I remember reading 1 or 2 articles in the past on here that pertained to the best way to discuss being a poker player in a job interview/on your resume. I believe one of them may have even been in a well. I attempted to search for them, but couldn't find anything. Please let me know if you know where they are or have a link to something about the most impressive way to apply the skills learned in poker to discuss a future job position.

Thanks

The best way is to not mention it if possible. Though it depends on the type of job I guess, a vast majority of people are not going to be impressed by poker in any way. Even though you may believe poker has skills that translate to the job (and you may be right), they will likely not see it that way. Don't mention it and if they ask about the resume gap, which you presumably have since you posted this, just say you were pursuing entrepreneurial business opportunities that ended up not working out and you can't talk about the details.

This seems like terrible advice. If I interviewed someone who said this, there is a 0% chance I'd hire them.

I included poker on my resume for internships. Two of them required writing samples in which I wrote about Nash Equilibriums and poker game theory (neither of these were particularly quantitative positions) and I got interviews and explicit positive responses in both cases (I got one of those jobs and a second round interview for the other).

It's really all in how you explain it, where you're applying and how. If you're sending a resume to HR, then don't mention poker because HR is hyper risk-averse. If you're networking (which is correct anyways), then mention it and make sure you've got your explanation down.

I'm not saying it will never be received positively, just that its unlikely to. I had it on my resume for a while and people either thought I was trying to be a TV tournament pro even though I never mention tournaments or they just thought I was an addicted gambler. I tried to explain the skills behind it how they would translate but it never went over very well, so I took it off my resume. Just saying what my experience has been.

Well, studying the game theory element of it is different than being a player x.x

Don't mention it... people usually auto connect poker with gambling. Unless you offer a very well thought out explanation with it and it might be relevant to the position (anything online, maybe investing etc...). Also, if you have a gap in your cv, you can always just write for "Personal Reasons". Normally during an interview if this is brought up at all, you can either be upfront and honest about it (if you feel the interview is going well), or you can just say it was for personal reasons that have since resolved and should no longer be an issue. Everyone understands stuff happens in life.

no

+1 to it's all about how you explain it and how you explain your approach the game. if you can generalize how poker helped you improve your approach to life/work, then it's a good thing to include. but a resume probably isn't the place for it.

True, but I think you are underestimating peoples ignorance (for most it sounds the same way as one trying to explain how its possible to win at slot machines).

I think it would be helpful if people explain what their experience is with listing poker on their resume. Because all I see from the people who say not to is that the unwashed masses can't understand poker, with no real evidence to support this.

Here's my evidence for listing it:
- I got to a top 20 school, my career counselor encouraged me to list it
- My interview rate went up after listing it
- I discussed poker in a writing sample for two different jobs and got interviews at both. One specifically mentioned it as a reason they brought me in, and I ended up getting hired there.

Obviously the decision to list it will depend on the kind of positions you are applying for, the greater context of your background and so on. If you don't have a resume gap and are applying at conservative companies, then take it off. But, I think listing poker is much better than giving BS answers for resume gaps or otherwise presenting a lackluster resume when you've done something pretty awesome.

You should definitely include poker on your resume. I've received this advice by every professional I've asked, including people who regularly conduct interviews. People will be curious about it and if you've prepared well, you can end up talking a good part of the interview about something that you are comfortable with and interested. Makes the interview a lot easier than talking about random stuff everyone does and this will make you stick out.

Of course, if you're a busto donk who looses at NL5 and deposits 50$ every other week, then it is probably best not to include it, since you most likely won't be able to explain it in a good way.

You cant list evidence, because they will never tell you that this is because of poker (at least they dont tell it in my country). So my shallow evidence are only :
A) My dad looks many resumes and he recommended that I should not list it (and he plays poker).
B) The only time I included playing poker in my resume was, when I was applying for poker dealer and I never got a call (I had all the requirements and I dont think there were that many candidates), but as you see - I cant really say whether it was because I included poker or whether it was because someone had better resume (and that brings me back to my point - you cant tell why you didnt get it).

This topic has been done to death over many different subforums. The general consensus I've seen is not to include it because the negatives associated with poker (e.g.: OH NO A GAMBLAR!) outweigh the positives. Obviously each person will be different, especially considering resume gaps and the like, but as a rule of thumb, I personally believe that this is too risky. I think its too risky because you're most likely not going to get a chance to interview and discuss how you're plus 8ptbb/100 over a sample size of 1.5MM hands, because you're not going to get the interview. This is obviously a generalization, but an important one.

So what if you're less involved in activities because of? Say you needed to make some money and because of it, you couldn't be as involved as you would like. How would you explain your lack of involvement or leadership positions in clubs?

Well it also depends on the rest of your resume. Is all you can put on your resume is that you worked at Mcdonalds part-time from 16-25, poker sure won't help.

If you have a good uni degree, some previous work experience (even internship), and overall good grades and a good looking resume, it would be stupid not to put Poker. The guy seems you seem to have all good stuff, and then he sees something that could be very interesting, but that may be bad, he's not going to reject you because, oh this guy is like top 10% of applicants, but he may be a crazy gambler.

