The Myth of the Resume Gap

[dustyn]

[ QUOTE ]
Honestly I'm not sure why everyone is jumping all over Fishy here. If you think that there are not a certain percentage of HR/Managers who would hesitate to hire someone with Poker on their resume you're mistaken. I guarantee you there are. I'm not saying there aren't some that would prefer to see it opposed to a gap. There very well may be.

[ QUOTE ]
You should actually listen to people like 2nd Goat, Bisonbison, and Death Valley, all of whom have had solid job opportunities after playing professionally.

[/ QUOTE ]
Did they include it on the resume? Do I not count in that group? I didn't include it.

[ QUOTE ]
Poker was not a detractor for any of them.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nobody said you can never get back to work in your field after playing poker as a sole means of income for a certain period. But that doesn't mean it isn't/wasn't a detractor to some extent.

I think if you do decide to include it 2nd Goat did a nice job with the details and trying to relate it to the type of position he's looking for. It was an excellent post as an example of how to do that if you so choose. But I'm not sure just leaving a gap would be worse. And no...leaving poker out of your resume is not lying or unethical (to those who feel otherwise). Lying in the interview if asked what you did for income in that period is clearly a different story. But I don't believe anyone was advocating that.

[/ QUOTE ]

So how do you explain an 18 month gap? What do you say? And if you're making mad money playing poker and a Kroll background check reveals a monster purchase? Or if you say you're "travelling" and a Kroll background check puts you on a traffic violation or something? Or if you have published an article talking about poker and it gives a tidbit about your poker habits? How are you going to explain your income (because these companies will ask you about your income during your gap and you better have good answers to back it up). All of these things are very likely to happen. And your candidacy is toast if any of these situations come up and are inconsistent with your background interview.

Yes, some people will not hire you because of poker. Yes, some opportunities you will not be able to get. Yes, some opportunities will be available to you because of poker playing that you would otherwise not have access to. Yes, you face a significant risk of being "found out" about your lies to explain your resume gap. Yes, you will get fired if people found out you lied about your resume during any point of your employment tenure. Yes, it's extremely unethical to lie about an 18 month gap on your resume (and an employer is going to be VERY curious about what you were doing for a year and a half, and if they conduct background checks, they will most definitely want to focus on that).

Some people choose to tell the truth. Some people choose to lie about it. Both have their pros and cons.