Put poker on resume?

[bav]

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big risk, small reward potential. better to just stay away from it.

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This is the right answer. The odds of poker being of ANY benefit are slender--at best it's going to be ignored as immaterial. The odds that it will cause the door to be slammed in your face are pretty high. Even if the first person who reads your resume is a poker player and understands, the next 5 people who read it are going to toss it into the reject file. It's just an almost no-win situation.

Now... if you're applying to work for Cardplayer magazine, I have a different answer for you. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[kbinder]

Never include it on the resume, as you just can't anticipate the mindset of the first person who will read it. Best to feel them out during the interview and decide if it's worth mentioning in person. For my first internship (hedge fund), the employer actually asked if I play blackjack, backgammon, or poker, so that was easy. I ended up mentioning it for my second internship and it worked out (or it didn't make a difference). I've got an interview this Friday and am prepared to mention it if it seems it could help my case.

[recondite7]

These people are idiots, both jobs I got mentioned that they liked poker on the resume and I tried leaving it off and putting it on a different times. It makes you stand out and I doubt many people are going to throw your resume for having the word poker as a small hobby on the bottom of it.

Finance sucks and is boring anyway though so why even try to get a job?

[kbinder]

even if finance is boring to you, there's potential to make a lot of money in a short amount of time if you're really good

[erroneous]

Thanks for all the input guys. After reading this and getting some other opinions, I'm heavily leaning towards leaving it off the resume. My resume won't really stick out, but hopefully I'll be allright.

[recondite7]

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even if finance is boring to you, there's potential to make a lot of money in a short amount of time if you're really good

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Besides writing incoherently and sounding like a jackass I forgot to mention I graduated with a finance degree and I say it sucks because I hated it and just did it because of the potential jobs out there.

But seriously don't give up on putting it on any resume. If you think you are a longshot for a position put it on there to take the "risk" that the other posters are mentioning. If you just put down poker you sound interesting, if you put down online gambling then people might think you are weird.

[jfresh]

yeah, what happened to 2+2? there was a huge thread a few months ago about someone who applied to a relatively high security job in DC (if i remember correctly), and put poker on his resume. lots of people chimed in, and it seemed the concensus was it wasn't a bad idea to put it on.

from personal experience, i put it on my resume with a few bullet points explaining it (i applied solely to consulting firms). i got a surprisingly luke-warm response from my friend who know i played successfully. on the other hand, a career counselor (40-45 year old lady) said consulting firms might be impressed by it, and at the least it would make my resume stand out a bit.

long story short, my gpa and extra curriculars were below average, but i got an interview at my top choice and ultimately ended up getting the job. not sure if it was poker that did it, but thats my story.

[APXG]

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Umm.... no.

If there's one thing you'll learn about the "corporate environment" (other than watching Office Space, I mean) once you get out of college, it's that the people who get up the ladder (the ones who will be looking at your resume) are usually the "safe" ones. The conservative ones. The yes-men that aren't threatening to their superiors.

The risk-takers, the people who live life on the edge, the people who would look at a professional poker player as somebody to be respected? They're all off starting their own companies. They're the ones running the small companies, who don't need to hire and brainwash college yuppies so they can get people to properly fill out their TPS cover sheets. These people don't waste their time sifting through bland resumes from a job fair. In fact, they probably wouldn't hire somebody right out of college in the first place.

The people at this job fair will not be impressed by your "hobby", no matter how much money you've made. To them, you're threatening. You're a loose cannon. Someone not to be trusted.

Don't put this on your resume. The only things that will impress them will be working 14 hour days for zero overtime, and being a scratch golfer. Other than that, their heads are solidly buried in the sand.

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I agree 100%.

But I don't understand why anyone with the creativity to be successful at poker would want a job in the corporate world / career as a "yes-man". I don't think I'd want to work even at Goldman other than in trading after 1.5 years of poker. There's a reason why people like bax / stox / seidel / goehring went the opposite way and probably laugh at naiive 19 yr olds who major in finance with little true passion and mainly b.c of money when the real money is actually in poker(with tremendous discipline / preparation of course, and balls to pursue it).

[SuperUberBob]

I wouldn't even mention it.

[Thremp]

APXG,

LOLZ at your naivety. The best Wall Streeters make more in a year than the best poker players make in a lifetime. Get a grip.