There is no easy and there is no hard, there is only the competition for the position. So are criminal misdemeanour's a block, only if, all things being equal, the person you compete against is as good and does not have a criminal history. Keep in mind when an employer rejects you, they are not working at constructively rejecting you so that you can improve your next job application, they are looking to safely (for themselves) and politely rejecting you for the simplest reasons possible. Criminal record is basically an easy out for rejection, the employer is still saying you are an acceptable person but company policy prevents them from accepting you, so a safe out for rejection.
Of course without stating the exact nature of the naughtiness and, the age at which it occurred, any judgement about employability or lack there of, remains pie in the sky. Basically it is all down to pluses or minuses, how much better is your skill set and recent employment history than you past criminal history and how does that compare to other people applying for the same position.
Proving skills is pretty easy in IT, do free stuff for FOSS (free open source software) because if you efforts are good enough you can quite readily gain public recognition by the people you most want to impress. So demonstrate skill by picking the most appropriate FOSS project and then start doing the hard grind to demonstrate your skills, not only will you practise you skills amongst peers who will help and instruct you but you will get to know the right people who will help you get a job or even employ you.