Left last job due to "legal troubles"?
J9JC
91 Posts
We are looking for a high level Software Support Tech, and in a phone interview with a current applicant, when asked why he left his last job, (14 years with a city gov't) he said after a long pause:
"How do I want to phrase this? I had legal troubles and was unable to perform my duties."
The IT Dept wants to delve deeper and they did not know what they could and could not ask, so they came to me. He was perfect for the job in all other aspects and we want to bring him in for an in-person interview. I told them it could have been any number of things that do not necessarily mean he was a bad employee, or risk to our company. We would no doubt do a bacground check on him if we decide he is the best person for the job, but what can we ask him about this?
I would have thought if it was anything personal that would not effect his employment he would have said a bit more than that.
So I am trying to balance what I think of his statement. First reaction is run, but in his defence it could have been something not so bad.
"How do I want to phrase this? I had legal troubles and was unable to perform my duties."
The IT Dept wants to delve deeper and they did not know what they could and could not ask, so they came to me. He was perfect for the job in all other aspects and we want to bring him in for an in-person interview. I told them it could have been any number of things that do not necessarily mean he was a bad employee, or risk to our company. We would no doubt do a bacground check on him if we decide he is the best person for the job, but what can we ask him about this?
I would have thought if it was anything personal that would not effect his employment he would have said a bit more than that.
So I am trying to balance what I think of his statement. First reaction is run, but in his defence it could have been something not so bad.
Comments
My $0.02 worth,
The Balloonman
Him-"How do I want to phrase this? I had legal troubles and was unable to perform my duties."
You-"How so?" or "Please tell me more".
Go with the flow on this one. Keep asking leading and probing questions. It apperas to me that he's opening the door for you, now you have to get your foot in there and slowly work your way in.
Gene
>that he's opening the door for you, now you have
>to get your foot in there and slowly work your
>way in.
>
Gene - This sounds like the old door to door salesman tactic. Do you have that on your resume?
Then there was the middle school band fundraiser scandal where we actually collected money ahead of time for meat and cheese (Hickory Farms) packs. Unfortunately for the people that ordered and for my behind after my parents got done, I took all the money and went to Kmart and bought enough fishing tackle to outfit the entire B.A.S.S. tournament circuit. No one ever got their meat and cheese but I sure mowed enough yards that summer. My first and last attempt at racketeering.
Gene
P.S. For the anglers in the Forum, I stil have the Shimano Baitcaster and Shakespeare Ugly Stick in the garage as a reminder of that painful experience.
People in contention for IT jobs, mentioning the word 'legal' or 'trouble in my last job' really never, ever deserve further exploration to begin with.
Most lawsuits are public material and can be accessed by anyone, you don't need special permission from the applicant to look at public records...
I hope this helps.
I'm trying not to make a judgement on him, but I think I said, if it was personal or not something that was a real problem I would have thought he would elaborate a bit on his own so he could be considered.
I do admit, my first inclination is to just sort him to the history file.
Next time, they will know (and now we know!) that they can ask for a follow up. If he started to get into too much detail that seems irrelevant (even if it is juicy), I would wedge my way in and ask "would this have any effect on your ability to perform this job as you understand it?" and base my findings from that.
As for sending him to the history file, if your IT people send him to the next round, try to keep an open mind but do go with your gut. That's the best tool I have somedays. (Ex. the guy who stands waaaay too close to me when dropping off his application or checking up on it will not get an interview. I'm talking CLOSE, not just on the fringes of my personal space.)
But, back to the candidate who mentions his legal complications; there is nothing in any realm of legality that would prohibit an interviewer from asking whatever they like about that and taking the conversation in any direction the interviewer would like for it to go, even if it seemed momentarily irrelevant (this might not hold true in CA.) A trained interviewer knows to gather all the information possible, not necessarily trying to contemporaneously sort ultimately relevant from irrelevant and not judging it at the point at which it is given. You give me an applicant who opens a door like this and I'll walk away from the interview with his blood type, how many times he was paddled in grade school and whether he felt it was alright to abscond with the company's stationery supplies.
And if someone in the IT department told me he had made the comment in their telephone interview, I would be on the phone with him saying, "John, I want to followup on your remark to Ellen about your earlier legal complications and its relationship to your job at Stellar Products."
My point was that we make contact with people every day. From those contacts, we can draw some generalizations to help us make decisions. The generalizations will not always be right, but we should draw on our experience (gut feel) when needed.
And by the way, I would divert the conversation of the first guy from his explanation ONLY (and I quote) "If he started to get into too much detail that seems irrelevant". If he said "I made a bad decision and was thrown in the clink. I have since learned from my mistake and have not had any further legal trouble since." then there'd be no more questions or diversions.
If it was simply not applicable to the job and didn't raise serious red flags on his moral character (which I think does affect his job - refer to your comment on absconding with the company's stationery supplies), I would do my best to consider him the same as I would without ever having known that information.
I didn't mean to imply that what (insert crime here) is isn't important. It is.
My imagination is just too vivid sometimes. Combine that with my cynicism and the real trouble starts.
I will, however, keep this tame. Legal troubles for an IT person? "Hmmmm" he says, "- well I was raiding the customer data base for demographic information, including social security numbers, and I got caught. They had a hard time proving it was me, but they locked me out of my PC and changed the locks so I could no longer do my work. I took that as a hint and here I am applying for work."
or,
"I was on an internet chat site talking to a 13 year old girl and agreed to meet her in the park across the street. When I showed up, I was arrested by the cop that was posing as the 13 year old. That started my legal trouble. When the company found out, they fired me. I can work as long as I don't get convicted"
Ok, maybe those are farfetched examples, point is, the company does need to know before hiring.
The scenario painted by HRCalico is this: If I'm an applicant with a sordid past, I brush past it by saying something like, "Yes, I had a brush with the law, but it was totally unrelated to my job and never affected my work ethic. In fact, the next year at the fish fry I was awarded the charming employee of the month for the third quarter." So, the observant and attentive interviewer says, "Oh, let's not get into that, can you tell me whether you can perform the essential functions of this position, with or without accommodation?"
I have been in this business too long to not seize the opportunity to wrestle all of the pertinent facts from candidates during an interview. Even those that are later determined to have been a total waste of my time.
Talk about 'GUT'! Give me an applicant who mentions brushes with the law or legal complications and my 'GUT' churns like four month old milk!
Feel free to keep dissecting every word I wrote down, though, and read between lines that aren't there. x;-) As for me, I'm getting the weekend started.