Worried about long gap in CV

LegacyUser

Hey just looking for some advice about my CV. To cut a long story short i havent had a "proper" job since 2006. My last job was in the warehousing industry that i worked in for 8 years after schoool (from 98-06), but unfortunately i havent got any qualifications either apart from the Leaving.
So what have i been doing since 2006? Well the reason i left my job was i got a pretty bad back injury (that is now thankfully fine) that put me out of work for a long period of time. In that time i became heavily interested in Online Poker, firstly as a hobby, but after a lot of hard work learning the game i became profitable, to the point that i no longer felt the need to return to my job. Dont get me wrong, i was never making huge amounts of money, but certainly more than enough to get by and enjoy a decent living. And stupidly i guess, i never really was overly concerned about what effect this would have on my CV.

So now im at the stage of my life were i want to do something new. Just like most other industry, the poker industry has taken a hit in the current economy thus it has become a tougher place to make a living, more and more people are educated on the game and less and less uneducated people have the money to lose etc. I also am unhappy about my personal life because of my job, as it is quite an anti social and lonely way to make a living.

And now im also really worried because i dont know what to do about the CV situation. I would love to go back to college and study counselling or something along those lines, but im concerned that if i dont get a job soon that the gap in the CV is just going to get longer and longer, and of course its going to be quite difficult for me to get a job because of that gap in the first place (not to mention the current climate).

So i guess im just looking for advice on what to do. How do i explain the gap that doesn't make me look like a degenerate gambler? (which no doubt potential employers will look at it as)
Do i go back to college and allow that gap to get even wider? Or do i try my best to get any job i can as soon as possible to help my CV?

Any help is appreciated guys

ravima

tell the truth about the accident you could say that you were involved in research into the online gaming/gambling industry for another period.

dsmythy

Making a living out of poker is not easy. But many do it, and it's a legitimate living. You know all this. I mean the patience, discipline, mathematical thinking, long and at times draining hours successfully completed; they are all attributes and experience you can bring to the table when it comes to a job. There's likely many other attributes you can take out of it i havn't mentioned. Don't worry about the degenerate part it might bring up in some people's minds. You made a living at it. Nothing degenerate about bringing in an income.

Tell them the situation with your back that caused you to drop out of more traditional work and don't be afraid to take up that course you want to do. A gap in your CV full stop is worse than an added gap in just your work record because you were gaining a skill or qualification.

AngryBadger

I think your perspective on this is a little askew.

There's nothing wrong with telling an employer that you injured your back which caused you to leave/lose your job, and that while recovering you were able to make a living playing poker. It actually shows that you can think outside the box.

If you can go to college now then that's what I'd do, rather than taking the first job you come across, enroll in a course where you can get a qualification in an area you'd actually like to pursue a career in.

Let's say you do a degree, (and it doesn't have to be a degree you could do a diploma for a year or whatever suits your situation and goals), 3 years and you have a degree in something you can actually use moving forward, whereas if you take a job in some other area now then in the same span of time all you'll have is 3 more years in a job that may or may not relate to what you'd like to do.

LegacyUser

Just put down that you were self employed.

You just happened to be making money through gambling.

It's no better or worse than any other job - plus you had to put the hours in.

You took a risk to work for yourself which shows balls and you had initiative.

Trashbat

wellyouwere wrote: »

Just put down that you were self employed.

Exactly.

I have a gap on my CV where i did private contracting. Due to the nature of the contracting, the work i did has to be covered by business confidentiality. Its never caused a problem with other employers.

Either that, or just put down "Professional Poker Player". I'd actually be impressed if someone came into me with that on their CV.

calex71

Trashbat wrote: »

Exactly.

I have a gap on my CV where i did private contracting. Due to the nature of the contracting, the work i did has to be covered by business confidentiality. Its never caused a problem with other employers.

Either that, or just put down "Professional Poker Player". I'd actually be impressed if someone came into me with that on their CV.

