you told them your story. You tried to give the store manager the money, but he threw you out on your arse and said he would never accept anything from a no-good, thieving kid.

    You've wanted to tell your father how things catapulted out of control, that you were scared and didn't know what to do, and that you are sorry. But you can't tell your father anything because he's dead. He died of a massive heart attack three months into your sentence. The stress of your trial killed him.

    Now, you are home. You've spent five long years planning how you are going to change your life for the better. You're the man of the house now. You owe this to your mother. Your father is gone. You are going to get a job, take night classes to obtain a G.E.D., volunteer, and be a mentor to kids in the neighborhood.

    Your first stop was to the McDonalds where you got your first job. You want to tell the store manager, in person, how sorry you are and ask if he got your letters. You've saved the .08 cents an hour you earned making license plates and working in the prison industry factory to reimburse him for the happy meals. You will never forget the shock on that correctional officer's face the day you asked him to show you how to calculate 8 years interest earned on 37 happy meals that were priced $1.29 each!

    The store manager called the police on you the moment you walk into the store. You never got a chance to say you were sorry or offer him the money because he was too busy screaming at a 911 dispatcher that you had come to rob him. When the police arrived, they threw you down in the parking lot like a common ?"criminal"? Through the tears in your eyes, you see your youngest brother and sister huddled on the sidewalk, scared and holding hands. You had brought them along to show them how "real men" aren't afraid to apologize for their wrongs and ask forgiveness.

    Your parole officer meets you at the police station. He isn't listening to a word you say. He's too busy screaming that he should throw you back in prison for threatening that poor old man that manages the McDonalds. You give the money you saved to reimburse the McDonalds manager for the happy meals, plus interest, to your parole officer and ask if he can forward it on your behalf? He softens a little bit, and then informs you that you can't go back home.

    After your father passed, your mother wasn't able to pay the rent. She signed up for section eight housing, and HUD has policies that forbid felons from living on the premises. The property manager had seen you and reported your mother to the authorities. Your mother will be evicted if you are seen on the property again.

    You wander to the YMCA where you planned to volunteer, but instead you are a resident. You ask if, while you are there, you can become a mentor in the Big Brother program. Appalled, the social worker says they don't allow ex-convicts around the children. The next day, you find out the G.E.D. program is free, but the books cost money. Grant money is restricted to "regular" people. Felons cannot apply for assistance.

    The next day you wander from fast food joint to fast food joint filing out applications. You are promptly shown the door each time the hiring manager learns of your status as an ex-offender. Broke, and broken, you eventually find yourself at the graveyard. The sun sets as your crumple in a pool of tears on your father's tombstone. You are only 23 years old....

    What does our felon have to lose by lying about his background on a job application? How about his dignity and self-respect? Those are the only things he has left!

    Our felon has spent the past five years swearing to God and himself how he's going to change and make a better life for himself and the family he loves so much. Who are we, as a society, to say he's got to compromise his personal integrity in order to integrate back into society? Why should he need to lie again when his past lies have cost him everything he holds dear?

    Everyday, i read posts on this site, and others, from felons begging for employment. A common theme is "I don't care how much the job pays, I just want to work". What they are really saying is, "Please accept me back into society... let me tell you where I've been and show you what I can become if you just have a little faith". Requiring a felon to lie to get employment is denying him the recognition he deserves for turning his life around.

    I agree that people need to eat, but nourishment of the body at the expense of the soul is starvation.

    Please note: The felon in this story is completely hypothetical.
     
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  10. I50

    I50 Light Load Member

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    Your 2 cents is worth a lot more than that. It is just my observation that there are a lot of trucking companies out there that wish their drivers behaved like felons before they got caught. Their bottom line is FAR more important to them than moral behavior.
     
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  11. Hambone68

    Hambone68 Bobtail Member

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    You can also try getting your record cleared, I did & it only cost me $1100.00
    my advice is to never give up, be honest on your app, find a company that won't
    care about your conviction. Get your foot in the door. One company you can try
    is K&B Transportation in South Sioux city NE. Good luck.
     
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