Screw it All, I'm Going Pro

[PBJaxx]

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Is your line of work something that you can easily get back into later in life?

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I can anser this question. The answer is no. If OP has submitted his 2-weeks notice, he'll be a dinaosaur in 6 months.

FishSticks, I know you said that you want encouragement, as if to say the wheels are in motion and there's no turning back now. Even still, sometimes in life you think what you need is encouragement, but what you really need is a hard slap in the face.

I'm not saying you'll fail, and in fact I wish you the best of luck.

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Grunch, you are specifically referring to the IT world, correct? I assume this would be marginally different with most engineering disciplines (outside of software). Is this true?

[MasterLJ]

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Is your line of work something that you can easily get back into later in life?

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I can anser this question. The answer is no. If OP has submitted his 2-weeks notice, he'll be a dinaosaur in 6 months.

FishSticks, I know you said that you want encouragement, as if to say the wheels are in motion and there's no turning back now. Even still, sometimes in life you think what you need is encouragement, but what you really need is a hard slap in the face.

I'm not saying you'll fail, and in fact I wish you the best of luck.

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I am an unhappy IT recruiter by day, and batman at night. Sometime in between I play poker.

In all seriousness and despite Grunch's sexy avatar, this is correct. To be more frank, if you have a gap in experience for more than 2 years I will simply discard your resume.

Take something part time, volunteer, or whatever else to keep your skills sharp.

[Grunch]

Yes I am referring specifically to IT.

I'll throw this out there too. When I was in college (eventually comp sci major) a lot of my classmates were IT majors. I always found this odd, I never understood why someone who was computer-inclined would ever want to be an IT guy.

Sometimes I would ask them why they were in the IT track instead of the programming track. Nobody ever said because they wanted to administer networks or be a DBA. Usually they said they wanted to program or do something like work at Intel, and for some reason they were advised (or decided on thier own) to get a degree in IT, thinking it was the same thing. Well, it's not.

[MTSuper7]

Fish,
Good luck with this... I myself have wondered about how the tax side would work if I ever withdrew large sums of money (I have a nice full time job and just leave my money on PokerStars). I found this article, and I would suggest you read it to get a clearer idea of what's really involved with reporting gambling income:

http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Artic...bling-tax.htm.

One of the things that surprised me about U.S. law is that you're not supposed to just pay tax on your net winnings - technically you are supposed to keep track of each individual session, recording your winnings and losses, then report total winnings from winning sessions as income and total losses from losing sessions as an itemized deduction on schedule A of a 1040 return. I wonder how many of us actually do that...

One of the things that you might want to think about is vacation time. You can step away from a "real" job and take vacation time on occasion to get away, see family, visit places, etc. and still get paid while you're gone. You might find that you never feel comfortable going on vacation without your laptop. You and your woman will have to work out some ground rules to make this work, and be sure that you communicate with each other about how you really feel... This kind of life change can cause stress, resentment, etc. so be on top of the situation. Also, keep in mind that she might have some preconceived ideas of what it's going to be like if you're home all of the time now (i.e. - he should be in charge of keeping the house clean, he'll cook dinner during the week, etc.). Do not assume that you and she are on the same page with ANY of this. In case you couldn't tell, I've had poker cause some relationship problems in the past.

Good luck!

[MasterLJ]

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Yes I am referring specifically to IT.

I'll throw this out there too. When I was in college (eventually comp sci major) a lot of my classmates were IT majors. I always found this odd, I never understood why someone who was computer-inclined would ever want to be an IT guy.

Sometimes I would ask them why they were in the IT track instead of the programming track. Nobody ever said because they wanted to administer networks or be a DBA. Usually they said they wanted to program or do something like work at Intel, and for some reason they were advised (or decided on thier own) to get a degree in IT, thinking it was the same thing. Well, it's not.

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QFT.

I was comp sci as well (along with a metric fuckton of poker players). I had a shirt that said, "No I will not fix your computer." I'm a programmer, not an IT guy.

[Jay Riall]

Lol I went 'pro' after only about 100k hands of cash and so far I do not regret it one bit. I am doing very well at the minute and feel my future prospects are looking very good. I just need a [censored] work ethic now.

[PBJaxx]

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Yes I am referring specifically to IT.

I'll throw this out there too. When I was in college (eventually comp sci major) a lot of my classmates were IT majors. I always found this odd, I never understood why someone who was computer-inclined would ever want to be an IT guy.

Sometimes I would ask them why they were in the IT track instead of the programming track. Nobody ever said because they wanted to administer networks or be a DBA. Usually they said they wanted to program or do something like work at Intel, and for some reason they were advised (or decided on thier own) to get a degree in IT, thinking it was the same thing. Well, it's not.

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What do you know about resume gaps for engineers, Grunch? I assume software development suffers from similar albeit less extreme issues as IT. The software world is constantly changing from embedded applications to windows/linux based GUIs. I would be more confident in an experienced SW eng's abilities to catch up than an IT admins abilities, though, as the main principles remain the same.

Note: This is certainly not meant to offend anyone. I am just looking for info from someone with more experience than I have. I better add another "GO FISHSTICKS GO!" for good measure. He is seriously my new hero. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Grunch]

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Lol I went 'pro' after only about 100k hands of cash and so far I do not regret it one bit. I am doing very well at the minute and feel my future prospects are looking very good. I just need a [censored] work ethic now.

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Jay,

How long have you been pro? (In calendar time, not hands played.)

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 15 years? Do you like doing what you do, and if so, why?

[MasterLJ]

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Lol I went 'pro' after only about 100k hands of cash and so far I do not regret it one bit. I am doing very well at the minute and feel my future prospects are looking very good. I just need a [censored] work ethic now.

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I've been "pro" twice. I define "pro" as playing poker to eat. I actually played less than I do now =P. It's amazing what fun can be had when you have an open schedule.

[amead]

Greetings...

As one of Mr. Stix's buds IRL (despite bailing out of Western NY for NYC to chase the dream of...uh...another 8-6er), and having worked with him for 6 years at his place of employ, I can say that he's definitely doing the right thing getting out.

The poker thing on the other hand...who knows. Just kidding. There's little actual risk here. He's got a ton of aptitude for just about anything, so the risk of never finding future employment isn't applicable here.

Only potential issues are poker burn-out, as turning a game into a job must have some sort of consequence, and the isolation factor. The folks at work are mostly decent, and losing that social interaction might lead to some depression. Also knowing that we tend to keep our friends on the light side, this is my biggest source of concern.

But what the hell. It was like me packing up and moving away for the first time. If it doesn't work, what are you actually out? CTO of a Technology company can get back on the horse finding a 50k/year job, and it's not close, regardless of being out of the game for a bit.

And 50k in Rochester automatically makes you like, the King or Mayor or something, I think.

Practical advice on how to deal with the isolation and pokerburnout would seem useful though.

Good luck bud, and take me out and crap when you're a serious baller.