Honest Jobs has a mission to help formerly incarcerated individuals find jobs fast.
Honest Jobs is a job search site that is committed to connecting formerly incarcerated job seekers to fair chance employers. The CEO & Founder, Harley Blakeman, was arrested in 2010 for drug dealing. However, he changed his life, got his GED, and earned his bachelor of business administration, graduating with honors.
As with Harley, most of the Honest Jobs team members have felony convictions, so they know exactly how hard it is to find a job with criminal background. Melissa Dickerson is the Operations Manager at Honest Jobs who found Harley when she was trying to rebuild her life after facing felony charges.
“His story inspired me, so I Googled him to learn more. I found out that he had just launched a website to help people with criminal records find jobs. I immediately created a job seeker profile and saw that he was hiring at Honest Jobs. The instant wave of hope and relief I felt when I read that job description was almost overwhelming. I had given up finding a job in my former field because I didn’t think any technology company would give me a chance. But I submitted my resume along with the sappiest cover letter ever written, and Harley replied almost immediately. I went in for an interview the next day, and he hired me on the spot.” - Melissa Dickerson
How does Honest Jobs work?
“We have an algorithm that makes us different from any other job board. The job seeker will sign up for an account and self-describe their criminal record. That drives the algorithm. It reads the descriptions of jobs in the area and attempts to identify any conflict between the job description and the job seeker’s record. It lets them know which jobs they have the best chance at getting. If I have a DUI in my record, I won’t get any jobs which require driving, for example, because that would conflict with my record,” Dickerson says.
The service is entirely free for job seekers and the government agencies or nonprofit organizations Honest Jobs works with. On the other hand, employers who use the services of Honest Jobs have different pricing options based on how many jobs they would like to sponsor on the site. The Basic account allows employers to post one job for free. There are different Premium pricing options which you can find on the Honest Jobs website.
Read Jails to Jobs whole article here: https://jailstojobs.org/honest-jobs-helps-formerly-incarcerated-job-seekers-find-employment-and-companies-become-second-chance-employers/