Hello All,
I am an individual who has made mistakes in my life, and I am paying my debt to society, but I was wondering, if anyone knew of any places that may hire a surveyor with a criminal record, but no convictions. I've had up to 4-5 years of experience, in office and field, up to about an entry project surveyor level. Just curious what the outlook may be, thank you for your time and consideration.
As a note, this would be in California, but I'd be open to relocating.
My first question would be how you can have a criminal record with no convictions? If you are talking about arrest records with no convictions, you need to petition the courts to have them expunged from your record. Nobody is going to hire somebody with a record that can't pass a background check.
Look for smaller, non-corporate, firms or mom and pop shops. One of the best surveyors I've ever worked with got caught up in the 1980s coke scene in his early twenties and went to prison for a year as a consequence. He's been with the same firm for almost forty years and earns a fantastic salary.
As with all things in life "it depends". As chris mentioned, companies that work on sensitive project sites might not be interested if your background check is going to exclude you from working on those projects. I'm not sure if it would. Our field guys have to pass drug tests prior to access to some sites. Having narcotic-free blood today may be more telling than a "rowdy past". Furthermore, such a company may have enough projects on non-sensitive sites to hire you on. As murphy mentioned, smaller companies usually don't have such projects. Right now most parts of the country have an abundance of survey work to be done and a lack of qualified people to get the work done. Everyone I talk to in my area (east-central Massachusetts) has hefty backlog of work under contract. Lots of companies hiring, get your resume out there.
Frankly, I don't think that you will have as much trouble as you fear. There are a lot of surveyors around that have less than pristine backgrounds. A bigger problem is keeping up with the technology if you have been out of the game for a few years.
Are there former coworkers that will give you a good character reference?
"Look for smaller, non-corporate, firms or mom and pop shops."
+1
Larger firms, like where I am, are all about the Federal work where background checks are mandatory. I would think some smaller firms, who aren't going after Federal projects might be your best bet. Good luck!
