I recently plead guilty to a felony drug possession. Believe it or not I actually was innocent but wasn’t willing to risk a trial and being found guilty so I plead. This was the only felony conviction on my record and I’m 45 yrs old. I have since applied for and interviewed for a few management positions. In one case I was told by the hiring manager I gave the best interview he has had in 6 months. All was good until they asked about a criminal record. I was honest and told them the whole story. The next day I was emailed that I wouldn’t be considered for the position. No reason or or reference to my record or if they even did perform a background check. I was recently asked to apply for another management position by a very large transportation company. So I applied and again was told I gave a great interview and was in fact asked to interview for an even higher management position, which I did. Two days later I was offered a position. I was emailed an offer sheet and was told if I accepted the offer the next step would be to schedule a pre-employment drug test and background test. I was then given a choice of 2 start dates. One in 2 weeks, the other in 3.

So I guess my question is, A) why would this company go through the whole process of offering me a management position prior to a background check, when other companies ran the check before even offering me a position? Seems like they would want to run a background check first, so as not to waste any time with someone who may (or may not) fail. B) Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle things once the results of the background check comes back?