[mantasm]

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Hi mantasm--

I am a chemical engineer and spent over 20 years in big corporations before I got tired of corporate BS and took a buy out deal. I have hired many scientists and engineers.

First, don't put anything deceptive in your resume. If discovered during the interview process, you will be eliminated from consideration. If discovered after you are hired, it can be grounds for immediate termination. When I was general manager of a manufacturing business, I interviewed every candidate and I always looked for "interesting" gaps in the candidate's resume and asked about them. I, personally, would have no problem with your experience, but I would have a big problem with you trying to deceive me about it.

Second, many prospective employers will not have a problem with either your brief attendance of law school or with playing poker for a living. These are the guys that you should look for.

The gulf coast is about to have a construction boom. The engineering firms supporting this will be hiring engineers like mad. Use your web skills to find engineering companies in Baton Rouge (hint: Shaw Group, RPM Engineering), Mobile, etc. A lot of young engineers are not interested in working for these types of companies, but they are great for gaining experience and resume building.

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I agree about not using any false pretenses to get a job, and I'm certain any employers would too. Would you prefer to ask about an employment gap during an interview, or find out that I was sitting around playing poker for a year from my resume?

What type of company do you think would be least likely to have a problem with my weird resume? This is probably hard to answer.

Thanks for the tip about the gulf coast companies, I'll look into it.