Having a Criminal Record and looking for a job.

[AAAgent]

Well i started working at a really big financial company as a temp. There is an opportunity to go full time but i truthfully don't know if i'll get the position. I have language skills and am a hard worker. I always show up to work an hour early and am one of the more productive of the temps.

April 8th is my trial and by then i will either be convicted of aggravated assault, misdemeanor, or get off completely. From what my lawyer told me he said about 60% misdemeanor, 25% felony, 15% get off scott free.

before i took the temp position i was offered a full time position as an accountant. They saw that i had a trial pending but they still liked me and hired me. I've been applying to a lot of places lately internally within the company and externally before my trial goes down so i can atleast get the interview. I feel like i won't be getting interviews when i have to check "Yes, i have been convicted of a felony." But even if i get an interview, i don't think i'll get the offer once they screen my background.

Kind of really discourages me.

My resume also really started improving lately. I was a finalist in a business concept competition i entered and this new position makes my resume look a lot better.

Any opinions?

 

[backbreaker]

1. you haven't been convicted of anythnig yet

2. do everything in your power to get it knocked down to a misdemeanor

3. stop applying until you know your future.

 

[CaptainJ]

You should come to England. My friend got bottled for no reason and even though the guy confessed to doing it, he got away scott free. Maybe the justice system will look kindly on your case.

 

[r0cky]

You should come to England. My friend got bottled for no reason and even though the guy confessed to doing it, he got away scott free. Maybe the justice system will look kindly on your case.

Lol. Sorry, but thats the dumbest piece of advice I've ever heard.

 

[AAAgent]

1. you haven't been convicted of anythnig yet

2. do everything in your power to get it knocked down to a misdemeanor

3. stop applying until you know your future.

care to explain why applying now would be worse than applying later?

I thought that since i wasn't convicted of anything now it would be easier applying and getting interviews. Even if i get a misdemeanor it will still be something on my record and i am still convicted of a crime. If my chances are about 85% record i might as well start applying before i get the record and find a good way of explaining myself.

 

[CaptainJ]

Lol. Sorry, but thats the dumbest piece of advice I've ever heard.

No sh1t Captain obvious.

 

[AAAgent]

wow i think i just got fired from my current temp job for my pending charges.....They did a background check on me before i got hired as well as had me fill out forms saying if i have been convicted of anything yet or not which i said no. Today i get pulled in by HR asking me to explain my situation which i did. Then they told me to go home (they went to my desk and grabbed my stuff) and took my badge.


"Someone from the agency will contact you this weekend letting you know if you can come back or not."

Thought that was ridiculous because i assume when i got hired they would have done the check already, and the reason that i did get hired was because they don't really include pending charges.

caught me really unexpected.

 

[Reyaj]

dude give us the juicy details of what happend with the assault!

 

[Ease]

Well how did your trial go?

 

[spider_007]

U.S. B.S.

Stupidest ****ed up system ever.... eg: A guy gets out of jail but can't get a job because of jail. WTF is he supposed to do - go back to crime????


Sorry dude you have to deal with this....one reason I’m glad I live in Canada.

 

[Wiesman44]

How did u end up picking up a possible aggravated assault charge anyway ? What are the details so those of us can learn from it ?

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

U.S. B.S.

Stupidest ****ed up system ever.... eg: A guy gets out of jail but can't get a job because of jail. WTF is he supposed to do - go back to crime????


Sorry dude you have to deal with this....one reason I’m glad I live in Canada.

What's the lesson to learn for from this?
DON'T COMMIT CRIMES.

I'm sorry, but if I have the option between hiring someone who has not committed crimes and someone who has, I will pick the person who has not committed crimes.

Why take a chance on someone with a criminal history?


I understand that people make mistakes and people can change but why take the chance when there will always be somebody available who doesn't have a record.

It's a sucky situation for AAAgent and chances are he would have been a great asset to the company. But look at if from the company's point of view.


Of course his case is a little different because he hasn't been convicted of anythings. So the company is actually kind of f'd up.

 

[kingsam]

so are you guilty or not?

 

[AAAgent]

really weird why the company decided to screen my background AGAIN..I've been working at the company almost 3 months now. My co-workers kept telling me it was probably because they were looking to bring me on fulltime but i'm not sure that's the case.


The charges are for something stupid. I went to drop my friend off after he visited me while i was bartending at work. it was around 4 am and i get outside his place and this drunk belligerent dumbass walks up to my car asking for a ride. I say no. he basically doesn't take no for an answer. I try talking to him in the most civil manner but he tells me he wants to fight. I tell him i don't want to fight blah blah. 15 minutes of trying to talk this guy down and he starts choking my friend who is like a midget compared to the drunk fvcker.

