So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

And I really don't know what to do.

I had it all figured out, I wasn't going to accept it and take a year off to play poker and travel. Until I told my parents over thanksgiving break. They pretty much thought it was a huge mistake.

The months before, I had been giving it a good deal of thought and came to the conclusion that taking a year off would be a great chance to capitalize on poker and enjoy life before entering the real world. I know I could make more playing poker, but that's not the issue. I know I wouldn't be as happy, in the short run anyway, working this job as I would if I were to take a year off. I know I don't want to play poker forever, but a year of the lifestyle would be great. The job in question is at a public accounting firm, and is a good offer. I worked there this summer and it was ok.

My parents believe that it would be a bad move based mostly on the idea that I may not be able to get as good of a job after a year of sitting on the shelf. My dad thinks it's a waste of time to "sit around clicking a mouse playing some game" as opposed to sitting aroud clicking a mouse to audit some company's financial statements that don't matter to me. I respect my parents opinion, and they have been right about most things in the past. Thus, my doubt.

I'm looking for whatever advice you've got to offer. I'm really stumped on this one. Also, you're not allowed to say "Do whatever you think is right." because I don't know.

Thanks.

Craig

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

play poker for a year, work for the Man for the next 39. dad will be okay.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Do what makes you happy, not your parents.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

[ QUOTE ]
play poker for a year, work for the Man for the next 39. dad will be okay.

[/ QUOTE ]

NH

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Your parents are correct that sitting out for a year will harm your chances of getting a job next year, but, I don't think that is a major problem. Poker will still be viable 18 months from now, so you can finance your job search.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

For god's sake do an EV/EU analysis. If you're not better at that than your dad, maybe poker's not such a great idea anyway.

If you have a personal relationship with someone at the company, it would probably be a good idea to ask them for advice as well. You don't even have to bring up poker.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

You only live once. Do what you want to with your life and make the most of it. Playing poker and traveling for a set period of time sounds like a great learning experience for life. Starting out accounting when you know you have better/ more stimulating options seems like a formula for future regret. Besides a hole in your resume is much better in the beginning of your career than later when you've been accounting for a few years and then decide you made a huge mistake in not travelling. It's a heck of a lot easier to explain to an interviewer that you traveled the world to prepare yourself for your career than it is to explain dropping your career a couple years in to travel and play poker. Very few interviewers want to hear how successful you poker career was.

Your parents sounds ignorant to the way poker income works. Most parents will counsel their children to take the safe route and will certainly never encourage a lifestyle predicated on making income "gambling." I'd try hard to explain to them your system and how you make money gambling and your shortterm EV one more time and then be damn sure to travel and NEVER ask them for money.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Don't be a puss.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

If you take the job, you'll spend a lot of years wondering if you made the right decision. No matter how successful you might become. In the back of your mind that ? will always be there.

I kicked the corporate shackles. It took almost 14 yrs with 2 corps before I did it. Started a business. Did well. Went bust. Lost everything. No regrets. Well, almost none. But I'll always know the answer to the question that was there all those years. Could I do it on my own?

I say give it a year. You're way too young to think your decision about a job today is going to determine your future job prospects. If you don't make it pro, or decide you don't like the life, you can always put down that year on your job apps as "sabbatical time." Tell 'em you're working on your doctorate.

g/l

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Fine my posts on this subject. I just quit my job today. I worked at an investment bank for 2 months and change right out of college. I hated every minute of it. I felt like i was gonna die. After quiting, this has turned into the best freakin day of my life. I've never been happier.

If I could go back I never would have started work. It is much worse looking on your resume to have quit after a few months then to have never taken the job.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

As someone who's interviewed people for jobs before, a year gap in a resume doesn't look very good. It throws up an automatic yellow flag. If you do take a year off, make sure you have a good way of explaining what you were doing (or carefully word what you did for a year and put it on the resume).

Secondly, it's easy for us to sit here and tell you to go for it, say things like "you'll regret it if you don't", etc. However, if it sets back your career substantially you may regret that for the rest of your life too.

Finally, I'm not trying to say what you should or should not do; I just thought this input might be useful to you.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

What I don't get is when I asked on these boards if I should play poker or get into strategy consulting more than 90% of people said I should take the job, and that it wasn't even a close decision. Now I realize consulting is a good field but these guys were saying that even if you could make $500K a year playing poker that taking the job would be better... even better than playing for one or two years, then getting back into the work world because you don't want gaps on your resume and stuff like that...

I don't get why people's advice has changed? It seems that the prevailing advice now (like 6 months later) is to go the poker route... What's up with that...

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

You said you liked your job. That it was what you want to do in live. That is a huge difference from those of us that hate our jobs.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

[ QUOTE ]
As someone who's interviewed people for jobs before, a year gap in a resume doesn't look very good. It throws up an automatic yellow flag. If you do take a year off, make sure you have a good way of explaining what you were doing.

