Help me drop out of school (resume, job search question)

[Eratosthenes]

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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.

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I think the decision to put or not put a year of poker on your resume depends on how you want to answer those questions. If you leave a missing year on your resume, you will have to answer about that year with several interviewers (in the same company). If you just go ahead and put the year of poker on your resume, then you'll have questions about what it was like, what limits, how much can you make, etc. (of course you'll have those questions anyway).

If it was me, I would put poker on the resume. I would add a list of accomplishments for that year, just like I would if I had been a manager of stuff for big widgets inc. that year. Those accomplishments might be starting at .25/.50 and moving up to 15/30 in 6 months or depositing $100 and turning it into $100,000. Professional poker uses skills that a working engineer needs, such as discipline, attention to detail, continuous improvement of skills, logical thinking, etc. I would prepare a coherent story about my year of poker emphasizing the intersections of poker and engineering. I would also put a "reason for leaving" in that section of the resume.

The companies that are least likely to have a problem with your poker experience are the more enteprenurial, more risk taking, less conventional companies. These companies are not easy to find. Every company says they value these traits, but many only give them lip service. You'll have to sort them out (and they, you) in the interview process.