Quote:
Originally Posted by OMGitsCheddar
Hey you guys, I'm in desperate need of serious resume advice.
I'm finally entering the traditional working world and have that employment gap problem a lot of us have. I'm making some resumes and I wasn't going to put anything for the time period I was playing cards - I think general consensus on 2p2 is not to attempt to list pro poker player on the resume. My mom is on the hiring committee for the Attorney General's office here in MO so I asked her and she said that I should definitely put it down, just make it sound professional of course. She seems really sure of herself, so I'm going to try that. She's also like 'lol you can't leave a 3 year gap on your resume'.
So, how do I make it sound professional? Like under job duties, what can I put?
Here's my pathetic attempt:
_____
Self-employed
Professional Poker Player (Filed as Professional Gambler) 2009 - 2011
- Completed EV (expected value) calculations, range analysis, combinatorial calculations regularly
- Coached multiple players
- Played more than 2.5 million individual hands; played between 12 and 20 individual tables simultaneously
_____
I mean honestly, it's just "-played a lot" and "-thought rationally about how to play a hand well". I don't really know how to formalize that, or make it sound more legitimate.
You for sure should put this as your job. You ABSOLUTLY SHOULD NOT PUT YOUR INCOME. Take out (filed as professional gambler) they don't need to know how your filed your taxes. If you worked at mcdonalds would you put filed as fry cook? It just plain looks bad. If I got this on a resume I would be like WTF.
-Change coached to instructed or consulted and you may even want to list that as a seperate job for the same time period. As technicaly your coaching business is seperate from your poker playing business.
-List that you used statistical software to analyze your preformance.
-You should also list using graphs and statistics to increase your productivity/ profit.
-List bankroll managment but find a better sounding way to word it such as managed working capital.
-List your decision making. As an online player playing how many ever tables you were, you were making decisions litterly every second that effected your income. This is a very good skill/ trait and will impress the person interviewing you. I actually got a job based on this trait and was told that by the person who interviewed/ hired me.
-If you ever did any kind of promo work for stars or who ever, list that as well.
- If you kept your computer up and fixed bigs etc. list your use of computer knowlege.
There are probably a few more but this what I thought about in the time it took me to write this.
When you interview you need to be ready to talk about all of this this as well. Have well thought out answers and use terms a non poker player would understand. For instance when you tell them about your EV calcs don't say I calculated EV. Explain to them you had to make split second calculations in your head to calculate the expected value (and use the whole word) of your decison and make the decision that would net you the most profit.
Succesful interviewing or even co-working is speaking to their understanding.
Contrary to what allot of people think on 2+2 listing poker as a job is a very good resume builder and it will impress more people than it will put off.
IMO I probably wouldn't be happy working for someone who was put off by poker.