
Yes, Home Depot does hire felons. Several factors including how old your felony is, the type of felony and the location of the store your applying at will determine if you are eligible to be hired. Sex offenses and violent felonies will disqualify you being hired by Home Depot.
Does Home Depot Hire Felons
As stated above Home Depot will hire felons but that does not mean they will hire ALL felons. Our Organization Help for Felons has worked with a number of felons that have been hired by Home Depot. I do not consider them to be a true “felon friendly” employer since they are very selective, but it is possible to get hired.
Below you will find truly helpful information (no fluff or BS) that will give you a an advantage when trying to get hired by Home Depot.
Guide: How to get hired by Home Depot with a felony
Following this guide will allow you to have the best shot at getting the hired. Please read the entire article before you start the process of applying.
Step #1 – Applying to home depot as a felon
Home Depot has an easy to fill out online application. It is important to note the application does not ask about felonies or criminal records. That is because home depot is a “ban the box” company. Don’t get me wrong home depot will be doing a background check on you after your interview. More on that later. Let us deal with the application first.
Availability
Having open availability will make you more desirable to Home Depot. If other applicants do not have open availability you will have one up on them. Here are the questions that they ask on the application concerning availability.

Position Selection
Since the odds are already stacked against you do not make it harder than it already is by applying for a position where your felony makes it even harder or impossible. Make the name of the game “getting your foot in the door.” Do not apply for management positions or security positions since this will even call more attention to your felony conviction. After you get hired you can then apply for those positions internally.
Here are some of the easiest position to get with a felony:
- Cashier – “Provide fast, friendly customer service at the point of purchase, accurately processing checkout and return transactions and identifying selling opportunities.”
- Store Support – “Improve customer experiences beyond our front doors, loading products into vehicles and monitoring shopping carts in our parking lots.”
- Receiving – “Our Freight Team works to ensure stores are stocked and ready for business. Responsible for unloading trucks and moving material through the store, they are an integral part of our business and the customer retail experience. The majority of these positions are overnight.”
Step #2 – The interview
This is going to be the opportunity that you use to try and get your felony out of the way. Keep in mind that Home Depot knows nothing about your criminal record at this point, they never asked on the application. Your background check be the last thing that Home Depot does before you start your job.
Crazy as this sounds you are going to bring up your felony to the hiring manager that is interviewing you. Why? Because this is the only time you will have any control over explaining your felony. If you leave the interview and the hiring manager gets a “surprise, felony record” fax a week later from the background check company they will be much more apt to cut you than if it is not a surprise and they know your history.
How to present you felony to the Home Depot interviewer
There are some things you can do to explain your felony in a way that makes it sound “softer” to the Home Depot interviewer. You must be prepared to present your felony to the interviewer both orally and in written form. Here are the details.
Explaining your felony to the Home Depot hiring manager
- Timing is everything – Do not bring this up until the interview is almost concluded, but not after it has ended. This allows the interviewer to form a good opinion about you before you bring up the bad news. Nine times out of ten towards the end of the interview the hiring manager will ask you if you have any questions. This is the time to let them know about your criminal record. Do not use the word felony yet.
- Explain your felony – Now everyone’s story is different so some variation may be needed for your situation. You need to explain in brief how you got in trouble and what happened. Be brief and do not dwell on this part. Limit this to a minute or less.
- Explain what you have done since your felony – This is especially important and should be well thought out. Talk about what you have done to change your life including but not limited to; education, classes, skills gained, lessons learned and how you want to continue your life by finding a home at Home Depot. Keep the attention on the present and not the past.
- Final note – After you have done your explaining it is time to ask the interviewer if they have any questions. After the interview is concluded thank them for their time.
Make sure that you are sincere and honest throughout the entire interview. Many hiring managers have years of experience interviewing applicants and they easily pick up on when people are trying to snowball them. Do not do it. Be calm and truthful.
Written Explanation
It is important to have a short letter concerning your felony. Keep it brief and to the point and do not provide too many details. The most important part of this is not the letter but what goes with it.
Attached to the letter provide any awards, certifications, diplomas, and a few letters of reference attesting to your character. After you have explained your felony to the interviewer then give them the letter and attached documents.
Here is an excellent video about interviewing with a felony.
Location matters
The Location of the Home Depot store that you are applying to will make a big difference since some states have laws limiting how far back, they can check your background. If you live in one of these states, you may want to dig deeper into the specifics of your state laws. If you find that your felony is old enough then you may want to rethink telling your interviewer about your felony conviction.
Twelve states do not allow any felony conviction information older than seven years to be reported. The seven years starts from your release date in most states.
- California
- Colorado*
- Kansas*
- Maryland*
- Massachusetts
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Hampshire*
- New York *
- Texas *
- Washington*
(* exceptions based on pay/salary)
You can find more information on 7-year background check states here.
Home Depot drug testing policy
I don’t have much to say about this except that Home Depot does drug test as part of the hiring process and randomly if you are an employee. Don’t blow your chance with a dirty test!
Felony expungement
If you don’t already know felony expungement is a legal procedure that removes a conviction from your record.
It can be expensive and many felonies can not be expunged but it is well worth investigating. Each state is different. Most law firms that specialize in expungement will give you a free consultation. If you can successfully expunge your record, then companies like Costco will have no clue that you were ever convicted.
Home Depot interview Information
Home Depot is going to ask you a lot of questions regarding customer service situations. You can find more information about Home Depot interview questions here. The top three questions asked are as follows:
- If a customer is looking for a part but doesn’t know what it’s called, how would you figure out what they needed?
- How would you define exceptional customer service?
- If a customer’s card was declined, and they became upset, how would you handle the situation?
Home Depot background information
When you go for your interview you need to known a bit about the company.