I'd be very impressed that they were good enough to make a living out of it.

/Makes a note never to play cards with the OP

Agree with others , it shows self disciplin and ability to work off your own initiative.

Always best be honest, as interviews can be stressful enough without having to remember and get your lies straight etc.

Motley Crue

I'd put down Self Employment as a Professional or Amateur Poker Player

Say you played on-line tournaments and made a living in the game. You didn't do any TV stuff and you're not claiming to have been in Vegas so I don't see the problem. You made money from a hobby.

NewApproach

OP do not, under any circumstances, put down poker or anything poker related on a CV. Seriously.

As for what to say, say you where self-employed, or say you had the injury and after you recovered you went travelling for an extended period.

Trashbat

NewApproach wrote: »

say you had the injury and after you recovered you went travelling for an extended period.

Do not do this. 4 years is far too long an extended period. from an employers perspective, someone with a vast amount of travelling is highly likely to not be committed to long term settling down.

Plus, why would you lie? It'll only lead to being caught out.

Tell the truth, just phrase it as cleverly as possible.

PeterIanStaker

The way the economy is now, a lot of people have gaps in their cv's. I know I do and I am close to attaining a professional qualification, but will be unemployed for posssibly months until I land something.

Dont let it deter you, OP, just go into your interviews with a willingness to work and learn, and don't try to bullsh!t them, tempting as it may be.

LighterGuy

Tips for the "creative cv" part 1 (lol) trust me I know what im talking about her lol. Not something to be proud of tho :P


1, In my experience, when I was out of work for a bit between jobs (before recession) I always just put down that I did a FAS course. It never got checked. As your average manager wont look for a reference as it was you only learning something.

2, As said above. If a person is out of work a year right now. Its ok. Most places hiring these days dont mind.

3, there is kinda an art to making a creative cv lol. You cant just give all fake stuff. People will check out. For example, if you were out of work for over a year. You could say you were doing a FAS course for 8 months (any generic course) ... reason being is when it comes to references you only put down real ones but you mention them alot in interviews. (you know the generic questions like give us an example of you in a team work situation? ... mention the real jobs as an example)

LighterGuy

OP. You've been out of work since 2006. You can not just turn around and say "yeah, i've been making a living as a poker player" cause your average manager will think you are either lying or "too lazy for a real job" (you know yourself).

If I were you I would make your cv look likes this


* pre 2006 work history *
tell the truth & that you quit cause of your back injury. This will allow you to have a 7-8 month gap in your cv.

say in the mean time you became interested in poker.
Say after months of just recovering (lets say in 2007) you fell into poker dealing (dealing is more believeable) Dealing in various pubs in dublin. (these cant be checked out but sounds belivable)
Because of your background with poker, if anyone questions you on it. Go on a little rant about the game. You'll know too much to be seen as "lying" (altho you will be lol) Another great aspect is that you could use poker dealing as as an excuse to not having a regular job. (your back sore etc)


Poker dealing can bring you up to start of 2008. The reason why you should mention poker is because it would be a chance to strike up a conversation with the manager (even if they dont know a single thing about poker) personality wins more jobs when being interviewed.


The next bit will sound ballsy. But trust me From 2008 onwards pick a company that folded here in ireland either last year, or this year. Loads to think of. A few travel agents went down. Even pubs closed down. Anything. But keep the dates right as to when it closed.


Boom. You are currently unemployed as you were made redundant within the last few months. Struggling to get another job. As since the last job went under who they gonna ring for a reference? Before that you were doing a little under the table poker dealing. Everyone knows thats taxfree. But you have your back injury to, pardon the pun "back it up" (lol)

You've just made a believable cv

My skills are being wasted
lol.

tenchi-fan

LighterGuy wrote: »

The next bit will sound ballsy. But trust me From 2008 onwards pick a company that folded here in ireland either last year, or this year. Loads to think of. A few travel agents went down. Even pubs closed down. Anything. But keep the dates right as to when it closed.

