Criminal Record- Am I Screwed for Life?
Backstory: When I was 16, I stole a bunch of stuff from my friend’s parents’ grocery store and had a fist fight with my friend bc of it. This stupid, immature decision got me arrested and charged for aggravated robbery (1st degree felony in my homestate, Kansas). Fortunately, I had a good lawyer and he got the charge down to a misdemeanor assault and I received 2 years deferred probation for the crime. Basically, I am not convicted of the crime, but the arrest and deferred probation will show up on a background check.
I am now heading into my junior year of college and I have a 3.9 gpa, leadership positions at school, and have had 2 internships at non-profits (they didn’t background check me).
Will my criminal history keep me from getting an IB/Corp-finance internship or job in states like CA,NY, or IL?
I’m really anxious and worried that I’ll never be able to get a job in IB or corporate finance due to my criminal record. I won’t be able to get the record sealed for another year or so and even then there’s no guarantee the judge will allow the record to be sealed.
my advice would be to learn hard technical skills tied to coding, so that you can be a freelancer. Or that you can be such a great software engineer that tech firms are forced to hire you do to your skills. You can still make 2-300k as a freelancer if you are in the top 2-3%.
Banks may discriminate againt you which is why I am giving you this advice
Thanks for your reply.
Should I change my major then? I’m currently doing a financial services major.
Do you think I’d be better off in consulting?
(Same person as OP)
Yes switch to Comp Sci if you can.
I will also say that this freelance work, and technical skills you build will directly translate to being super marketable once your record is expunged, and should you become good enough to make $150-$350 via freelancing, you will have 0 issues landing a job offer at an F100 tech co as a SWE (which can make upto $800ish at the highest levels).
What i'm trying to say is that none of this freelance work will work against you since it's all genuine work experience.
Agree with other poster. Banks want to hire people who are pristine due to ethics scrutiny, and learning hard skills would be important to hedge risks imo.
Thank you for the honesty. I’ll try to pick up some coding skills.
If it happened when you were 16 wouldn't that be off the record since you were a minor?
Same person as OP, but forgot the password. They charge you as an adult at 16 in Kansas, so it’ll stay on my record.
The fuck is Kansas on? Why would you charge someone as an adult for a misdemeanor when they're demonstrably not an adult, lol. Anyway, have you looked into getting it expunged/sealed? I really feel like there's got to be a way to close that case.
Dude that's brutal. I'm sorry
Find someplace that won’t do a full background check - plenty of smaller boutiques out there who might not. Why not find a smaller enterprise software company and try to network and break into tech sales? You’ll get paid more than IB if you’re good at it anyways.
I’ve looked at tech a lot and actually really enjoy my information systems classes. Do you think my criminal record will hold me back from getting a business analyst position at a respected tech firm and getting an MBA along the line to move into upper management?
Possibly but I wouldn’t give up. For one of my internships, there was no background check. IT or cybersecurity is also a field where you could easily clear six figures as well
Agree with this, talk to a Lawyer about getting it expunged, a consult would probably not be free if you're talking to a good lawyer, but probably $800 bucks or so to get in a room with someone who knows this like the back of your hand and can tell you what you're really looking at. Expunging something is not cheap but could be worth it for the peace of mind... I looked into it as I graduated with the holy trinity of alcohol violations (MIC/MIP/PI - the PI being the most prestigious of the three), I decided it wasn't worth it in the end as doing it for 3 different events (the PI had a couple things tacked on as well) I was looking at like 5 figures to get everything wiped.
Also - in talking to a lawyer you may find this is not that big of a concern, tough with FINRA as that complicates things but there may be something unique to Kansas where you can get this edited on your record.
Not a lawyer, but I think deferred probation means case is dismissed w/o a conviction if probation is completed. It’ll still show up on a background check, so I don’t know how much that would affect OP.
First of all, sorry that all of this happened to you.
I know a friend who got into trouble when he was a teenager (he was 15 I think or 16) and his records remained sealed.
Another friend purchased a vehicle from a friend, but sadly that vehicle turned out to be stolen. He drove around without insurance (couldn't afford it), a stolen vehicle and on a probationary license because he was young. Not trying to defend him or anything, but all of this got him a record and he wasn't able to be employed by any decent company despite a decent school and top GPA.
I’m not a lawyer and you should absolutely speak to one on this before you do something as drastic as completely changing your major, but I was in a similar situation as a teenager. Did something stupid, got arrested, charged, and had a similar sort of deferral thing (i forget it was like >10 years ago). I think I was able to get it expunged. Is that something you can pursue? It’s never showed up on any background check to my knowledge and hasn’t impeded my career in any way.
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/content/dam/jpmc/jpmorgan-chase-and-co/documents/jpmc-policycenter-overview-v1-ada.pdf
I like the link you posted, as it shows that large companies can really change or are trying to. However, as indicated in the document and in various other publications, a candidate with a record is unlikely to be given a position which is regulated. I could be wrong, of course, and if anyone know of policies that in fact do allow IB hires with a record, please feel free to correct me. I don't think that FINRA would allow it either.
Look up a GS banker named Ben Wallace on FINRA’s Broker Check
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