[/ QUOTE ]

If the person answers something like:
"I was just travelling around, doing whatever I felt like, having fun. I could afford it."

Is that terrible? I'm just interested to know...

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

I don't think Craig said he hated his job... he hasn't started it yet.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Why don't you just say you were an entrepreneur? If people really want to get into it you can explain what you were up to. Poker has really become a great deal more 'acceptable' in society to the point where I don't think that saying you took a year off to make 200K or something playing poker would look bad at all.

Based on my (limited) experience in the work world it could even look quite positive especially if you're going to work in a heavily-analytic field, where half the people in the office probably already play poker.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

I was a manager in one of the big accounting firms a few years ago. Part of my job was recruiting, interviewing and hiring college graduates.

If you take the job and do well for a few years, you can take a year off and still get good job offers if and when you decide to re-enter the accounting field.

If you decide to screw around for a year right out of college and then start the job search all over again, you will likely find it tough going. You would not get an interview with me.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Well you made a comment about why your advice was different from the forum in general, I know my post has been around a lot this week.

He doesn't seem thrilled, though I suppose niether of us can conjecture.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Yeah your situation was a lot different. If you hate the career then obviously staying in it isn't going to be a good move, regardless of poker. I still think you should have stuck it out for 1 year though, but that's just my take on it.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

1) I don't think I'd make a year.

2) What would that accomplish if I never want to work there again?

I had several people with me in meetings all day trying to convince me to stay. I've performed so well, so many desks have requested you, what can we do to keep you. I wanted nothing of it. I knew what I had to do when I woke up this morning and I did it. It was like my soul was calling out to me. Something snapped.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

[ QUOTE ]

If the person answers something like:
"I was just travelling around, doing whatever I felt like, having fun. I could afford it."

Is that terrible? I'm just interested to know...

[/ QUOTE ]

The rule of thumb is that you should never ever tell the truth on a job interview.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

You can quit the job after 6 months no problem but it might be difficult to find another job in 6 months.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

I really hope that was a joke. If I ever found out that someone lied to me in a job interview there was nothing that they could do to get hired at my company. Although my company did not share lists of "blackballed" job hunters, I wouldn't be suprised if other companies did.

Saying that you were just doing whatever shows a lack of desire to do the job you are applying for. Companies are looking for people that want to work for them rather than people that would rather be doing other things but have to make some money somehow. A better answer would be "I have always wanted to travel so I took a year off to do so. Now that I have seen the world I'm ready to start working." The last part of the second sentence is a bit lacking, but I think you get the idea. It should sound more like something that you wanted to do at some point in your life so you took the chance to do it but now you're ready to bunker down and do some work.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

You should see if they will extend the offer for a year. Tell them you would like a year to travel and study for the CPA exam. It probably would not be a good idea to say it is so you can try to play poker professionally. The accounting firms need good people right now and they would probably be willing to wait a year to get you. I have friends who had there offers extended a year so they could go to grad school. It is at least worth asking them if you can do this. Good luck.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Parents have a role as parents, forget about when they were your age. Besides, as the lady says, do what makes you happy--it's time you start taking responsibility for your own life and decisions anyway; pleasing your parents can come later if you still want to do that. O.K. doesn't sound too thrilling.
What really turns you on? That's what you'll probably work the hardest and be most successful at.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Thanks everyone for the responses.

Yes, I already have worked this job over the summer, and I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really want to get up to go work and didn't really enjoy it.

As for extending the offer a year, it's already been extended for grad school. I mentioned to the recruiting person that I would was thinking about taking a year off and she didn't offer to extend it.

Also, to the person that said talk to a personal friend in the company, I did and he said that a whole year probably wouldn't work.

I think, especially based on the comment about the gap of a year not being such a good thing that I'm going to get whatever time off I can, en then take the job. Hopefully I won't hate it, and I'll pay my dues in public for a few years. As someone mentioned, three years of public opens up a lot more doors.

Thanks again, all.

Craig

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

If you decide not to take the job, I would do some volunteer work and join some clubs something.

edit: well, it looks like you're taking the job. Congratulations, but I'll leave this here anyways.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Take the job. You can still play poker every night and every weekend if you want.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

depends how much u get paid compared to what u would earn playing poker over the same hours. Going to work is far more sociable than playing poker for 40 hours a week as well, i suppose it would be worth taking the job strictly as work excperience building up a CV if in later life there is a job u particularly want to do which requires experience. Also you can just play poker at the weekends or at night and supplement ur income.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

I had been giving it a good deal of thought and came to the conclusion that taking a year off would be a great chance to capitalize on poker and enjoy life before entering the real world.

Pont: If you don't do it, you will likely have to confront thoughts of "what if" later in life.

My parents believe that it would be a bad move based mostly on the idea that I may not be able to get as good of a job after a year of sitting on the shelf.

Counterpoint: This is a valid argument.

You are on the horns of the dilemma.