Of course, this depends where you apply, but for things like Finance and say IT, which are pretty common for poker players to get into, you definitely should.

One of my dad's co-workers used to work at Goldman sachs, and because at the time I was thinking of sending apps to i-banks for an internship. I asked my dad to ask the guy about poker on resume. The GS guy said that I absolutely should and it will be a very good thing to talk about in the interview. He did agree that some people could view it in a negative light, but that especially in an industry like finance, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

I asked 2 different career councils at my University and both agreed I should include it, given I can talk well about it at the interview (because it will very likely come up). Actually, some of the only people telling me not to include it have been people who have some big grudge against gambling and just didn't seem to understand the concept of +EV games.

I'm not denying the fact that some people will look badly at it, but this is some people.

Unless your resume can really stand out without poker and you think there's a 75%+ chance you will get an interview for each application, then adding poker can be rly good. You'd rather want to really stand out with poker, at the cost of getting some rejected, than to be "average" everywhere. Because "average won't get you the job you want.

For you guys saying to list it, are you just putting poker under a skills/hobbies section with no explanation or listing it as professional experience and giving a description on the resume?

I agree in finance it is often applicable and can be beneficial. But that is the exception rather than the rule. I think you underestimate the amount of people who do hold a big grudge against gambling and who don't understand +EV gaming. There are really smart people in the world who know nothing about gambling if you started rambling about positive expectations they might completely zone out — and then ask how you learned how to count cards.

Additionally, I'm not sure what you mean by the 75% chance of an interview with every application (I don't think anyone can really say this ITE). Your resume shouldn't be designed to alienate people, it should be designed to say this is why I'm special and you should hire me. IME, including poker on your resume seems appropriate very rarely, and only if your resume is otherwise bland or inapplicable (that is they might think you're interesting). Essentially, this is something that I think is an unnecessary risk in the vast majority of cases.

As an aside that obviously won't help OP: even if you are wildly successful at poker, it doesn't hurt to keep a part time job, volunteer, that sort of stuff in order to avoid a resume gap. Not only will this be beneficial to you for your resume but its nice interact with people.

Again, opinions differ on this, like mine and yours. I'm currently a law student in the process of applying to firms to work with after school. As poker is one of my main hobbies, and how I supplemented my income while in college, I was curious about putting in the interests section. My career counselor said that this was risky, which is where counselors differ too. To tie it back to poker, this seems like a high variance strategy, that overall is -EV in a vacuum.

I may be biased for putting it on finance resume's because that's mostly where I wanted to apply and where I've asked for advice.

I guess my point with the 75% is that when a guy gets 500 CV's and has to read them all, and they all have "X grade from Y university" etc..., they are just going to skip those until something stands out. If without poker, your resume doesn't stand out, you might want to include it, since it will make you stand out and the guy reading it will give you a chance instead of skipping because it's the same resume as 90% of them.

The reason why I sayed 75% is just because if you graduated top of your class from MIT, you already stand out, and in that case poker can almost only hurt you, since they would of picked you anyway, but now they might not since they might think you're a gambler.

But if you graduated from an OK university with OK grades, and some random work experience from before, it's going to be a lot harder to get the job, and putting poker there, although it might be bad for 80% of the cases, will get you an interview in 20% of the cases because of the curiosity factor or w/e, whereas without poker you would of maybe gotten 5-10% interviews.

My number are just arbitrary but my point is that poker can make you stand out from the crowd, and depending on your current resume, it can be either beneficial or negative, but most people didn't graduate top of their class from MIT, so IMO it will be beneficial for most people.

Having that said, my view is highly biased for finance since that's the only thing I've ever enquired about. I am sure that many software companies would find poker interesting and see it in a good light, since the IT industry is much younger.

In your case, for law, I would probably agree that in most cases, poker might not be a good thing to include.

I remember reading this question on a non-poker message board and everyone said they would rather hire an ex drug dealer before they would hire a gambler.

+1.

I played poker full-time for 4 years and returned to grad school this September. There has been no shortage of interviews and job offers since returning. I have a strong well written resume with strong bachelor's degrees. I go to a top technical school and most of the top IT companies hire here. the competition is quite tough and I definitely think poker was a net positive in my job search. I also did coaching and made videos for a training site. I put that experience under a separate job heading (poker instructor). 2 of my 4 previous job experience was poker related. Last week I had a full day interview with a software company. At lunch my poker experience was a nice ice breaker. I was ultimately offered the job based on my skills and experience. But I don't think poker hurt my chances at all.

Cool story bro. What % of these people were actually in a position to hire highly skilled employees?

Some very smart people at said board.

Klakteuh, you are in finance? Of course poker is going to be great on your resume

Actually the opposite. Poker is good for a small % of finance jobs like trading. However the advice I got was that banks and financial houses are pretty conservative and less likely to take a risk on a poker guy. From my experience the tech industry was very receptive, because the crowd was younger and they don't directly deal with money and risk management.

I guess the conservative banks thing makes sense. The main thing is if I go in to an interview with upper level management in finance, they're probably going to have a clue what I'm saying when I'm trying to explain poker. Other industries may not have any relevant quantitative experience to understand the basics.