How online poker skills can boost a résumé

How online poker skills can boost a résumé

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

The indictment of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and UB/Absolute Poker means that tens of thousands of US citizens are out of work; some out of a poker career spanning years with no other work experience.

Even though we are a UK magazine writing for European poker players we've got something of a soft spot for our cousins across the pond - we've been over the War of Independence for a good few months now.


Many of you reading this will be United States citizens or residents now unable to crush the heads-up games, push/fold a 17% ROI in the high stakes SnGs or grind out 24 tables for that sweet, sweet rakeback. It might just be time to work for The Man and get a real job, as awful as that prospect sounds.


Unfortunately you will be left with a gap of years in your résumé; perhaps you played through and out of college and haven't even an unpaid internship under the work experience section of your C.V. Despite all that's happened, why not pad out your résumé with mention of your poker career? Obviously, this is highly dependent on the company you're applying to join and telling them is highly read-dependent.


Professional writers by trade (allegedly), we thought we'd help you out by giving you some passages to insert in your covering letter in order to turn a perceived "career" of degeneracy into a glowing reference for a successful self-employed entrepreneur.


"Success as a professional poker player requires several traits that cross over to [insert field]. Money management is paramount with bankroll management an overriding skill set of poker professionals.


Playing multiple tables in a disciplined and controlled fashion over many thousands of hours needs a dedicated work ethic as profitable poker is decided in the long term. Although in any given hand the results are close to random, my consistently making better decisions than my opponents and exploiting their mistakes allowed me to [here you can insert your hourly win rate over X amount of hands or other pertinent details].
My experience as a professional poker player has given me excellent logic, mathematics and problem-solving skills, good financial management and strong discipline."


Other points to note are the high levels of advanced mathematics involved in SnG play, the need to be able to read and adjust to people (what successful live pro couldn't get a sales job?) , the comfortability with long hours on a computer and the independence/self-discipline of gambling professionally.



Tags: Resume, Black Friday