If you choose the former, tell your parents that you respect their position and concede that their arguments are good, but that you don't want to wake up 30 years from now and regret the path not taken, Tell them you mean them no disrespect but a man's gotta make his own mistakes, yadda yadda.

If you choose the job you must do so because *you* really agree and think it's the best decision and that you are committed to never making them feel guilty about guiding you in that direction.

No easy way out.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Craig,

I've never understood the fascination or terror associated with "time off" on a resume. People live their lives and make different choices. An employer who can't see the positives of somenoe taking some time off to do something different — or a potential employee who can't explain it as a positive — are not people I would want to work with anyway, from either side.

You only get one shot at it, you can't take any of it with you when it's over with, and you can always change the plan in progress.

I see nothing wrong with taking time off, and a lot wrong with letting other people make decisions about your life.

ElSapo

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Taking the job is the responsible thing to do. How do you handle with doing the irresponsible?

I traveled and generally dicked around after college for 2 years. I worked during that time as a retail store manager, but it was not a career path. After I got "my life" out of my system I went into my financial planning career. I started out a little less than 4 years ago and 2006 I plan to open my own branch office. Your parents want you to be able to earn a good living. The parents of our generation are the ones who grew up on pensions and 20+years at the same company. Thats not todays marketplace. If you work hard and have drive to be entrepreneurial, then you will find your money and be ok. I did, because I can control my destiny. Some peeps dont have that.

Ask yourself this question: "Am I making an educated mature decision or am I making a short-term childish one?" This is not meant to be rude, but just a "chek yo'self" thing. If you know you've put a lot of thought into it I say go for the travels. It worked for me. Keep in mind that it worked for me because I know/knew myself very well.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Forget what your parents said. Essentially everything in life is "a game" if you think about it, it's just social convention that differentiates recreation from occupation.
If you are just looking to take an year off and chill out while playing poker for kicks, that's cool. On the other hand,I feel that playing poker professionally for just one year might not be the best investment of your time, especially if you're not going to keep playing after your year off.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

I haven't read other responses so sorry if it's a repeat.

Didn't you just post you are moving down because you are down a bunch? Not able to beat 10/20.

This would worry me. Taking a year off I think is great if

A) You can retain whatever knowledge you need for your job and not be worthless
B) Can make substanially more than your job offer is gonna give. I mean at least 2x or more. You will have a lot of other costs such as all the benefits (medical, dental etc) that your job hopefully has.

I sorta wish I would have taken time off but I also am in a different situation as you. I also know my job offer probably wouldn't be here or a lot harder to get in a year out of college.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

[ QUOTE ]
Didn't you just post you are moving down because you are down a bunch? Not able to beat 10/20.

This would worry me

[/ QUOTE ]

No, I beat 10/20 for a good while before moving up to 20/40. And still have green numbers for that anyway.

I just moved down after taking an aweful swing b/c I couldn't handle the varience.

As for making more, I was making a fair estimate of ~2x of my salary.

-Craig

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

[ QUOTE ]
Taking the job is the responsible thing to do. How do you handle with doing the irresponsible?

[/ QUOTE ]

It's his life, and "responsible" and "irresponsible" are words other people use to judge decisions that aren't theirs.

[ QUOTE ]
I traveled and generally dicked around after college for 2 years. I worked during that time as a retail store manager, but it was not a career path. After I got "my life" out of my system

[/ QUOTE ]

The idea that you need to get "life" out of your system before you can start being "responsible" is really, really depressing.

Otherwise, I agree with you — the key to doing anything, in any endeavor, is knowing yourself and being honest with yourself.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

take the year off. = College of life.

you'll learn much more important stuff here. college is a huge moneymaking scam. (unless you ned a degree to become a doctor or something.

the most important lessons are ones of exprience. you'll learn about interacting successfully with all kinds of people, and you'll learn the importance of self motivation, perserverance, setbacks. all this stuff is much more important than some silly psychology 101 class.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

[ QUOTE ]
the most important lessons are ones of exprience. you'll learn about interacting successfully with all kinds of people, and you'll learn the importance of self motivation, perserverance, setbacks. all this stuff is much more important than some silly psychology 101 class.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure this is possible. I also see a lot of poker pros who are not able to communicate, social problems, out of shape, not much motivation for anything other than maybe money, and meet, umm, poker players.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

As a high level corporate type who manages and advises with other high level corporate types, the year off idea would really damage your future employment prospects in the eyes of the hiring managers, particularly in the field you are entering. Not just the year off, but unless you lie about why and what you did, the reason would be viewed with great skepticism. So it is not a year of poker & life vs. a year of something else.

It's more like 1 year of poker & life = potentially many years of changed employment prospects and reduced expectations. Unfortunately, your parents have a pretty good "read" on this issue. Only you can determine which is more important for you - best wishes on your choice.

Re: So I need to accept this job offer this week....
 

Yes, you have just lost virtually any hope of getting the job unless you're pursuing some low or entry-level position