Yes. I have a federal felony conviction for fraud involving a computer, against a former employer. Good times.
I've worked for 2-4 companies since then, depending on how you count acquisitions. I've even been trusted to write code that has touched a lot of financial transactions for customers. I doubt I would have been able to stay employed if I didn't have some dedicated advocates, mostly at the CTO level.
At my last (very small) company, my background never even came up. No check at all.
I've also spent a few years scraping by as an indie mobile developer with up to 15 apps in the different stores. With just a bit of a corporate shield, nobody even needs to know who you are.
In the software/IT field, I've met and even worked with plenty of people with criminal records. Multiple DUIs. Two that were convicted of vehicular manslaughter or something similar. Plenty of drug offenses.
You may want to check out Underdog Devs. You're likely too experienced for their mentee program but at one time they had a good list of tech companies willing to hire people with criminal records.
> I guess the ex-admin wants to work in manual labor or fast food
You'd be surprised. I did something somewhat similar and was convicted of a federal felony. No fast food place or retailer would touch me with that record. But ironically I've found plenty of IT work with smaller companies.
Federal sentencing guidelines are pretty rigid and most computer fraud and abuse cases get the lowest end of the range.
The EFF has a good breakdown of weev's sentence and the D&D-like charts and calculations used to reach it. He got hammered for "special skill", "sophisticated means" and "means of identification" bonuses.
> I'd be very curious to hear what went on there on the people side of things.
It's important to study that in these cases. I was convicted in a similar case and am actually a chapter in a CERT book, but they never reached out to me for my input, so they're completely oblivious to my motives and missing key facts about the case. I'd write more about it or speak at conferences but I've been able to bury that past and move on. Maybe some day.
I think he had a similar case to mine where he felt he was stuck in a situation with his manager(s) and felt like he had no recourse. HR should be involved in employee reviews and should provide a way for the employee to give feedback on his own review.
Another aspect of it is education about the law. I see case after case where the defendant had no idea he could face federal charges at all, much less one that can result in such stiff penalties. (The penalties he was facing were much, much worse if he had been tried and convicted rather than taking this plea deal.) That could easily be part of any degree program and/or employee orientation.
I've worked for 2-4 companies since then, depending on how you count acquisitions. I've even been trusted to write code that has touched a lot of financial transactions for customers. I doubt I would have been able to stay employed if I didn't have some dedicated advocates, mostly at the CTO level.
At my last (very small) company, my background never even came up. No check at all.
I've also spent a few years scraping by as an indie mobile developer with up to 15 apps in the different stores. With just a bit of a corporate shield, nobody even needs to know who you are.
In the software/IT field, I've met and even worked with plenty of people with criminal records. Multiple DUIs. Two that were convicted of vehicular manslaughter or something similar. Plenty of drug offenses.
You may want to check out Underdog Devs. You're likely too experienced for their mentee program but at one time they had a good list of tech companies willing to hire people with criminal records.