I've noticed a common trend among several convicted felons in my friend circle (I lead an interesting life) that, in a lot of cases, they're still punishing the

I've noticed a common trend among several convicted felons in my friend circle (I lead an interesting life) that, in a lot of cases, they're still punishing themselves, sometimes decades later. It's a self-reinforcing cycle...don't get a job because of the conviction, beat yourself up and tell yourself you're worthless because of the conviction, don't get the next job because you interviewed horribly while worrying about and wanting to explain away the conviction. One friend, however, has had a lot of years to deal with it (he was convicted of drug trafficking and spent several years incarcerated), and has started to come out the other side. When asked about his conviction, he's not cagey about it, or apologetic about it, but he also doesn't go overboard with explanations. He simply says what happened and that he hasn't had any trouble with the law, or with drugs, since. Besides, this is for pot. Nobody in California cares about pot, so most of the companies he wants to work for aren't going to care that much about a pot conviction. Apple might (because I feel like they might be hypocritical enough to judge someone for being involved with a drug that one of the founders of the company was known to be very fond of), but I doubt Google would (but, maybe I'm wrong, I don't have any insight into the Google hiring process these days and don't have any inside people to ask). But, I would definitely trim down the sad sack tale. Just state the facts of what the conviction was for (like "I sold a gram of pot to my roommate in college" or whatever), and that you've had no run-ins with the law since. And, I'd probably mention it if/when the company says they're going to do a background check. If I were in a hiring position (and I have been in the past, and likely will in the future), I wouldn't consider this relevant, at all, to the decision. And, I'd probably even accept a lot "worse" kinds of felony than this. That may be because of my current experience with friends who have a felony in their past and with my level of knowledge of how the system works, and who the system targets (for example, white folks are far less likely to be convicted on felony charges than black folks for the same crimes, so black folks are far more likely to have a criminal record, even if they just did the same sorts of things me and all my white friends did growing up).