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.