Home Depot is the largest home improvement chain in the United States, even bigger than Lowes. They sell everything from shingles, lumber, plywood, screws, lighting, plumbing and electrical supplies. Home Depot values include “taking care of our people”, excellent customer service and respect for all among other things. The about us page has some helpful information also.
I just got offered a job at home Depot! I am a felon and have a charge of receiving a stolen firearm! I guess I’m screwed from the looks of the forum!!
I hope it works out for you but don’t be surprised if they reject you at the last minute.
Did u get hired?
They did hire me and I am a home depot sales associate
Great news!
Hey , I’ve just finished my phone interview , & they pretty much said I have the job I’m just waiting on my background too come back but I’m scared I have no felony’s just a few misdemeanors , such as simple battery & giving a false name about a year ago … What do y’all think ?
Well to be honest I am not really sure as it varies so much between stores. The background check is the last step so keep your fingers crossed. Please keep us posted on what happens please! First hand information is very helpful to us and our readers! Wishing you the best luck but be prepared for disappointment just in case. Home depot is very well known for last second disappointments.
I was offered a position on the 18th of sep.. 2015 hired on the spot drug test that day took a background test 4 days later four days after that orientation letter to start on 10/5/15!! I have a felony from 2007… hope this helps. I would go for it !!! You never know what they are looking for and I work in the cooporate office in Atlanta.
Awesome great to hear! Thank you very much!!!
I agree Jason. People @ my church and I know have specific jobs OR careers that they must have. When you’re in need … take what you can until something BETTER comes. As far as no work for multiple years. That’s a no applying issue. My son, brother, etc. have that problem. They complain … apply to a couple a jobs and that’s it. I explain, if you can spend most of your time creating wrong, Facebook and video games. Then allow that time to CORRECT your life. I know for a fact that airports (food package for each plane), convenient stores and off shore oil rigs, trucks drivers, warehouse workers and truck drivers hire people with a felony/misdemeanor. My girlfriend does two of these jobs. She has a misdemeanor for receiving a check as a college student (but wasn’t). Her friend worked in the Administrator Office. Twenty years later, she’s still working those same jobs. And raised her 3 kids. Hope this help. BE BLESS AND GOOD LUCK !!!!
i use to work for home depot i had to do a little time i reapplied for the company told them i had a felony they still called me in for a interview did my drug test passed once my background check came back the denied me and this was on july 1 2015 they just called me again this morning but im not even going to waste my time
That seems to be the trend with home depot. I know it is disappointing and they waste people’s time. Wish you all the best.
One must sign a release form and submit a social security number in order for a background check to be done. It takes about two weeks for the background check to be done as it done by a third party. It will come back as PASS, FAIL or MAYBE. You will receive a copy of the results either way. I know because I had this happen with Dillards in 2008 when I did not have enough time in with my 2004 felony conviction (possession of cocaine i.e. having crack crumbs test postive for cocaine. In the past, I have made it through the first, second and third interviews, received the job offers, only for the application to go to corporate to turn it down because I was honest about listing the felony on my job application. Advantage Sales and Marketing who does food sampling at Sam’s refused to hire me. The hiring rep called and rescinded the job offer within a few minutes after sending the application to corporate. I was honest with her about what had happened. I was told no problem, they only went back seven years. This was in January 2012.
Good information, Thank you! I know it can be really hard but I talk to and see people that do end up finding jobs. It takes a lot of patience and persistence though and is a very frustrating process.
http://www.gofundme.com/2ndchancegrind
Good luck Ken!
I don’t mind folks posting a few relevant links to a worthy causes but please dont spam the entire site. I removed all links on all the other pages you posted. Thank you and please understand the need to keep this site relevant, clean and useful to those that need it. Have a great day and good luck!
I have a MISDEMEANOR and I passed everything and the day before my orientation they called saying I failed the back ground test
Thank you for the information and I am sorry to hear that. Very disheartening but don’t give up!!!
How old is your misdemeanor, Nick?
I already had a job before I actually applied to Home Depot. I went through the entire hiring process and was assigned to the Brentwood stair store in Fort Worth. Upon arrival, after orientation at the cooper store located in Arlington Texas, I was told that they weren’t able to hire me because of my criminal background. I was making & $13 an hour, was told to go ahead and put in my two weeks notice because I was onboard. Home Depot didn’t want to pay me for attending orientation, so I ended up having to call corporate office to get that money and that was back in 2005. Now here it is 2015 and I haven’t found another job since; it has been ten years.
Home Depot ruined my life further. No regrets whatsoever, from Home Depot. Nardelli ended up getting the check paid and sent out to me.
To deprive soemones right to own a fire arm for hunting or self defense is stupid. I feel that if a person is convicted of a felony ( I have been), they shouldnt be allowed to have any while on parole/probation. If a weapon was used during the commision of the crime, they shouldnt be allowed to carry one or have it outside of the house at ALL, but should be allowed to have one in the house for self defense. We all have the right to self defense no matter what our criminal background is. My children shouldnt have to be raped or murdered because I made a stupid mistake over 10 years ago. Once we do our time, we are done. We paid our debt. Someone tried to break into the house I share with my very sick grandmother about 3 weeks ago, and 3 days ago two armed men robbed a woman of her purse and car after putting a gun to her head. I guess if they come back, I have to let them rape my 86 year old grandmother cause I’m a felon. Sadly, Im more afraid of the people that make the stupid ass laws then the people that commit the crimes. I can kill the person breaking in, but Im stuck with the ignorant politicians.
If you cant find a job in 10 years, something is wrong. Period. Background or no background. I have multiple felonies, don’t live in a very populated area, and have never been more than 2 weeks with ought a job in 15 years. So, if you cant get a job, in that amount of time, it has nothing to do with felonies.