WORKLOCAL.ORG
Community Jobs Initiative

By: Christopher Watts, MBA
Community & Career Builder

What do you remember from your last visit to McDonalds? Do you remember the food? Do you remember the service? McDonalds, a leader in the food service industry, is known for both those things and one more thing, it hires individuals with a criminal background. I bet this was the furthest thing from your mind during your last visit.  Despite hiring individuals with a criminal background, McDonalds has a thriving and a diverse customer base. I have never heard anyone say “McDonalds hires individuals with a criminal background so I will not eat at this business”. The reason why is because their focus is on a quality product and service. McDonalds seeks to hire a qualified staff to deliver services, criminal background or not.
I encounter job seekers daily who tell me that he/she cannot obtain employment because of his/her criminal background. My response is always the same, “How do you know?”  For a job seeker to be denied employment because of a criminal background means that the job seeker was interviewed and offered employment then the company conducted the background check and withdrew the offer. When I ask job seekers did this occur, I am usually told “no”. If you were never interviewed or offered the position, how do you know that you were ever seriously considered for the position? In some cases, a job seeker may be offered a position that is later rescinded after a background check is performed. However, most who I ask this question have only submitted an application and was never seriously considered for the position (determined by not being interviewed or offered the position). Those that made it to the interview stage and were offered a position only to have it withdrew have to keep in mind that a background check is not just a criminal background check but also employment verification, education verification, credit check (when legally permissible), and a reference check. So, misstated employment dates, unverifiable employment, bad credit, etc. can also cause a candidate to be denied employment.
Criminal background or not, you must meet the stated qualifications for the position as well as effectively interview with a hiring manager who selects you over other candidates. Hiring managers hire individuals who will be most successful in the position and add the most value to the team. If a hiring manager is looking for a truck driver and candidate A has a CDL, recent over-the-road experience, and a criminal background for drugs prior to him/her obtaining a CDL and experience whereas candidate B has a CDL but no experience, I think the hiring manager will go with candidate A. As consumers, we do not make decisions about where we will eat, shop, and lodge based upon if a company hires individuals with a criminal background or not. We look for the company who best delivers desired goods and services, not the best company who delivers goods and services as well as not hire individuals with a criminal background.
What I recommend to job seekers with a criminal background is to make sure you are qualified for the position, follow the application instructions, and take advantage of any opportunity to interview. No company will publicly state a preference to hire individuals with a criminal background just as no company will publicly state a preference to hire high school dropouts or parents behind in child support- you publicly state the good, not the  bad about employees. So, do not let rumors or anyone persuade you to not pursue an employment opportunity because they will not publicize hiring individuals with a criminal background. Your thinking should be “the company will not hire other candidates with a criminal background but the company will hire me.”
 

http://worklocal.org/index.php/resources/item/are_you_sure_your_criminal_background_is_stopping_you_from_getting_a_job

Christopher Watts, MBA
Community & Career Builder

While at work one day, I answered my office phone and was asked by a client “Does this company that you e-mailed me to apply hire individuals with criminal backgrounds?” My answer, to this client, was “this company has hired individuals with backgrounds in the past but that does not mean this company will hire you.”
Yes, some companies, regardless of the situation, circumstances, or length of time since occurrence, will not hire anyone who has any criminal conviction(s). Then, there are a lot of companies who will hire a person who has criminal conviction(s). In some cases, companies will consider what the conviction was for, how long it has been since the conviction, and what the applicant has done before and after the conviction(s) (education, training, experience, etc.). I recommend that jobseekers become knowledgeable and research the company’s policy prior to applying.
In order to not publicize or tell any company’s hiring policy towards individuals with criminal backgrounds, I would rather focus on industries. When thinking of the industries that traditionally and openly hire individuals with criminal backgrounds (manufacturing, food service, transportation- to name a few), I do not see industries that look to hire individuals with a criminal background because of the industry’s tolerance of this type of population but an industry that understands the importance of human capital, evaluates talent well, and seeks to hire the best candidates for the job, background or no background, to achieve its goals of goodwill and profitability. When thinking of the industries that traditionally and openly exclude individuals with criminal backgrounds (banking, real estate- to name a few), I see industries where internal employee theft accounts for a huge percentage of loss, where corporate scandal is visible, and where a lot of businesses lose money, goes out of business, and usually have top executives indicted on white collar crimes. Personally, I recommend that an individual with a criminal background stay away from industries like this, to reduce recidivism, decrease disappointment, and increase the likelihood of gaining employment.
For the industries that traditionally and openly hire individuals with criminal backgrounds, they are profitable and growing for reasons, mainly because they are driven by a highly talented workforce. These highly talented workforces consist of individuals with various and polished skills sets and functional capabilities collaborating effectively to deliver exceptional products and services. Included in these talented workforces are individuals with backgrounds. However, to the industry that hired this person, they were not just “another applicant with a criminal background” but rather “an exceptional candidate who’s attributes keep driving profits and growth.” These exceptional candidates presented themselves in a way that their knowledge, skills, and abilities exceeded what they did in the past and made their criminal background invisible or a second thought.
If you are having a hard time finding a job, and you have a criminal background, you need to figure out how to overcome this barrier. Most if not all job seekers have some barriers to employment, which include but are not limited to not having the minimum required education, not having any work experience, not having reliable transportation, and/or not having adequate childcare. However, a determined and ambitious job seeker will figure out a way to overcome any barrier to employment or will just continue to sit on the side line, wondering why someone else was hired for the job.

