For employment purposes, how do you spin a bad past.

My older brother is about to graduate from college with an engineering degree. I’m proud of him, but he’s having some trouble with the job search. The problem is he has two DUI’s on his record. They’re both over four years old, and he’s been sober and working in AA since the second one. So far he’s been turned down from two jobs he was qualified for because of his past.

I’d like to know if anybody, particularly recovering alcoholics or human resources people, can give advice on how he can best explain himself and get a good job. Also, is there any way that the DUI’s can be taken off his record?

I don’t really have any advice but I have a friend who got two duis right after he graduated and he also worries about it limiting his future job opportunities after college. I thought maybe he was overreacting but perhaps he really should be worried. I think the way to spin it depends on what age it happened. Since my friend was just out of high school it really wouldn’t be dishonest to say that he was just a stupid kid who fucked up bad when he was young but has since paid the price and learned from the experience.

What kind of Engineering job asks about DUIs? I guess I’m confused as to how the subject came up. I’ve seen the occasional job application that asks about felonies, but a standard DUI is not a felony in most states, is it?

Asking for information like that would be illegal here in Spain, so I’m afraid I can’t help. One day at work we were talking about “punishment vs reinsertion” and one of the guys mentioned having been to jail and that it came up during his interview (he got his tech degree while in prison) and the only thing our HR guy said was “ok, and do you think whatever brought you there is anything you may be repeating?” “Nah, I sure hope not. I was young and dumb, can’t claim I’m not dumb anymore but I think I’m at least a bit less dumb.” Hasn’t repeated it, whatever it was.

It likely shows up on a criminal background check, which is SOP in most organizations these days.

The problem is, all that is pre-employment screening and it’s not like they uncover it and give you a chance to explain yourself- they just (typically) eliminate you from consideration. I would say that your friend’s best option is, if he knows that screening is part of the hiring process, bring it up toward the end of the interviewl. Candidly, honestly, and without going into great detail; something like:

I don’t think he should share details of how he has maintained his sobriety, or the details of his DUI, and he especially should refrain from appearing like he was a victim/doesn’t take responsibility for his actions.

It is?

News to me.

Never had anyone ask to do a criminal background check on me, and I’ve gone through plenty of interviews/job offers in the past few years.

I agree with bobkitty’s suggestion - a little pre-emptive honesty is the best policy in this case, IMHO. However, I am NOT an HR person, a labor lawyer, an engineer, nor have I been in the hiring process for a long time.

I don’t like that criminal background checks are common in hiring, but that is the way of the world these days. Also credit checks, drug tests, and other things that IMNSHO are not related to job performance, and in the case of drug tests are not necessarily reliable. But that’s a pit thread.

I would suggest your brother look at jobs with some smaller firms where background checks may not be part of the hiring process. Once your brother has his first job, other jobs should be easier to get. He’ll have a work record, not just a transscript, and the DUIs will be farther in his past.

It sounds like he’s recovering from his mistakes from FOUR YEARS AGO (!!!). I’m sorry that society is making it hard for him to become a productive citizen. I for one would not like to be judged on some of the crap I did when I was a High School senior or college freshman. Or college sophmore. Or …

Is he sure the reason he was turned down was because of the DUI’s? I know around here, it would be unusual for someone just about to graduate to get a job in engineering after just two interviews. It is likely that way here because the local college has a big engineering dept, so competition among new graduates is rough. It is rough for those with many years of experience for that matter around here. So I would question if the old DUI’s really are the reason.

If it looks like they are, I know there are ways to have things expunged from your record. I would think that his being in AA for four years and graduating with an engineering degree would make him the type of person who might be qualify for that. It might make a difference what state you are in, some states have much tougher rules about DUI’s than others, but I know it can be done.

In the cases I know about, one was done because the guy’s father was friends with a judge. He had been arrested for something like “contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” when he was 21 for getting caught drinking in a park with his 19 year old friend. After a few years went by, and the guy didn’t get in any more trouble, the guy’s dad asked his judge friend if he could remove it, and it was removed.

The other case I know of involved several DUI’s, a lawyer, a judge, a gambling debt, and a whole bunch of money. I didn’t want to know the details of that one, but it made me realize that if enough money is involved, anything can be done.

In your brother’s case, I would look to see if there are ever any cases where if the AA people vouched for his involvement, and some well respected folks in the community would recommend it, if there was a process to get those off his record. I don’t think it is usually anything that happens quickly, unless you know someone or have a ton of money. But it would seem in your brother’s case that expunging things that someone did in school would make sense. I would look into starting the process now, so that won’t be something he will always have to deal with.

I have only worked for one place that did a criminal background check. I was heavily involved with hiring people at that particular job so I saw a lot of the background reports. We has a space on the application where we asked if they had been convicted of any crimes.

If you lied on the application about it, you wouldn’t get hired no matter who you were as a matter of policy. I was amazed at how many people had a DUI in their past. It was a significant percentage. On DUI at any time in your past wouldn’t prevent you from getting hired. Two where the last one was four years ago wouldn’t either.

I have to also wonder if the DUIs really were the reason he wasn’t hired. Was he specifically told this?