DWI? Possession? Assault? How to Deal with Your Past at a Job Interview
Been Arrested?
Today, I want to talk to you about something sensitive.
I know there are a few readers who have been (and, maybe, still are) seriously affected by this issue – so I'm sharing my honest advice in the hope that it helps other folks too.
So, around a year back, I shared an email about "unofficial vetting".
While many HR and hiring managers have a lot of restrictions when it comes to vetting a potential employee, there are many types of “unofficial vetting” that you should be aware of. It is easy to type in your name into Google, and perform some casual due diligence before they pull the trigger and invite you in for an interview or, in some cases, offer you the job.
The best way to protect yourself from this is to clean up your LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media profiles. Basically, make sure there's nothing on there that you wouldn't want printed in the New York Times.
But sometimes, this isn't possible.
For example, one lady who emailed me with some questions about this subject was arrested and charged with a serious crime, though she was later found not guilty.
Despite that, the newspaper articles are available online, and they show up right at the top when a hiring manager Googles her name.
Even though Janet was later acquitted, the news articles do not look good at all. So, as you might imagine, she has lost a lot of solid job opportunities.
What can Janet do? The newspapers won't remove the articles.
Google won't remove them from the search results. If you are internet savvy, you can manipulate google search contents by flooding it with positive information about yourself. Share links, post positive and professional items, put your name out there so that the links you do not want people to see will get buried and with an average attention span of 6-10 seconds, most people will not go past a second Google search page.
What can you do if you have skeletons in your closet – skeletons that might not be your fault – and you can't make them disappear?
There's only one other thing you can do:
Make sure the hiring manager learns about them from you.
Because when you're the one who first brings these issues to light, when you're 100% up-front and transparent about them, you have an opportunity to "frame" these issues and offer an explanation before the hiring manager (or HR rep, recruiter, etc.) reads about them on Google or in the news.
It can be hard to cover a sensitive topic in writing. The best time to do this would be to bring it up earlier in the interview as one of your "go-to" answers – perhaps talk about how that experience/episode made you a better, more rounded professional.
NOTE: This transparency won't always save the day. Some people will judge you and there's nothing you can do about that.
But it is better to lay your skeletons out on the table early and eliminate managers who won't hire you anyway, than to spend weeks (or maybe even months) getting excited about an opportunity they'll only snatch away from you.
Whatever you do, though – don't give up!
You might have to work harder than other candidates, and you might have to attend more interviews before you land a job. The work you have to put in can be time consuming. The honesty that you may need to share can be shocking. But if you remain positive, professional and have a great resume ready to share to prove that you are the ideal candidate, then you will be in a better position to land a great job.
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