Careers That Can Put Your Skills to Good Use

As someone with a criminal record, you know that finding a good job can be tough. You know that that’s not the only thing worth knowing about you, but you also know that other people often aren’t willing to look past it. That can be incredibly discouraging, but some careers allow you to put your skills to good use regardless of your history.

Ethical Hacking

Given the extent to which technology has invaded everyday life, it shouldn’t be a surprise that there are people who take advantage of the weaknesses in various systems and exploit them for gain. If you were once one of them and got in trouble for hacking, you could potentially put those skills to good use in a legal and lucrative way. Ethical hacking is a career that focuses on identifying the weaknesses in websites. As someone experienced in that area, you are uniquely positioned to offer this valuable service to businesses that could otherwise suffer catastrophic data breaches. Entry-level ethical hackers can earn anywhere from $50,000-$100,000 per year.

Skip Tracing

Criminals, by nature, don’t want to be found. Getting caught means getting punished. They aren’t the only ones who don’t want to be found though. Sometimes people who fail to make payments on loans also don’t want to be found. That can put lenders in a tough spot, at which point they may hire a skip tracer to find the debtor to recover the property. Skip tracing significantly increases the chances of a lender’s property being recovered. Who better to find people who don’t want to be found than someone who already knows where to look?

Entrepreneurship

Given the difficulty of finding a job with a criminal record, working for yourself can sometimes be the best option. If the nature of your offense involved your own crime business, you may have learned some incredibly valuable lessons that can carry over into a more legal business setting. You’ve likely already had some experience with the risk assessment process and dealing with the fallout of poor decisions. As such, you may be less risk-averse in addition to being practiced at turning a profit. Both of these are essential elements of operating a successful business.

As someone with a criminal record, there’s a good chance you have some skills that could be of great benefit in a career if you were to find the right one. Ethical hacking, skip tracing, and becoming an entrepreneur are just a few examples of such careers. Take a personal inventory of what you have to offer and find a career that will allow you to use your skills for good.

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