You used to be in the military. Upon returning home, you got in trouble for using illegal drugs or using prescription drugs in an illegal fashion. Even though you pointed to the roles of addiction and your military career, you wound up with felony charges.
As you move forward with your life after serving the time in your sentence, you want to use your skills to become a security guard. You know you’d be good at it and you’d feel comfortable doing the work. Is that conviction going to bar you from working in this profession?
It can, but there are ways around it. For instance, some felony charges can be counted with a Certificate of Rehabilitation. If you get this in California, then you still can qualify to work as a security guard.
This doesn’t mean that the event did not happen or that it’s not on your record. It also doesn’t guarantee you a job. Someone else could still be hired over you. But it means that they’re not going to look at that felony and automatically deny you the job because you don’t qualify. The certificate shows that you have put the incident behind you and taken the proper steps to ensure it will not happen again. In that light, you have the same opportunity to start your next professional career as anyone else.
As you can imagine, those with felony records often worry about employment and the impact on their future. This is why it’s so important to know your legal rights, both while you are going through the case and even after it has concluded.