Employment applications are legal documents and therefore must be filled out completely and accurately. When a job applicant lies on an employment application, he or she can be fired for falsifying a document.

Laws vary from state to state on whether and to what extent an employer may consider an applicant's arrest and/or conviction history in making hiring decisions. Some states prohibit employers from asking about arrests, convictions that occurred well in the past, juvenile adjudications or sealed records. Some states allow employers to consider convictions only if the crimes are relevant to the job. Ordinarily, however, employers are permitted to ask job applicants about their conviction history.

Because most job applications include questions about applicants’ criminal backgrounds, people with criminal records should be prepared to complete this part of the job application honestly, completely and directly. In particular, they should respond to the specific information asked of them. To be able to do this, they must know what constitutes a conviction in their state and be familiar with the arrest and conviction records on their rap sheet.

A conviction is a guilty plea or a court’s finding of guilt for a “crime” or an “offense.” It is important to remember that an individual may have a conviction on his or her record even though no jail time was served. The sentence for a conviction could include probation, a fine, community service, conditional or unconditional discharge. It is important to check with a public defender in your state to understand the various types of offenses that may appear on a client’s rap sheet and whether they are considered “convictions” for purposes of completing job applications.

Questions concerning criminal histories should be read carefully. An applicant should only answer what is asked. Applications may only ask about felony convictions or may request information about all convictions, which would ordinarily include felonies and misdemeanors. Some applications will ask for the applicant’s conviction history for a specific duration of time. In all cases, individuals should be familiar with the following information about their criminal records: date of disposition; the disposition (‘outcome”) of the case (i.e. did it result in conviction or was it dismissed); the specific offense convicted of; and the sentence.

Leaving questions blank could be construed to be dishonesty by omission so it is generally not advised that clients avoid answering the question by only writing “will discuss in interview” without prefacing it with “yes.”

If you work directly with clients to prepare them for jobs, it may be helpful to gather a sample of employment applications from neighborhood employers to determine the various ways the question about a job applicant’s criminal history is posed. Review with your client how to complete these questions based on his or her individual criminal history. Encourage the client to bring a copy of the appropriate responses to these questions with them when completing job applications. This will prevent him or her from inadvertenly omitting pertinent information or revealing more than what is being asked.

Job applicants with criminal histories must be prepared to discuss their convictions during a job interview, including a brief summary of the circumstances surrounding the conviction. Individuals should highlight any successes and accomplishments since the conviction and present evidence of rehabilitation. For example, if convictions were drug-related letters from treatment providers/counselors confirming successful recovery would be of value.

Remember – the key to success is preparation!