What if they ask to see his P45 from his last job? That might be a difficult one to explain. It would be very easy to be caught out in the interview too. The interviewer might be familiar with the company or the industry in general and could catch him out.

messymess

OP, the problem is easily solved I think!

Don't put down the dates you started/finished in each role. People have it in their heads their CV needs to read like this. On my CV I put down the amount of time I worked with each employer, not the month/year I started and finished (I'm well into my 30's at this stage and couldn't even remembered if I wanted to anyway!).

I've taken gaps between jobs to travel (up to 12 months) and only one potential employer has asked me to loosely 'join the dots'. Personally I was a bit taken back by this as, to be quite frank, it's none of their business what I do with my life and only only my education/experience should be relevant.

At the end of the day people are probably more reasonable than what you might give them credit for. Be completely honest with people in this situation, it will often surprise them and that surprise will work in your favour.

tenchi-fan

messymess wrote: »

I've taken gaps between jobs to travel (up to 12 months) and only one potential employer has asked me to loosely 'join the dots'. Personally I was a bit taken back by this as, to be quite frank, it's none of their business what I do with my life and only only my education/experience should be relevant.

I never thought of it like this.

I was at an interview once. One of the interviewers (a female partner of the company) had my cv in front of her. I divided it between "work experience" and "education".. only for the interviewer to scribble down on a piece of paper the start & end dates in chronological order so she could identify gaps where college exams ended and work began.
She did this while I was there, and read it out for clarification... "so you started in x in Jan 05, and then left to go to college in september 05, you finished college in Jun 06.. and then didn't do anything until you started work again in October 06"

Having said that, if I were an employer I would be tempted to do the same! Mainly to discover whether someone was smudging dates to omit say, a job they were fired from recently, or an abandoned college course. The interview is meant to expose the good and the bad points of a candidates history.

ligind

A gap in a CV can raise a red flag for an employer, so if you have a gap if your cv be prepared to explain it.

In the current climate its a sellers market so employers may have plenty of applications for each role so anything that looks out of the ordinary might be the reason why one person gets the job over another. Some employers will not care about gaps in the cv , some most definetely will.

LighterGuy

tenchi-fan wrote: »

What if they ask to see his P45 from his last job? That might be a difficult one to explain. It would be very easy to be caught out in the interview too. The interviewer might be familiar with the company or the industry in general and could catch him out.

Well :P
Alot of what I said in my previous post was from my own experience at being "creative" one point there a few years ago with my cvs.
I was asked for p45's ... thing is, i just never gave them. lol. p.45's are only for tax. A simple phone call to the tax office will take you off emergency tax when starting a new job. And when a new employer asks for it? .. all you say is "i'm wating from XXXX to send it out to me" .. ya know, fob off :P lol.
You'd be suprised the jobs I got with just being "creative" in 2006-2008 :P


But the whole point about being creative on a cv is making it believable, but also something that is illusive. You cant just turn around and make some crazy thing up like you were working for the last 2 years as a barman in Jurys Hotel on Parnell Street (for example). That would get checked out. It would be your most recent employment and the company is still open so it can be easily checked up on.

As for the op, he knows poker. The best loads of BS you can tell in life are often the BS you know a little/or good bit about.

ligind wrote: »

A gap in a CV can raise a red flag for an employer, so if you have a gap if your cv be prepared to explain it.

In the current climate its a sellers market so employers may have plenty of applications for each role so anything that looks out of the ordinary might be the reason why one person gets the job over another. Some employers will not care about gaps in the cv , some most definetely will.

With so many people looking for work these days. Unless you have got very good background experience with the job you are going for, your "gap" will most likely stop you from getting the job.


