Originally Posted by rickair7777

It would depend on state law in the employer's jurisdiction. In many cases not only can they not ask past a certain timeframe (3,5,7,10 years) they also cannot discriminate against past convictions if they do find them. Legally anyway. This can vary with every airline you apply to based on their HQ location.

Although if old convictions were more on the serious side, they might just break the law and risk a lawsuit... some airlines in the past have *really* dug in their heels on their red lines for pilot backgrounds.

But that's for *convictions*. There are not many states left where it's legal to discriminate against prior *arrests*... that gets back to the whole presumed innocent thing. Unless the arrests were for serious stuff like violence, SA, theft, drug dealing, etc. Then again they might just dig in their heels.

I would talk to an employment lawyer in that local jurisdiction... probably need to understand what's going on, so you know how to navigate future job apps.

Originally Posted by 7thgear

According to the fair credit reporting act, they are supposed to inform me ahead of time if they’re going to make an adverse hiring decision based on something they found in a consumer background check. So, either they don’t care to go through that process or their decision was based on something else.

Originally Posted by 7thgear

There are a few arrests and criminal charges in my background (from 15-20 years ago) that I did not disclose, but also were not asked about. Those charges didn’t lead to convictions as I did community service and they were dismissed. Haven’t had any issues since except a few speeding tickets.

Originally Posted by VacancyBid

If you have three arrests you need disclosure AND story. “the charges were dropped” isn’t it unless these were really trivial (minor in possession) or somehow not really criminal (you were a professional nuclear protester)

Originally Posted by 7thgear

I have a Facebook, but it’s not under my real name. I’m rarely active on it and there’s nothing even remotely controversial on there. I may have made a throwaway social media account years ago that was tied to my email address and posted something stupid that I don’t remember.

There are a few arrests and criminal charges in my background (from 15-20 years ago) that I did not disclose, but also were not asked about. Those charges didn’t lead to convictions as I did community service and they were dismissed. Haven’t had any issues since except a few speeding tickets. Those charges didn’t stop me from getting my medical or airport security badge. In hindsight, probably should’ve mentioned them somewhere in the application so it didn’t look like I was trying to hide them. I think this is probably what made them pull the offer. Running this through ChatGPT, I’m reading that even though these charges may not be publicly listed as disqualifying by the FAA or the airline, the airline may still have an internal HR standard that isn’t made public. If I didn’t meet that standard, then my app automatically gets flagged and they pull the offer. I’ve heard of people with far worse than me getting hired though so I don’t know.

Perhaps a former employer badmouth me, but I doubt it. Perhaps the drug test came back with a false positive, but I doubt that too. Confident all my dates of employment are either correct or very close to correct. I disclosed every traffic violation I could remember.

Nothing in my PRD except the one check ride failure that I disclose to them. I did get a phone number to call by ATC once, and when I talked to the safety inspector from the FSDO, he talked about maybe putting me in a compliance program but we never went through with it. I never got anything in the mail about this or anything. I didn’t disclose this to them either because it didn’t fit any of the questions that they asked.

Unfortunately, they won’t tell me. I’m hoping when I see the background report, something obvious will stand out. I’m going to call one of the application prep companies to go over this with me.

I was really impressed with the organization of thoroughness of the company. I was really excited about joining the team. I respect their decision. Just wish I knew what the deal is.

Originally Posted by 7thgear

I have a Facebook, but it’s not under my real name. I’m rarely active on it and there’s nothing even remotely controversial on there. I may have made a throwaway social media account years ago that was tied to my email address and posted something stupid that I don’t remember.

There are a few arrests and criminal charges in my background (from 15-20 years ago) that I did not disclose, but also were not asked about. Those charges didn’t lead to convictions as I did community service and they were dismissed. Haven’t had any issues since except a few speeding tickets. Those charges didn’t stop me from getting my medical or airport security badge. In hindsight, probably should’ve mentioned them somewhere in the application so it didn’t look like I was trying to hide them. I think this is probably what made them pull the offer. Running this through ChatGPT, I’m reading that even though these charges may not be publicly listed as disqualifying by the FAA or the airline, the airline may still have an internal HR standard that isn’t made public. If I didn’t meet that standard, then my app automatically gets flagged and they pull the offer. I’ve heard of people with far worse than me getting hired though so I don’t know.

Perhaps a former employer badmouth me, but I doubt it. Perhaps the drug test came back with a false positive, but I doubt that too. Confident all my dates of employment are either correct or very close to correct. I disclosed every traffic violation I could remember.

Nothing in my PRD except the one check ride failure that I disclose to them. I did get a phone number to call by ATC once, and when I talked to the safety inspector from the FSDO, he talked about maybe putting me in a compliance program but we never went through with it. I never got anything in the mail about this or anything. I didn’t disclose this to them either because it didn’t fit any of the questions that they asked.

Unfortunately, they won’t tell me. I’m hoping when I see the background report, something obvious will stand out. I’m going to call one of the application prep companies to go over this with me.

I was really impressed with the organization of thoroughness of the company. I was really excited about joining the team. I respect their decision. Just wish I knew what the deal is.

Originally Posted by VacancyBid

If you have three arrests you need disclosure AND story. “the charges were dropped” isn’t it unless these were really trivial (minor in possession) or somehow not really criminal (you were a professional nuclear protester)

Originally Posted by Otterbox

No true name social media presence is a red flag for many companies in today’s world. In this connected world, If they can’t find you, it’s not uncommon for them to assume you’ve got something to hide.

Originally Posted by Otterbox

Another issue is undisclosed arrests/criminal charges. The most conservative thing would have been to list the charges and their dismissal and provide official documentation from the courts regarding their dismissal. If you didn’t they can be left seeing a pattern of misconduct.