I separate them and tell him again we don't want anything and theres no reason for violence. Lets just part ways and go home. He refuses and says this situation is between him and my small friend. I tell him there is no situation and if there is..it isn't between us so lets just part ways and go home. He refuses and after about another 3 minutes and starts to choke my friend again. This time is seemed life threatening.

i beat the **** out of the guy and sent him to the hospital and left. What i didn't know was when i was hitting the guy on the floor after i brought him down.....my friend pulled something from my car and was beating his legs behind my back.(i was standing over the guy hitting him so i couldn't see.) There was also a witness on the scene that only came in after about 14 minutes of our talking so he missed the first choking and me trying to talk him down. I found out about the weapon after later and i'm being charged for aggravated assualt, possesion of instrument in crime. blah blah blah for defending myself and my friend. They only identified me because of my car and my friend will get off scott free even though i defended him and he was the one that used the weapon which wasn't necessary.

My lawyer said if you get the better of the fight u are automatically the one to blame doesn't matter if they started it.

I explained the whole story to HR saying i just defending my friend and that we tried all options exhausting every one of them. We tried to just leave the guy didn't let us. We tried being nice and cooperating civilly and talking it out but he didn't want to. Even after he attacked us we still told him we didn't want to fight. i tried telling my friend to just run into the building he just stood infront of him. We were given no option, either defend ourselves or face serious injury.

This guy was huge too. I had to make sure he couldn't get up because if he didn't both of us would probably be in the hospital if he landed just one punch.

HR/my agency still hasn't contacted me back yet. I'm going to assume i'm fired because i really don't see why they'd bring me back. I'm a temp which means im disposable, i'm not an asset to them yet, this situation makes me a liability to the company, it'd be awkward for my manager to see me again after taking me to that HR meeting and acting like he had no clue what was going on, plus rumors will probably spread.

But most the people at work like me and consider me pretty funny/nice plus i work hard and enjoy working hard. I always come in early and don't mind leaving late. I get paid hourly as a temp and all the extra hours i stay i don't get paid for. I don't know if anyone notices these things but i do it for myself to learn more anyway.

What sucks even more is i recently started working on a product i developed and i brought a full time employee on to work with me on it. I'm almost sure the company will approve it once we present it to them but i'm about to be fired. I briefly talked to my manager about the product i was working on and he said it sounded like a great idea if i could prove the feasiblity of it which i confirmed last week was possible.
any thoughts?

 

[AAAgent]

some things to always keep in mind when fighting by my lawyer and some friends that have been through these cases in the past:

Never hit above the waist with a weapon.

If you can get away after 1-2 punches do so.(I.E. one hit knocks him down...just leave)

If you're going to fvck someone up...make fvkcing god damn sure there are no witnesses. Don't beat someone up in public.

don't beat them up as bad as i did. Apparently the hardest about my case is...sure it was self defense, but did i push it beyond that barrier.

Don't bring a weapon in unless your life depends on it because it will make things so much more complicated.

If you're a martial artist or have a few years under your belt...the court will take that into consideration against you.

 

[Amazing]

some things to always keep in mind when fighting by my lawyer and some friends that have been through these cases in the past:

Never hit above the waist with a weapon.

If you can get away after 1-2 punches do so.(I.E. one hit knocks him down...just leave)

If you're going to fvck someone up...make fvkcing god damn sure there are no witnesses. Don't beat someone up in public.

don't beat them up as bad as i did. Apparently the hardest about my case is...sure it was self defense, but did i push it beyond that barrier.

Don't bring a weapon in unless your life depends on it because it will make things so much more complicated.

If you're a martial artist or have a few years under your belt...the court will take that into consideration against you.

Good stuff. self defense only goes as far as making sure you can escape. anything beyond that is on you. It is really stupid sometimes.

How can they prove if you are in martial arts? say no in court, they say "well it states you were black belt" and you answer: "yeah, but I didn't learn anything, they just made me pay for it" .. and voila

 

[AAAgent]

well they will probably ask you if you've had any special martial arts training and your obligated to tell the truth. If you lie and get caught it will reflect really bad in court.

I just got my job back. my boss said it was good and said he didn't understand what HR wanted with me but he was glad i was back. He didn't mention this situation to anyone.

i really didn't see a reason in them bringing me back since i'm considered a liability at this point but maybe they gave me the benefit of the doubt.

 

[iqqi]

Congratulations. After reading what really happened, and how well you seem to integrate into the company, it would have been an injustice to see you fired. So yay. A rare happy ending.

 

[Trader]

You must remember that financial firms are very tentative about hiring people with a criminal record, much more so than other industries.

You are dealing with money here; the entire financial system is based on trust. If you have no trust, then financial transactions cannot be completed.

Consider yourself lucky you got another chance - count your blessings and be more cautious next time.

 

[AAAgent]

i thought they were more tentative about criminal records that have to deal with stealing, etc. Well a record is a record nonetheless.