I am a convicted 22year old man of a serious charge. I need help because I cannot decide what I should write on my job applications. When asked if I have any criminal convictions I cannot decide whether I should admit the truth or lie and say no. Every time I have said yes to this question employers don't seem to want to know. I feel like I am being victimised for an offence that I committed in self-defence after having been attacked by three guys which like anyone else would defend myself. I ended up getting an 18month sentence for manslaughter because I pleaded guilty because I didn't want to take the offence to court where there was the possibility of self-defence and a possibility of murder. My barrister at the time told me that self defence is very hard to prove because in most cases the jury will always find you guilty of manslaughter because someone has died.

How serious are you about keeping the job? If you are not very serious just don't mention it. They will fire you once they find out, but some employers won't do a criminal background check.

Lying will not help, once they find out, you will be fired for lying, then you have bad references on top of conviction.