Poker on Resume....the real reason for asking

[Nightwish]

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If the interviewer is not a poker player, there ain't no way in hell he will say "Yes I admire your poker playing abilities because I hear that you have to have great analytical skills to play poker well"........he will either think nothing of it and not even notice it (in which case there was no reason to put it in) or he will think you are a degenerate.

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This very much depends on the job you're applying for. Many people with quantitative/analytical jobs (engineering, finance, etc.) understand that poker is not the same thing as roulette, i.e. that there's a lot of math and a lot of strategy to it, even if they don't play poker themselves.

[ctv1116]

Talk to any non-poker player about poker, especially about the swings, and they just won't understand and will probably adversely affect your candidacy.

[shagjohn]

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If you are applying to Susquehanna trading near the burbs of Philly it is +EV, otherwise forget it.

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cwsiggy makes a good point.
I hear many firms looking to hire trader / market maker types look at a winning poker history as a plus, since it requires many of the same abilities (rational decision making and thinking in terms of BB or %, not $$).

For a CPA job, they'd probably just see you as a gambler and show you the door. Just like most things, it depends.

[DeezNuts]

All the poker players I know are much pretty lazy and don't enjoy listening to authority, especially when it comes to office work.

DN

[nigelloring]

I work for an electronic trading company. When I interview people, I am always on the lookout for people with good poker skills. (Emphasis on "good").

IMHO, there are many similarities between poker and trading. Understanding EV and stochastic processes are skills I highly value.

if you are a winning player then why not put it on your resume. how do you think the business owners got to the point of hiring you? they're in the same boat, taking calculated risks day in and day out. it's the ability to come out a winner over the long run in situations such as this that owners look for in management.

[mgsimpleton]

when i was interviewing for management consulting firms, i did not include poker on my resume but i made sure to always throw it in the interview when people asked what i did with my time. first, it's just plain honesty since i spend 80% of my free time playing poker.

second of all, there are many similarities betweent the jobs and i have received quite positive reactions. in fact, in one interview, my interviewer was also a poker player and we literally spent the entirety of the 30 minutes (this was not the case interview section) just talking about poker, which went over extremely well as i was relaxed and on home turf.

p.s. i got a few very nice offers despite my "stupidity" of talking about poker. maybe i'm just that good.

[rwanger]

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#2 is merely conveivable. If I'm there for a job interview and the employer plays poker as well, then my guess is that it would stop at that: "we're both poker players" <smile>. I'm pretty sure that if I'm being interviewed that I'll just keep, being interviewed. Anything less seems like it'd be kind of unprofessional.


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I had an interview at a video game company once, to be a programmer/designer. I went in to take the "programming test" and somehow got into talking about poker with the guy.

20 min later the fellow who dropped me off came back to bring me to meet some other employees, and said "how'd he do?". The "interviewer" just smiled and said "oh he's fine, no worries" and programming was never discussed.

I wouldn't put it on my resume, but I'm sure there's a casual way to work it into the interview as an "outside interest", and maybe you two bond over poker.

Depending on what kind of job it is...a lot of places just want someone they think can do the job AND fit it.