Has there been an increase in the number of criminal records checks for engineers in recent years? Factor out jobs which require working with children or vulnerable adults, or those requiring certain types of security clearance.
Not an easy topic to delve into, and there's no "one size fits all" answer. It all depends on the offences committed, sentences dispensed and the time elapsed, as well as the current lifestyle and status of the applicant. Not a straightforward problem by any means.
Ideally, the thing to do is to act with integrity and openness - being completely honest when applying for the post in the first place. Any reasonable employer would look at the application and judge it based on the nature of any historic offence, and the intervening time spent with no further offences.
I can see there would be an issue of you had a more serious criminal record (eg custodial sentence) and didn't declare it when applying for a job - should the employer then go down the line of compulsory DBS checking, then you could rightfully expect consequences - you'd come across as dishonest at the very least. However, in my opinion, a magistrate's fine or a caution, received over 20 years ago and whilst a teenager, really shouldn't pose a problem if it came to light, especially if you've kept your nose clean in the interim. Though you'd gain a lot more respect if you declared it at the application stage. That said, there are convicted hackers now enjoying rewarding careers in cyber-security... poacher turned gamekeeper, but that's another topic!
Not an easy topic to delve into, and there's no "one size fits all" answer. It all depends on the offences committed, sentences dispensed and the time elapsed, as well as the current lifestyle and status of the applicant. Not a straightforward problem by any means.
Ideally, the thing to do is to act with integrity and openness - being completely honest when applying for the post in the first place. Any reasonable employer would look at the application and judge it based on the nature of any historic offence, and the intervening time spent with no further offences.
I can see there would be an issue of you had a more serious criminal record (eg custodial sentence) and didn't declare it when applying for a job - should the employer then go down the line of compulsory DBS checking, then you could rightfully expect consequences - you'd come across as dishonest at the very least. However, in my opinion, a magistrate's fine or a caution, received over 20 years ago and whilst a teenager, really shouldn't pose a problem if it came to light, especially if you've kept your nose clean in the interim. Though you'd gain a lot more respect if you declared it at the application stage. That said, there are convicted hackers now enjoying rewarding careers in cyber-security... poacher turned gamekeeper, but that's another topic!