If you have more criminal convictions than skills, have spent more time in prison than on the job, and/or only have job experience that was gained in prison- you will have the hardest time overcoming the barrier, which means you will have to work harder and dedicate more time to getting ahead. When deciding on a career to pursue, and considering your criminal background, you should try to be reasonable and realistic. Nothing is impossible but a lot of things are highly unlikely. If you have a conviction(s) for driving under the influence (DUI) or vehicular manslaughter, the likeliness of you obtaining a position as a Driver are slim to none. If you have a conviction(s) for retail theft or robbery, the likeliness of you obtaining a position at a bank or clothing store is slim to none. If you have a conviction(s) for possession of a controlled substance (PCS) or any drug offense, the likeliness of you obtaining a position at a pharmacy or pharmaceutical company is slim to none.
To be seen as an “an exceptional candidate who’s attributes keep driving profits and growth” rather than “another applicant with a criminal background”; a jobseeker must have a defined skill set and be well presented. By defined skill set, I mean a combination of hard and soft skills that mesh well together that can be supported by previous employment and/or education. If you are recently released from prison or have had a hard time finding a job since your release, it is important to you to get into a job training program or school that will result in a specific skill that the job market demands. Throughout Cook County, there are countless schools and organizations that offer training programs that will cost participants no money and result in a certificate (to support your defined skill set that you present to a potential employer) including but not limited to manufacturing, transportation, computers, administrative support, and welding. By presented well, I mean dressed appropriately, hair is neat, face is shaved, and attitude is correct. Throughout Cook County, there are countless organizations will provided professional clothing, hygiene kits, haircuts, and communications classes for FREE.
While you’re not working, working part-time, or unhappily employed, this is the best time to get into a training program and improve your brand so the next employment opportunity does not pass you by. You will be able to say to an employer “Yes, I have a criminal background, I made a mistake. Since my conviction(s), I have become a better person by having a closer relationship with my family and religion. I do not hang in the same areas and do the same things that I used to. I also went to XYZ training program and learned how to ……. I am a completely different person with an entirely different attitude about life. With all of this, I bring to the table a keen ability to hit the ground running, adding value to the team and the organization”. When you are able to truthfully say this that is when you will become “an exceptional candidate whose attributes keep driving profits and growth” rather than “another applicant with a criminal background.”

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KEYWORDS! KEYWORDS! KEYWORDS!...Your key to getting an interview and potentially a job.

One of the key tools at your disposal for getting an interview is KEYWORDS. KEYWORDS can make the difference between the Yes and No pile of resume heaven/hell. What are KEYWORDS; why are they so important and where do I find them? Imagine you have to review 1000 resumes that just hit your desk in the morning and make a decision by day’s end of who to bring in for an interview and who to place in the circular file. Continue to imagine that reviewing 1000 resumes that day is only one of the many hundreds of tasks you have to accomplish by day’s end. What if someone came to you and said “I can help you whittle that pile of 1000 resumes into a pile of 50 in 10 seconds? Would you jump at the opportunity?

What can whittle a pile of 1000 resumes into 50 in 10 seconds? You got it…KEYWORDS. When you submit your resume on-line for a job application, along with 10,000 other applicants, your resume is first computer scanned for KEYWORDS. The computer sends those resumes with the right KEYWORDS into the “YES INTERVIEW” pile and those without go to????? A human eventually enters the equation. The human reviews the 50 resumes and whittles those down to 10 by looking for??? By this point if you have not answered KEYWORDS, please take a rest and come back later and read this article. However, if you said KEYWORDS, you are on your way to being a YES in a job world of NO’s.

KEYWORDS are those words that let the computer/human know that you have what it takes to do the job. A hiring manager looking to hire a Human Resources Manager will look for (as well as the computer which did the search in the first place) KEYWORDS such as “recruiting”, “hiring”, “training”,  “compensation and benefits”, among others to determine if the applicant is someone she wants to bring in for an interview. Why? Because Human Resources Managers need to know how to “recruit”, “hire”, “train” and “administer compensation and benefits”. If you have these KEYWORDS on your resume you get to go to the head of the class.

