For the conversation you are actually dreading: the record, the gap, the accommodation you need, the first job with no history. Build your answer in your own words, then practice it from your chair and from theirs, because fear sits on both sides of the table.
Built from 21 branching scenarios across five situations, each choice graded against the disclosure and desistance research (Maruna 2001; Pager 2003; Ali, Lyons & Ryan 2017; SHRM 2021; EEOC 2012), and a story builder built on the three-part answer from Invest Hamilton County's re-entry research
Deterministic and device-only: nothing writes your answer for you and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Alex Plus members can choose to send a draft to the coach for one reply, which is not stored. Written at a sixth-grade reading level on purpose.
Before the talk, there is a checkbox. Here is how to think about it.
Indiana has no statewide rule that makes private employers wait to ask about convictions, so many job forms here still ask up front (as of August 2026). Federal jobs and federal contractors wait until they have made you an offer. Two things change your answer: what the question really asks, and whether your record has been expunged. Expunged means a court has sealed it, so most employers may not use it or ask about it.
The application asks: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?”
Strong move
Being precise is your friend. Indiana's Second Chance Law says a person whose record is expunged should be treated as if it never happened for most purposes, and an employer may not hold an expunged record against you (Indiana Code 35-38-9-10). If the form says felony and yours was a misdemeanor, the honest answer is no. Answer the question asked, not the question you fear.
Strong move
Also right, and for many people the better move when the answer is yes. A yes with a growth sentence beats a bare yes, and it beats a surprise later by a mile (Ali, Lyons and Ryan, 2017). Keep the note to two sentences. The interview is where the story lives, not the form.
Costs you something
A false answer is a fresh, separate reason to end the process, and it turns your record from history into a question about your character. Background checks in Indiana will find convictions that were not expunged. If the true answer is yes, your path is a truthful yes plus the strongest interview you can give, or getting the record expunged first.
Now you, out loud
If you are not sure what is on your record, that is the real first step. Write down where you will find out this week.
One way it can sound
“Ask the Indiana State Police for your limited criminal history. Then talk to a legal aid group about expungement before you file. Indiana lets you file only one expungement request in your whole life, so the timing and what you include have to be right. That is a talk for a lawyer, not a website.”
Keep these
Answer the question asked, exactly, and truthfully.
Expunged in Indiana means you may lawfully answer no. That is the law, not a trick.
One expungement filing per lifetime. Get legal help first. This tool cannot give legal advice, and this is the very choice it cannot make for you.
The Table, part of Alex for Workforce and Alex for Business · alexhamiltoncounty.com · Free practice, both chairs · In crisis, call or text 988
Practicing for a particular job rather than a
particular conversation? Get
interview-ready drills the questions that role actually gets.
The Table gives general information and coaching
support. It is not legal advice and creates no attorney-client relationship.
It never screens, assesses or treats anything. For your own situation,
including expungement, licensing or what you must disclose in a regulated
field, talk to a licensed attorney. Free and low-cost help:
Indiana Legal Services,
the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic,
and your local public defender's reentry program. In danger now: 988, 911,
or the Indiana Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. Facts current as of
October 2026.
Talk it through with your Alex coach
A conversation, not a form. Your coach knows Hamilton
County's numbers and programs, and it will point you to the right tool
for anything it can't answer. It's an AI coach, your chats are private,
and they are never used to train anything.
