[kiwi]

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Poor recruiters will ignore your resume based on Poker being a scary word
Good recruiters, or those that are poker fiends, will say - "Check out this poker guy - let's meet him tomorrow"


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Well, I will have to defer to your expertise, but my experience with recruiters is that they will send you on interviews where you have the slimmest of chances. I wouldn't get my hopes up because a recruiter is finding me interviews to send on.

I don't think it matters much if a recruiter is a poker fiend.(What % of them are, anyway). What matters is how the managers making the hiring decision perceive gamblers. If all of them are poker fiends (manager, mananger's manager and whoever else sees him in his 1st and 2nd interview) then maybe he gets a job offer. Being entry level, he certainly doesn't fit in the 10% that every employer is competing for. Even less so with a questionable resume.

As far as lying goes, the way I see it, employers sometimes can't handle the truth. All resumes are exagerated. I assume that most everyone that is competing for the job against me is exagerating or lying. The former director of FEMA lied on his resume and look how far he went before it was discovered. (Not until after Katrina). I would not be over-paranoid about that for an entry level job.

I don't believe everyone knows someone who plays poker. Because of the social circles we are in, we THINK everyone plays or knows someone who plays. Every TV segment I have seen about online gambling on the networks cast it in a negative light. Just because WE watch WSOP and WPT doesn't mean everyone does. I believe only a tiny fraction of americans watch these shows.

One doesn't have to deny he plays or has ever played poker or written a poker article. It could be viewed as a hobby. To bring it front and center when job hunting, I believe, is a mistake.

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Strangely, I am a Kiwi who played his first hand of poker (EVER) 3 months ago, and has never seen it on TV. I threw in the poker fiend because here it would be quite unusual. Seems a bit glib when quoted like that, I can see.

There are many kinds of recruiters - smart candidates align themselves with smart recruiters who have great clients. I personally avoid the "freechip tables" of the recruitment industry. They are probably the bottom feeders tho whom you refer.

The 10% I refer to is found from grad level to CEO - again it is innate ability rather than purely experience which stands out.

As far as lying on a resume goes, my experience is it is a 10% gain, 90 loss scenario. The people I get excited about don't NEED to lie on their resume - and I don't think OP should, unless he is looking for a mundane role. He played Poker, and should seek an environment to work that at least can accept that - ie they should be compatible. You are very correct when saying not to assume our burning passion is even relevant to others

Interesting though and I see your perspective - I guess there are subleties to quality recruiting/job seeking as there are to Poker - you probably get frustrated when someone with only homegame experience holds forth on Advanced POker Techniques [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

(ps will learn to quote/post/quote/post soon!!)