| As a convicted felon, and someone working to help returning citizens find employment opportunities, several pieces of advice: 1) Look into the Federal Bonding Program. This may help some smaller employers overcome fears of working with you. Everyone qualifies and it is free for the employer and job seeker. 2) Be ready to take any position at any rate. You may even consider finding non-developer jobs for the time being, at least until at little more time has passed since your conviction/release. I can't emphasize how powerful it can be to build trust again with employers. Working a warehouse job where you show up everyday, work hard, and always go the extra mile, even if you only do it for six months or a year, can be a powerful step to getting bigger, better jobs. You can always do consulting, freelance work on the side to keep your skills up. 3) Unfortunately for you sex offenses are tough to overcome and even harder to convince employers to hire you for. Your inability to travel out of state with ease, plus other restrictions associated with the registry, can make hiring decisions for sex offenders difficult. Your best bet is to aim for small, local employers or remote contract work. Possibly even starting your own business. 4) Your web page comes across as downplaying the severity of your offenses or as if they were just little mistakes. No offense, but this was a thought out sex crime. While they may be minor crimes, in the eyes of many any sex offense is a major red flag. Even more so when those crimes center around child sex offenses. I would work on getting letters of recommendation from influential people in your life. Your therapist, pastor/priest, probation officer, etc... Let potential employers know that you have these letters instead of just saying that "Everyone I know agrees I'm a different person". 5) Personally, I would avoid the paragraphs of what other offers you received. While you say "competitive rate", you flaunt the offer amounts and you don't mention what that competitive rate is. As a potential employer I may be skeptical that you are looking for a salary around those numbers. With that said, I will put feelers out to my contacts to see if anyone is looking for a programmer with your skills. Good luck! |