If I have convinced you of the importance of KEYWORDS, you might be asking yourself right about now, “Where do I find KEYWORDS”? KEYWORDS are found in job postings. Once you know where to find them you might be asking “What does a KEYWORD look like in a job posting”? Not much. As a matter of fact KEYWORDS get their life in comparison to other job postings. Continuing on the Human Resources Manager example, visit several job boards like Monster (www.monster.com), CareerBuilder (www.careerbuilder.com) and Indeed (www.indeed.com), search for Human Resources Manager jobs and print out as many Human Resources Manager’s job postings as you can. Lay (or is it “lie”) the job postings side by side and compare. Which words are common to a majority of the job postings you just printed? Those are your KEYWORDS. Use these KEYWORDS in your resume, cover letter, elevator pitch and interview and guess what?  You just got yourself a job. Congratulations. Now start working!

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Palms sweat, heart races as you get closer to the interview. What questions will they ask? How will I know how to answer the questions? What if I forget to breathe? While everyone experiences these feelings when interviewing, you can minimize them by practicing your answers to the following 5 pesky interview questions. Master these and you have mastered the interview. Sell yourself to the job requirements in all your answers and you’ve got a great chance of landing the job. As Dale Carnegie is famous for saying: “It is OK to have butterflies in your stomach. Just make sure you make them fly in formation”.

The first interview is a “getting to know each other.” As a result, do not ask about salary, benefits or any other perks until you are offered the job. It is only when you are offered the job that you have the most bargaining power.

1. Tell me about yourself.

   1. Use your elevator pitch here. How do your hard and soft skills match up with the job requirements? What past experience makes you uniquely qualified for the job? What are you looking for now? You do not want to exceed 2 minutes at the most with your answer. Remember brevity is brilliance. Pretend you are on a twitter feed and your answer must be brief but to the point. If your interviewer’s eyes are glazing over, stop..you have spoken too long.

   2. Sample answer: “I have over 5 years experience working as a receptionist at a small business. I have experience in coordinating meetings, organizing and managing files as well as providing excellent customer service. I am proficient in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I have a good work ethic and I enjoy working with others. I can take instruction but I can also work independently. I would like to build on my experience and become an Executive Administrative Assistant at a forward thinking and innovative company such as yours”.

2. Why should we hire you? This is a variation of “Tell us about yourself”. As such, the answer is a reiteration of the answer to “Tell us about yourself”.

   1. “Because if you don’t I won’t be able to pay my bills (bad answer)”.

   2. Good answer: “I have the qualifications you are looking for. I have experience in coordinating meetings, organizing and managing files as well as providing excellent customer service. I am proficient in MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I have a good work ethic and I enjoy working with others. I can take instruction but I can also work independently. In addition, I have over 5 years experience working as a receptionist at a small business like yours”.

3. What is your greatest strength?

   1. Use one of your strengths that correlates to what is most important in doing the job you are interviewing for.

4. What is your greatest weakness?

   1. “I do not have any weaknesses”. (Oh really!). Bad answer. Never pick a weakness that is related to a job requirement even if that is your greatest weakness. When considering a weakness, the trick is to identify a weakness and describe what you are doing to overcome the weakness.

   2. Good answer: “I can sometimes be a workaholic which creates problems on the home front. I am working on this weakness by delegating more to my direct reports”.

5. Why do you want to work for this company? Your answer will show if you took the time to research the company. Research their website, visit their Facebook page as well as their LinkedIn page. Go to the library and ask the business librarian to help you find other resources that pertain to the company. The more you know the more intelligent your questions will come across and the more you will know if this is the type of company you want to work for. After all, you will spend most of your waking hours working so you want to work for a company where waking up in the morning to go to work is not the equivalent of having a root canal.

http://worklocal.org/index.php/resources/item/pesky_interview_questions

Check out these job boards for jobs. Whenever possible, post your resume on the job board for employers to see. Also, whenever possible set up a job alert on the job board. Job alerts allow you to indicate the job you are looking for and when that job shows up on the job board you will get a message sent to your email. Kind of like having the job boards working for you 24/7.

1. Monster www.monster.com

2. CareerBuilder www.careerbuilder.com

3. HotJobs www.hotjobs.com

4. FlipDog www.flipdog.com

5. Job www.job.com

6. 4jobs www.4jobs.com

7. Simplyhired www.simplyhired.com

8. Indeed www.indeed.com

9. Jobster www.jobster.com

10. Snag a Job—hourly www.snagajob.com

11. Craig’s List www.craigslist.com

12. Not-for-Profit www.npo.net

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