You can't blame a company for doing background checks on potential employees. They are obligated to provide a safe environment for everyone who works there. But the intense scrutinizing many companies do these days can make it difficult for people with a less than stellar record.

Take the man from Illinois who wrote me saying he has been turned down by four companies that did a background check and discovered potentially damaging information about him.

"I made a huge professional and personal mistake a few months back," he writes. Facing bankruptcy, he stole cash from his employer--enough to cover his mortgage payment. He admitted what he had done, was terminated, arrested, charged with a misdemeanor and he says, "given 12 months' supervision and restitution. I am truly sorry for what I did. I want to put that behind me now."

In trying to find a new job, he says he doesn't lie to employers during the hiring process, but doesn't volunteer what happened, either.

"I was not convicted of a crime, nor have I committed a felony, which are questions on the applications. After 12 months, this will fall off my record," he says. "What can I do? I don't think being up front would help either."

Actually, that might be the best recourse.

"The fact that he was required to make restitution, is on 12 months' supervision and that the embezzlement is apparently showing up on background checks, strongly suggest he was convicted," says employment attorney, Paul Calico of Strauss & Troy in Cincinnati.

Although a less serious offense, a misdemeanor is classified as a crime in most jurisdictions, he says. The attorney who represented him on this charge can clarify this. This may determine whether he has to include information about the misdemeanor on employment applications that ask about prior criminal convictions.

It sounds as if this man's attempt to downplay his conduct is the new source of his problems. If his "employment applications suggest that he has a clean background, you can imagine the companies' reaction upon receipt of a background check showing that he embezzled money from a prior employer," says Calico.

So now you've got the employer possibly thinking that besides embezzlement, this person didn't learn his lesson and can't be trusted.

In a New York Times article about bosses recuperating after losing their jobs, Bruce C. Greenwald, a professor at the Columbia Business School said this about having a criminal record related to one's work: " 'What you have to sell is your talent and your presence"-and a company has to believe in it. He adds, "If they can't trust that presentation, you will have a tough time."

Whether the boss or not, if there's potentially damaging information in your background, it's likely prospective employers will find out. So Calico suggests you bring it up first.

This lets you explain the circumstances, pledge that it will never happen again and possibly convince the employer that you truly learned your lesson and deserve a second chance, he says.

Otherwise you're on the defensive, having to explain your way out of it when the bad news is discovered. But this may not be the end of the story. If you do get a new job and the company finds out later you were previously convicted of, for example, embezzlement, you could lose your job if you didn't disclose it on a job application asking about a prior criminal record, says Calico.

All of this is more reason to be up front from the start. You can't change the past, you can only try to influence how people see you now. You have more to gain by being sincere and open. And you won't constantly worry if you'll be found out.

© by Andrea Kay

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