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This is a "throwaway" account for obvious reasons. I did some terrible things when I was 19 that I won't go into details, but after working as a developer for

This is a "throwaway" account for obvious reasons. I did some terrible things when I was 19 that I won't go into details, but after working as a developer for a few years, served a six-year sentence from 2003-2009. Upon release, I leveraged some old contacts to get a bit of contracting work. In time I found more contracting work, mostly working for smaller companies on a 1099 basis. (direct, not through a firm) In time a local contract turned into a job, and I've been with the company since. I'm the lead developer and own the entire stack, from the cloud to the front-end. I've made myself very valuable to them, and earn an income that's well over market (early on they offered me a percentage of profits as compensation) I still continue to do contracting on a small basis (small companies tend to not bind you with onerous terms keeping you from doing so). Some of them I've even found on HN. Anything involving a background check is a no-go. Most traditional employment situations, especially with "big" companies is a no-go. Sometimes you have to hustle a bit more, but honestly, I feel like owning your career with an entrepreneurial mindset is something everyone can benefit from. Most of my clients have no idea about my past. A few have learned, but it didn't disqualify me. I was transparent when asked.

justsomeoldguy 3y ago
My job two jobs ago did start out with their eyes open. I was up front about it and it was a question on the application. I wasn't going to lie. They told me it wouldn't be a problem .... and it wasn't. Until someone else found out and wasn't so non-judgemental. that's kind of how this goes-- whoever I first start working with, whoever is doing the hiring, whatever. I get the green light. I get hired even. It's ... what happens next. You got new coworkers? A lot of people start digging. I don't survive that digging. Part of the problem is I went to prison for eight years. And I am just a computer nerd with no criminal background, I've never even had a parking ticket. I act like every other nerd in a dev environment. I love hardware, I'm very passionate about operating systems, making them run juust right. Where it's a problem is when people look me up and are like, holy cow this is a hardened criminal! but I act... so... normal. and you wouldn't guess. it actually flips people out. it feels like I'm lying about a whole lot of things suddenly. I must be. I have to be. and it goes downhill from there. Whatever trust I earned gets taken away because people are judgmental and often not reasonable about that judgement.
- felon_in_texas 3y ago
  I know it's a possibility, so all I can do is mitigate the risk. I've intentionally focused on very small companies (<5 employees typically) where I almost always report to the top. I put myself in positions where I'm not just rank and file, but am essentially a hard dependency. Also in contracting roles you're usually not around that long. It's tedious finding work, but so is looking over your shoulder.
thaumasiotes 3y ago
> This is a "throwaway" account for obvious reasons. You should know that if you also have a non-throwaway account, HN will unify your accounts in their backend records.
- dnissley 3y ago
  Is there proof of this?
  - tomduncalf 3y ago
    Proof definitely needed. Honestly this doesn’t sound like something HN would have any interest in doing, they don’t serve ads or anything like that so why would they care?
    - bigbillheck 3y ago
      Ban evasion?
    - mixmastamyk 3y ago
      They do definitely limit upvoting/downvoting from similar accounts, so this isn't out of the realm of possibility. They care to avoid false votes, voting rings, etc.
      - tomduncalf 3y ago
        Oh yeah that’s a fair point! But I’d hope the data isn’t used outside of that use
- woodruffw 3y ago
  No, they don't do this. It's not even clear how they would; the closest thing would be merging based on IP or fingerprinting, but both are extremely noisy.
  - thaumasiotes 3y ago
justsomeoldguy 3y ago
I do not have any employment at this point to risk with my identity, and given that I have lost it over and over again from people who did not know about my past finding out about it and objecting to it enough to cost me my job, it's easy for me to be open at this point. what have I got to lose? I'm an ancient linkedin account, because I made it way back when linkedin first came out. it's an easy one to remember, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/werewolf/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/werewolf/

justsomeoldguy 3y ago

My job two jobs ago did start out with their eyes open. I was up front about it and it was a question on the application. I wasn't going to lie. They told me it wouldn't be a problem .... and it wasn't. Until someone else found out and wasn't so non-judgemental. that's kind of how this goes-- whoever I first start working with, whoever is doing the hiring, whatever. I get the green light. I get hired even. It's ... what happens next. You got new coworkers? A lot of people start digging. I don't survive that digging. Part of the problem is I went to prison for eight years. And I am just a computer nerd with no criminal background, I've never even had a parking ticket. I act like every other nerd in a dev environment. I love hardware, I'm very passionate about operating systems, making them run juust right. Where it's a problem is when people look me up and are like, holy cow this is a hardened criminal! but I act... so... normal. and you wouldn't guess. it actually flips people out. it feels like I'm lying about a whole lot of things suddenly. I must be. I have to be. and it goes downhill from there. Whatever trust I earned gets taken away because people are judgmental and often not reasonable about that judgement.

felon_in_texas 3y ago
I know it's a possibility, so all I can do is mitigate the risk. I've intentionally focused on very small companies (<5 employees typically) where I almost always report to the top. I put myself in positions where I'm not just rank and file, but am essentially a hard dependency. Also in contracting roles you're usually not around that long. It's tedious finding work, but so is looking over your shoulder.

thaumasiotes 3y ago

> This is a "throwaway" account for obvious reasons. You should know that if you also have a non-throwaway account, HN will unify your accounts in their backend records.

dnissley 3y ago
Is there proof of this?
- tomduncalf 3y ago
  Proof definitely needed. Honestly this doesn’t sound like something HN would have any interest in doing, they don’t serve ads or anything like that so why would they care?
  - bigbillheck 3y ago
    Ban evasion?
  - mixmastamyk 3y ago
    They do definitely limit upvoting/downvoting from similar accounts, so this isn't out of the realm of possibility. They care to avoid false votes, voting rings, etc.
    - tomduncalf 3y ago
      Oh yeah that’s a fair point! But I’d hope the data isn’t used outside of that use
woodruffw 3y ago
No, they don't do this. It's not even clear how they would; the closest thing would be merging based on IP or fingerprinting, but both are extremely noisy.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago

justsomeoldguy 3y ago

I do not have any employment at this point to risk with my identity, and given that I have lost it over and over again from people who did not know about my past finding out about it and objecting to it enough to cost me my job, it's easy for me to be open at this point. what have I got to lose? I'm an ancient linkedin account, because I made it way back when linkedin first came out. it's an easy one to remember, lol. https://www.linkedin.com/in/werewolf/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/werewolf/