I dont know if other users agree with me, but with the op in case. He has to be "creative" (aka lie on his cv)
No one would give him a job if he turns around and says he has been making a living as a poker player (you know people in this world.. they would immediately think he was lying or lazy)

tenchi-fan

LighterGuy wrote: »

Well :P
Alot of what I said in my previous post was from my own experience at being "creative" one point there a few years ago with my cvs.
I was asked for p45's ... thing is, i just never gave them. lol. p.45's are only for tax. A simple phone call to the tax office will take you off emergency tax when starting a new job. And when a new employer asks for it? .. all you say is "i'm wating from XXXX to send it out to me" .. ya know, fob off :P lol.

In my last job there was a requirement to have 4 honours in the leaving cert regardless of whatever dips or degrees you had. This chap took the job and fobbed them off for about 6 weeks. Thing is, they kept asking him for the transcript of his results and when he didn't provide them they let him go.

You can be lucky, of course. I did a masters but when I was out of work I applied for a job in my home town through a recruitment website. "Do you have a masters." YES "Sorry we do not have any suitable vacancies." I Clicked the back button, then chose "NO", uploaded my cv (skewing my undergraduate by an extra year) and got the job. i was worried at the interview because I had to provide a copy of my degree, fortunately they did not notice the date differed to the date I wrote on the cv. Sloppy HR!

Danima

Having a 4-year gap in your CV would be a concern for a recruiter / HR. Also, poker is typically viewed as pure gambling, so that may also raise plenty of red flags.

Did you ever do coaching or produce training videos for deuces cracked/CR/stoxx ? That can potentially be something which you can put on your CV, sounds better than just making a living off gambling.

LighterGuy

tenchi-fan wrote: »

.......In my last job there was a requirement to have 4 honours in the leaving cert regardless of whatever dips or degrees you had. This chap took the job and fobbed them off for about 6 weeks. Thing is, they kept asking him for the transcript of his results and when he didn't provide them they let him go. ........

Whoa. That is harsh. Like if it was a college degree (etc) requirement type of job. Fair enough. But hounding for a leaving cert? thats mental.

tenchi-fan

LighterGuy wrote: »

Whoa. That is harsh. Like if it was a college degree (etc) requirement type of job. Fair enough. But hounding for a leaving cert? thats mental.

I disagree. Hundreds of suitable people applied for around 6 jobs. Why give it to someone who didn't meet the requirement (the same company frequently advertised a similar job that didn't have the leaving cert requirement)

The job is in a finance company and employees have access to confidential data so why would they keep on someone who lied in the interview?

LighterGuy

I can understand the logic, as you say its a finance company. And they are looking for the best people. Definitely understand the logic.

But i've met people who did very good in their leaving cert... some are stupid and others are just lazy at jobs. Some are even no good at particular average jobs. But yet have the results. On the flip side, I've met people who dont even have their leaving cert but yet quite intelligent.

It kinda feels that if a job requires proof of your results that it would be a degree type of job. That you did a finance degree or something (in that case) Something you specfically learned.

nitrogen

It doesn't say much for an employer if they value a memory test for teenagers over a college degree, and the most important of all, real world experience.

tenchi-fan

nitrogen wrote: »

It doesn't say much for an employer if they value a memory test for teenagers over a college degree, and the most important of all, real world experience.

Sorry, but this is nonsense. It's not just a memory test. Despite its flaws points generally equate to intelligence and hard work. If someone was stupid or lazy at 17 they probably haven't changed much.

Naikon

tenchi-fan wrote: »

Sorry, but this is nonsense. It's not just a memory test. Despite its flaws points generally equate to intelligence and hard work. If someone was stupid or lazy at 17 they probably haven't changed much.

It's mostly a memory test. Silly arbitrary cut off points do not reflect the person as a whole. Sure, getting 600 points does show dedication and effort, but it's assinine to believe that the number of points you get is proportional to your "smarts" or "hard work ethic". A hard work ethic and a college gpa count. I actually find it funny a company would place such value over something like that.