Dr. Al,
Thanks for your reply, as I was hoping you might.
OK:
"You forget one extremely important difference between you and most hiring managers: You play poker, and they don't."
Poker has always been part of USA culture- a subculture. Now it's out there on TV. Mainstream. A good poker-playing candidate will recognize this and probe the manager a little bit, maybe speak in a little poker slang, and observe. My basic retort is thus: each day, more and more people (hiring managers) understand poker and respect what it takes to play well.
"As I argued in "Nobody Understands Us," most people don't differentiate between poker players and other gamblers."
Yes. I agree. My basic premise is that this sentiment is changing rapidly, that many successful entreprenuers have always enjoyed poker tremendously and are VERY familiar with it, and that any smart poker-centric candidate will AUTOMATICALLY screen opportunities for a high likelyhood of poker awareness in the hiring manager. This is good game selection, generalized.
Also, I read the article and for reference, others can find it here:
http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_maga...19&m_id=61
"There is a HUGE stigma about playing poker, especially for a living. There have been dozens of posts here about negative reactions from wives, husbands, friends, children, bosses, neighbors, and so on. Televised tournaments have reduced the stigma, but it is still VERY powerful."
Yes. But if a candidate looking for a job practices good "game selection", he will identify situations where poker may actually break the ice. Small businesses, sales jobs, jobs that require real independence and initiative, these are the prime places to look.
Smaller businesses die if they do not adapt. Adaptation means being quick to change your beliefs when they are no longer working. (poker teaches this.) Small business people are some of the most adaptive, open-minded people on earth for this reason. Always open. My advice is if you want a job, target firms under 150 people in size in a new and growing segment of the economy. Here you will find people who are open, and may actually understand poker better than average.
"Even if someone does not have a negative stereotype, he will want RELEVANT experience for any significant job. How does a poker player prove that his experience is relevant to most jobs?"
How does a poker player prove that his experience is relevant to most jobs? Here is my answer: The applicant can encourage the interviewer to give him a typical business-problem scenario involving a group, a team, or customers, and then the applicant can describe his thought process in arriving at a solution. In the scenario the applicant may be cast as a leader, peer or subordinate.
Any open-minded hiring manager (even with no poker understanding whatsoever !!) would be very impressed by the insightful questions, quality of thought, and tremendous attention to detail, and psychological insight demonstrated by any truly **winning** player.
"Because of my respect for you, I would normally send you a PM rather than reply so openly. However, you did say, "Want to argue against these points? Come and get me."
Dr. Al, I appreciate your response to my post.
I will be back to reply to all others who responded by 6/2, Thursday evening.