Poker vs. Summer Job -- Topic for the Youngins...

[MrBlue]

I'm going to put in my 2 cents here being a recent grad. If you're looking to get into highly competitive companies after graduation say like Goldman Sachs, MS, IBM, Oracle, and etc, they will want to know what you did. I graduated from CMU and everyone's resume looks very similar. Everyone took Operating Systems, Compilers, Algorithms, Computer Graphics, but you took a year off while another guy was working at a hedge fund learning about financial instruments? GS will pick the guy that has some background in finance rather than someone who didn't unless you are extraordinarly exceptional.

It may be that extra summer that puts you over the top against another similarly qualified candidate. If you are a freshman, then I'd say take the summer off. No one will care much what you did freshman summer except the internship in sophmore year. They'll ask you what you did last summer and it could help you land a better internship next summer.

With all that being said, everyone has different priorities and responsibilities both financially and personally. I took my freshman summer off and goofed around and yeah it was damn fun. I don't regret it a bit.

[MicroBob]

not sure if this really helps you or not.....but you can always just LIE somehow on the resume with some summer-job as a bartender or waiter, or in a small bookstore, or in a small motel as a desk clerk or mowing lawns or in a garage as a mechanic....something where it could be entirely conceiveable that you were paid under the table with no tax or paper trail.

i know this sounds a bit sketchy....but i think the chances of someone finding out it is a lie are pretty long.

[Your Mom]

I'll mark this down as worst post of the year. Find a job you can work 15-20 hours a week.

[wrongpond]

I think that your dillema is more a problem of presentation then action. You know what you want to do, play cards. You know that you do not want this circled in red ink at the top of your resume before your butt hits the interview chair, so the question you are asking is "If I play cards this summer instead of taking a 'summer' job will it effect my employment prospects later?" I say this is where presentation should govern, if you think that when questioned on your whereabouts this summer you can't give an answer that would be acceptable then I strongly suggest that you start filling out apps. now. If however you think that you could easily come up with something that would be exceptable and be convincing about it then go ahead and play.
I personally would play cards, and make it a point to filter in some of other people's suggestions for excuses (e.g. "I did some volunteer work and helped my parents landscape their yard, since this was the last summer I have fee to help them [use simple but tideous tasks here, like "We dug up the whole back yard and planted grass seed," "We painted the exterior of the house" things that any Joe could do but would take everyone weeks] "I did volunteer work" {actually do some of this so you can confidently say "Oh well, some with "Meals On Wheels", some with the "Salvation Army," plus it could be good for you} then maybe if you get grilled about the one or two weeks that they think you should've still had free, add "I also went on a short trip to ---fill in blank with someplace you can tell them more about then where it is on the map--- for a week to recharge so I'd be ready to focus totally on school the next year.") the last part also gives the impression that you worked HARD all summer. All this is overkill for your current situation, (you won't have to answer these questions for three years) but, you can see how it's all presentation, because in fact you might do all of these things and still play cards for your summer income, you would just not do enough of any of them to fill more then your Saturday afternoons, and yet, when you say them right it sounds like a very full summer. If you agree with me or not is up to you, but as a poker player you understand that both, having the nutflush, and getting the other guy beleive that you've got it and fold, even though you don't, will make you money, but one is all PRESENTATION. I hope at least some of this helps,

Jeremiah

[ScottyP431]

I did basically the same thing you did after my freshman year... in fact i was living in eagan at the time.

I got home from college in early may, lined up a serious of job applications/interviews for the 2nd and 3rd weeks of may. First week home i made some withdrawls at the canterbury to the tune of around 2200 dollars. This was the summer Still fly came out and all i could think about was gucci watches and burberry jump suits.... but that is neither here nor there

Point being, some bad sessions combined with excess spending and loaning money to high school friends= broke ass sucka by the end of may.

So i decided to give it up and get a job. But at that point every decent job had was taken and it was either wearing a headset at the gap for minimum wage or temping... or also suicide.

Long story short: get a job, play poker at night for a while, you can always quit your job later.

Also if you work for 3 weeks or so you could still slap that sh!t on a resume... again whats ethical? where is the line? whos to say

[daryn]

i'm about to graduate in may after a long stay in college. i can't wait to get out. anyways, i plan on playing poker all summer as well, and probably even beyond that, or i'll get a job. people are all different, some like to lay out their clothes for the next day at night, and some like to just shake up their dresser and see what falls out and put it on!

while all those kids were interning and blah blah blah every summmer i was out enjoying my life, travelling to vegas, to europe, playing cards, all while making enough money to pay for college and buy myself some pretty nice stuff!

now you could say, yeah but those kids will have high profile jobs at blah blah blah.. but that's just not my bag baby. do what you like, but that's not what i'm after in life.

[Nate tha' Great]

Schneids,

I have no doubt that you could make more money playing poker than working a regular job. But it really depends on what kind of field that you're planning on eventually going in to. If it's something like i-banking, finance, management consulting etc. then not working could be harmful, not so much because it looks bad to "take the summer off" but because you lose an opportunity to network, or to impress someone who could remember you down the road. (And strictly from an EV perspective, the sorts of salaries that you can make in those fields are high enough that it could cost you money in the long run to skip the summer).

But in 90 percent of all cases, taking the summer after your freshman year off will be juuust fiiine. Outside of those select few fields, people recognize that there's value in being something other than an overachieving dork.

Another option would be to see if you could get a gig working at a summer camp of some kind, something that would keep you busy for three or four weeks but would leave the rest of your summer free. Those sorts of positions can still provide for a talking point in a job interview, and they're often a lot of fun.

The thing to remember about a resume is that it's really just a device to help you tell a story, and not some sort of Permanent Record of all your achievements as a human being. If you're afraid that you won't have a very interesting story to tell (and stuff like extracurriculars or creative projects can be just as helpful in that regard as a job), then you should be more inclined to do something this summer that will help you to embelish it.

(Full disclosure: I used to be in the consulting world before quitting to work for my small business and play cards).

[MicroBob]

i don't know why you would need to put anything down for the summer of your freshman year.
i was working at that time....but by the time i was 22 and out of college it was irrelevant to my resume.

if you want, there are a whole bunch of jobs that wouldn't leave any kind of paper-trail.....working at a small bookstore or motel where you got paid under the table or on a grounds-crew doing landscaping type work. or as an assistant to a fix-it guy or plumber or guy that puts down the tiles or installs washing machines....whatever.
yes, i'm advocating lying in this spot because i really don't think it makes a bit of difference.

if it's at the bottom of the resume you can mention that you worked in a lab and cured lupus and the odds are a bit better than 50/50 that a prospective employer would actually notice.



if you wanted to be slightly more accurate but somewhat obtuse and smart-assish you could give some details about the math project you were working on....

(these won't be too good but someone here can certainly improve on them)...

something about 'independent real-life game-theory project including analysis and application of differing elimination tournament formats'
or
'applied mathematical skill and knowledge toward the study and application of profitable internet game-theory venture'

something like that anyway.

[karlson]

All I can tell you is that the more ambitious your future job prospects are, the less likely it is that you should play poker this summer. This is especially true if you are planning to go into anything academic. If you are basically ignoring what you majored in in college for the purposes of your job search, you are fine playing cards for a while. If you are looking to go further in your specialty, then use the time to advance that and get a relevant internship.

[James282]

Dude, at your age, do whatever makes you happy. If you are returning to college next year, spend this summer playing poker and hanging out with your friends. Worry about your resume when you need to...I am sure you can make more money playing poker than some coffee getting internship.
-James