Potential employers may be hesitant to hire former inmates due to perceived risk of employment failure or business loss. Formerly incarcerated persons may have spotty work histories and may have limited education and job training background, creating further obstacles to gainful employment. Educational illiteracy, limited job skills and interpersonal skills, criminal history, and neighborhood settings have been cited as obstacles to employment as well as increasing risk for reincarceration. In light of the evidence from the professional literature, it seems that in order for parolees and other ex-offenders to succeed in establishing a traditional career, a range of needs must be recognized. The needs include: education, housing, aftercare services, child care, social support, treatment, policy changes, employment support, and job training. Intervention strategies to assist formerly incarcerated individuals to get and keep jobs and to avoid reincarceration emerge from diverse models representing a range of offender needs.