Criminal record: your career can get past a record

Certain things can impede a woman who’s trying to enter the workforce, though. For instance, maybe you’re trying to enter a field that’s still very much male-dominated. There’s one other thing that can put a damper on aspirations in a professional setting, and that is a criminal record. There are a few things you’ll need to consider as you try to move past that and into a better life phase.

How your career can overcome a criminal record

It’s Always Better to Be Honest

A criminal conviction’s potential consequences are not something you can take lightly. As a woman, you might still potentially face resistance if you want to hold a highly-regarded professional position. The stigma of women having power can be a potential roadblock, and you can just imagine how much more trouble a criminal past can cause.

Because of this, you might feel a strong urge to lie when the time comes in the interview process to talk about your history. You don’t have to check a box next to “former criminal” when you’re putting together your resume, but you know that most companies will perform a background check.

Even if you don’t mention your criminal record right off the bat, if the company that’s checking up on you does their due diligence, they’re likely to find out about it. Any criminal record becomes part of the public record unless you manage to have the courts expunge the crime entirely.

If a company to which you’re applying does not have any question on the application about past criminal record, you don’t have to mention it. If you advance to the interview stage, there’s no logical reason for you to say anything about it then, either.

However, if the hiring manager or whoever you’re dealing with asks you point-blank about whether you have a criminal record, it’s always best to be upfront about it. You might mention any mitigating circumstances that led to what you did if you think that will help your cause. You can also tell the individual with whom you’re interviewing that you have changed and turned your life around.

Much Depends on the Conviction’s Nature

You should also know that few companies will automatically disqualify someone from attaining a position if they have one legal blemish in their past. It’s really going to depend on a couple of factors, though: how many criminal convictions you have had, and for what crimes.

A company is probably not going to prevent a woman who got busted smoking pot as a teenager from working there unless they are incredibly conservative. If you got a public lewdness conviction because the police caught you and a boyfriend getting intimate in the back of your car somewhere, that’s also probably not the worst thing in the world in their eyes.

If you did something more serious, though, that might be the red flag that keeps a business from hiring you. If you did ten years for armed robbery, that’s likely not going to go over so well. Most companies are going to look at something like manslaughter or child endangerment as being a lot more serious than some youthful indiscretion.

You also might have a tough time getting a company to hire you if you have several criminal convictions rather than just one. Anyone can make a mistake, especially when you’re younger. If you have several criminal convictions, that indicates a pattern. Also, some companies will look more harshly on you if you were older when you committed the crime. When you reach a certain age, most people feel like you should know better than to break the law.

Some Ways Around These Past Convictions

The woman who needs to join the working world has to make her money somehow, criminal background or no. If you have several past convictions or one for a more severe crime, you’ll need to figure out a way around that.

If you spent time in jail, programs often exist to help you when you rejoin the outside world. These programs specifically work with companies that want to help ex-convicts rehabilitate themselves. You might have limited job options if you go through such a program, but with a severe criminal conviction behind you, that’s going to be the case regardless.

You can talk to any relatives or friends who might be in a position to find work for you. Maybe you know someone who runs their own company, and they have a spot that seems suitable. They also might be able to put in a good word for you somewhere they already work.

It can be tricky getting past your criminal history, but keep one thing in mind. If you genuinely feel like you want to turn over a new leaf, you can almost always do it. You’ll need resilience if you’re going to persevere and move forward, starting a new chapter that has nothing to do with the person who you once were.

Try not to let the naysayers frustrate you. If you listen to the doubters, you might fall back into the behavior pattern that led to you making the mistakes you did. There’s nothing that says you can’t have a second act. Surround yourself with positive individuals who won’t lead you down the wrong path, and put your past firmly in the rearview.

Repairing damage to your online reputation

Most people today also have an online presence, be it a personal blog or webpage, social media activity or appearing online through a third-party post. Sometimes the online conviction information is detrimental to one’s personal and professional career. That’s where an online reputation manager comes in.

A reputation manager knows the tricks of the trade that allow you to recoup your good name and prevent people from seeing disadvantageous information online.

A reputation management company’s customers can range from Fortune 500 companies to small business owners to private citizens. The goal of the company is to give these individuals maximum control over what appears online. This can include information that they don’t want seen about their medical past or personal difficulties as well as information that they do want to share about their professional history or community involvement.

If negative information about you is shared or information that’s true but is old and doesn’t represent your new life, you don’t want the world accessing that data. Maybe there’s something online about an arrest or that you were fired.  These pieces of information can  damage your relationships, your career and your future. That’s where a reputation manager comes in. The manager scours the Internet to ensure that the information that people see gives you the best chance to move forward with your life.

This can be useful to remove online mug shots or other embarrassing arrest or conviction (such as from news reports) images (or at least push them down in the search results so that they’re almost invisible). Protecting your information online is important for your work and personal life. You might find that an ex has posted harmful information about your likes or dislikes or a friend is telling the world about your mobile casino activities — even if you use a secure live site like Ninja Casino. On a business level, online reviews can make or break a business, regardless of whether they’re true.