I didn't get a job at Timpson's and I'm almost 100% sure it was down to my offence.

I had a phone interview/chat with the area manager, it went great. I then got invited in for a face-to-face interview which went really well and they emphasized experience in the trade isn't needed as they put you through a course all they care about is customer service experience or at least based customer service handling.

Got offered a work trial for a few hours. I went to that, did really well. I was asked about my offence which I was fairly open about.

Then radio silence.

I chased it up a week later and was advised I didn't have enough customer service experience.

Seemingly over looking 15+ years of customer service experience I've got ranging from small part-time shop assistant roles to being a retail store manager in a multi-billion pound company.

It felt like a huge cop-out and I'm convinced it was due to the offence as the tone shifted sharply once that came up that I almost got whiplash.

I presume the difficulty is once one company goes public about hiring ex-offenders, especially with millions of people with AND without criminal records looking for work, any company would not only see an influx of applications but potentially negative publicity too (Timpsons handles the publicity/criticism fairly well, I think).

One route is to put your skills to use and sell your services online. I realise this isn't for everybody, but sites like Fiverr, Freelancer and Upwork don't do any background checks, it's a rare level playing field. I've earned money on those in the past while being registered as self-employed. Nobody who I've worked for over the past 3 years has asked about my background, I'm paid to do the job and if more work comes from it because I've done a good job then I pat myself on the back.

Companies who advertise jobs for people to work from home / remote etc may also not ask for a check, it's worth checking the usual job sites for these because I have seen some. Again this isn't for everyone but with more and more skills going online, and businesses having less offices and using things like Slack to co-ordinate efforts, there could be opportunities to be found. There's also lots of ideas for side hustles on this page: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/293954

I'm not saying it's easy but hopefully, ideas here can go some way to end a six-year chasm.

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Fighting or Accepting - its difficult to know which is right and when.

sad to see this hasnt had any updates for 6 years