Title: Hey HN (using a throwaway account for obvious reasons, but I&#x27;ve been on HN for 10 years),<p>I was just recently offered a job at a FAANG company. I&#x27;m pretty excited about the company, but the only potential issue is that I have a criminal history and I&#x27;m not sure if I&#x27;ll pass the background check.<p>For context, two years ago I was part of an animal rights group that would investigate factory farms and rescue sick, injured animals from them. The investigations were public, and I was indicted on felony burglary and theft charges in Utah for one rescue. I ended up pleading guilty &quot;in abeyance&quot; to misdemeanor attempted theft and misdemeanor riot. Because the pleas were &quot;in abeyance&quot;, the pleas are sealed as long as I don&#x27;t commit any other crimes.<p>I read up a bit about California employment law, and it seems like California companies aren&#x27;t allowed to use arrest records (I technically wasn&#x27;t arrested, but I did have an arrest warrant out for me and I turned myself in) and sealed court records against you. So I&#x27;m not sure if I should even bring it up. That said, I&#x27;ve asked a couple lawyer friends and they think I should bring it up early (though they&#x27;re not specialists in employment law).<p>Any advice or lawyer recommendations would be appreciated.
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