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About six months ago a former accountant called me. He served 15 months in federal prison for Paycheck Protection Program fraud, and he was struggling with one big question: how do I disclose my felony conviction to potential employers?
I gave him advice. Clearly he didn't take it, because he called me again today with the same problem. I'm in Montana right now, still trying to get home.
He still ran a business for 20 years
I reminded him on our call that going to prison doesn't change the fact that he ran a successful business for more than 20 years. It doesn't change that he has an undergraduate degree and a master's degree.
Yes, he went to prison. He owned it. He accepted responsibility for it.
But he wasn't embracing this idea of thinking like an underdog.
Thinking like an underdog
There's a great book by Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath. A convicted felon is an underdog now, especially when you're looking for work in this climate.
So I advised him then, and I advised him again today, to own it. Talk about lessons learned. Say that through this experience you are a better executive than ever, because you understand the collateral consequences.
But don't just talk about it.
Write it down
Write it, build it out, document it.
Anybody can tell an employer they learned a lesson. It's harder to wave away something you wrote down, with a date on it, that shows what you've been doing since you came home. It's the same thing we tell people before sentencing at White Collar Advice, and it's why people inside federal prison build profiles through Prison Professors.
Go tell the story
I also told him there's huge value in learning to tell your story.
Go to business schools. USC, Stanford, other places I've gone to. A lot of accounting professors will welcome you. He's a former accountant. He went to prison for fraud. I think a professor teaching accounting students would want that guy in the room.
Share the story. Educate young minds on the consequences of cheating. And you never know what relationships you could develop. That professor is now in your network.
We'll see
He didn't take the advice when he called six, seven months ago. He said he's going to take it now.
We'll see.
I'm finally heading home to California.
Watch the short HERE.
Written by
Justin Paperny
Founder White Collar Advice
