A student worker position (no benefits, but the work isn’t hard and they have to be at least part-time students at our university) needs to be filled at my library. I have weeded out the real loser applicants (multiple misspellings on their application, chewed gum during the interview, showed up more than an hour late for their interview, etc.) and I am now down to just a few candidates. We have a standard script of questions we use for the interviews to avoid asking inappropriate and illegal questions. One of the approved questions is “What do you consider your greatest acomplishment so far in life?” One young man very candidly answered, “kicking my drug habit.” He then volunteered the information (I did not ask him) that he had been an addict in high school and mentioned a good, local rehab that he graducated from over a year ago. Furthermore, unlike any of the other applicants he offered me two references (a drug counseling program and a fast-food franchise that he has been workiing at). The fast food franchise reference was especially pleasing as I know the owner of the franchise and he was able to remember the young man as an employee that always showed up for work on time. When hiring student workers that is one of the gold standards. I am seriously considering offering this guy the job, but some of my fellow librarians are a little wary. Do you think more than a year out of rehab, but not quite two years is enough time to risk hiring?
Hire him!
What would you lose in the worst [non-remote] case?
He sounds like someone who made some bad decisions early on in life, got himself into trouble, and had managed to work himself out of it. If he’s the most qualified candidate, and if his references check out, give him a shot.
He offered up his drug counselor as a reference; call them and find out what they think. Even if you’re not permitted to come straight out and ask “do you think he’ll stay clean?” I’m sure the question will come across quite well.
Agreed. There’s little to no risk if he’s the best candidate. I put a lot of value on his honesty.
I’ve already checked his references though I didn’t think to really probe on the “do you think he’ll stay clean?” question. The references were what shot his applications up to the top of the applicant pool. I know the fast food franchise owner well enough to know he doesn’t put up with crap.
That’s probably the approach I am going to take. He is the best candidate. And some people are able to recover from addiction.
Hire him. Helping him build his resume at this point (very difficult for anybody in his situation) is literally something that could change his life forever.
Hire him.
Getting a good job dramatically increases the odds that he’ll be able to keep his life on track.
I’ve had a few student workers with drug and/or alcohol addictions and while they don’t have the opportunity to do much monetary damage at the library, they can be real pains-in-the-ass to work with and around. Plus it takes more to time and effort to fire bad workers than to not hire them in the first place.
Hire him. Give him a chance.
Hire him if he is the best candidate. If he didn’t commit any (non drug) crime as a junkie there is no reason to think that he will if he works for you even if he relapses, by the way. All he would be then is an unreliable employee you can then sack. The thing about junkies stealing from their own mother is bollocks - while plenty do, it’s down to one of two things - either (a) they are a junkie because they have many other moral failings which is what lead them to take drugs to excess in the first place or (b) they were basically abandoned by society and it made sense at the time.
Addiction never made me steal, it doesn’t make cigarette addicts steal, it doesn’t make most gambling addicts steal, etc etc.
Mind you on a more cynical note, he may well have been coached to give the giving up drug thing as his greatest acheivment by his employment counseller, on the basis it would come up anyway and at least that way a negative can be a positive.
P.S. Lol at librarians worried about junkies. Do they think that crappy mills and boon paperbacks are easy to fence?
If he’s the best candidate, hire him. If he screws up, it’s not like you can’t find someone else.
Definitely employ him. He is honest and the ones I would really hate would be those with the other problems, *e.g.
*
.
Really, what is that second group even doing at any university in the first place?
Much LOL. 
I think the O.P mentioned a university library and it might therefore not have very much of the Mills & Boon type of literature.
I’d hire him. You already know he’s honest, and if he’s the best candidate otherwise, go for it.
Worst case scenario, it’s only a student worker position, it’s not like he’s in charge of nuclear weapons or anything.
There’s usually a lot of technology lying around a university library. If it’s like the undergrad library where I went to school, the correct joke should be “Do they think that crappy mills and boon paperbacks, Windows 98 era desktops and overhead projectors are easy to fence?”
ETA: oh, and microfiche machines! Won’t someone think of the microfiche machines?!
I’d hire him. It sounds like he deserves a chance. And I’d respect his honesty in bringing up his past.
That’s not very good advice. First of all, AFAIK there is no need to provide that information unless he was arrested for a crime.
Second of all, from a hiring standpoint, “giving up drugs” as a “greatest acomplishment” is sort of lame. I mean does that make him more accomplished than someone who never takes drugs in the first place?
It does if that other person has never accomplished anything at all. But it’s usually not the kind of accomplishment people brag about. In this case it’s sort of an admission of a lack of sustantial accomplishments in life.
The biggest concern here is a relapse. A condition of employment could be required drug testing, that the employee must pay for. Since that could be expensive it could be required on demand instead of a regular basis. If a problem arises, demand the test.
Not really. It’s sort of like asking for a cookie because you are doing the bare minimum of what’s expected from most people. ie not to be a drug addict or criminal.