Put poker on resume?

[MTUCache]

[ QUOTE ]
but if you dont take risks while going for top internships, you'll never get one.

[/ QUOTE ]

See... this must be the part where Finance internships are hella different from engineering internships.

I had a completely bland resume coming out of school. No problem getting interviews, no problem getting job offers. As long as there wasn't anything crazy on your background check or resume, you were going to get the job. There was probably more positions open than there were applicants.

I suppose that if you've normally got 0.1% chance at even getting someone to LOOK at your resume, let alone give you an interview/offer, then you MUST do something to stand out, even if it's something that could make you look bad.

I just can't imagine trying for a position that I only had a .1% chance of getting. To me, every job I've gone after has been a virtual lock, as long as I didn't screw it up. I've never been in a position where I had to do something outstanding just to have a shot at it.

So... there you have it. If you're on a complete freeroll, and normally wouldn't have any chance at the job, why NOT put something unique on your resume? Hell, you might as well put down all sorts of crazy-azz [censored] on there. If your only chance at the job is to catch somebody's eye, you might as well go for broke. If you run into some bible-thumper who's not impressed (or even insulted), you haven't really lost anything. What's the worst that could happen? You get shot down for a job that you would have already gotten shot down from.

If it's a job where you've got a legitimate shot at it without having to put anything suspect on the resume, it's probably best to save that info for later.

[viciouspenguin]

" I don't think one in 10,000 people see playing poker professionally as an admirable occupation. Hell, I don't even think it's an admirable occupation."

if you can clearly state that you approahced poker not as a gambler but from a mathematical point of view.... where you pushed small +EV edges over hundreds of thousands of hands, that you understood variance and avoided going broek through risk and money management, etc. etc......... how is this not like the stock market? im not going to argue with you anymore. there are some people who will never accept that poker can look good, and you're one of them.

[viciouspenguin]

oh, and if you said you made 200k, a million, whatever from playing poker, the recruiters/interviewers wont get jealous. they'll be impressed. you're the bitch, not them. by making that much you become a glorified bitch

[T50_Omaha8]

[ QUOTE ]
how is this not like the stock market?

[/ QUOTE ] Because you're a leech on other people's addictions and doing something that does not add any tangible economic value to society.

Therefore playing poker is not 'admirable' by most definitions.

I don't think it's easy, nor does it make you a bad person, nor would I be less likely to hire you if I knew you played poker for a living. And I never suggested leaving off the resume.

In fact, your post wasn't available at the time I posted mine (look at post times and the Re: carefully), so I wasn't responding at all to anything you said--I hadn't even read it.
[ QUOTE ]
im not going to argue with you anymore.

[/ QUOTE ]
I never attempted to argue with you. You did that on your own. I was merely disputing what someone else said about the admirability of playing poker, and adding that I wouldn't list my exact earnings/BR on a resume.

[mgobluefb]

I always want to put poker on my resume, list it as an activity, etc., because I do it a lot, I practice discipline, and I'm successful at it. However, I've made it a rule not to. It's fairly simple -- most people don't respect it.

[bav]

Vpenguin's trying to make a valid point. Do you have a very ho-hum resume, no experience, and nothing at all to separate you from the 5000 other ho-hum's applying for the 4 available positions? Fine... go for broke. Print your resume on pink and purple polkadot paper, draw pretty pictures on it, form your resume as a series of haiku's, reference your belief in Satanism, or put your poker experience on it. It just might work.

Maybe better to spend less time playing poker and more time studying so you don't have a 3.0 GPA, but it's a little late for that now.

[Windforce]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
how is this not like the stock market?

[/ QUOTE ] Because you're a leech on other people's addictions and doing something that does not add any tangible economic value to society.

[/ QUOTE ]

when you earn money from trading stocks, you don't think on the other end someone is losing that money? come on man..how is trading stocks add to "economic value" of the society. We die from hunger if there was no stocks? just my opinion..

[kaj_kyle]

mmmm, this topic is pretty interesting, i am going into finance next year, and am curious when i start applying for internships and all that (wont be this year) if i should put poker on? My situation is that i have played for less than a year and made 150k, not a huge number, but good enough to put on because of the less than a year?
cant really accurately predict what my GPA will be but should be 3.3-3.5ish, and if i decide to work really hard higher
oh yeah when do u guys recommend applying for internships and that stuff?

[T50_Omaha8]

[ QUOTE ]
when you earn money from trading stocks, you don't think on the other end someone is losing that money?

[/ QUOTE ] If by 'trading' you mean buying and selling stocks in a portfolio (simple transactions, not short sells, furutres, options, etc) then people only lose theoretical money. If you buy a stock for $50 and sell it for $100, it's not like someone just 'lost' $50; they simply agreed to purchase it at a price that happens to be $50 higher than the price for which you purchased it because the stock you purchased happens to be in higher demand at the time of sale.
[ QUOTE ]
how is trading stocks add to "economic value" of the society.

[/ QUOTE ] Becuase when you invest in a company or project that yields a high rate of return, you are investing in a project which turned out to be particularly important for society. Is a sense, an investor who consitently makes money beyond the market average does so because he accurately predicts which projects and companies are the most economically viable, and diverts funding to those most important uses.
[ QUOTE ]
We die from hunger if there was no stocks?

[/ QUOTE ] Capital would be distributed much less efficiently and we would be less technologically advanced. The be perfectly blunt--yes, it's entirely possible we would.

[TheDespot]

Poker has transformed into a form of entertainment now, however, lest we forget. There is a benefit of poker to society in the form of entertainment. Many people enjoy tuning in to ESPN, Travel Channel, and the like to watch it. Live players also contribute rake to casinos, who in turn can generate more revenue from this and other games and thus allow more money to flow through their respective economies. Companies pay to advertise during poker television shows in order to reach a certain customer base that would be most likely to watch these poker shows. Poker is not necessarily "zero-sum." Outside parties can benefit from it, although it's impact obviously is on a smaller scale than the stock market and also more indirect.