Poker player, considered a good or bad thing?

[ecnanif]

Hi,

I´d love to hear your opinion whether you think mentioning being a poker player in a personal letter or an interview would be considered a good thing? I am talking about job applications for quant/trader positions.

 

[Tsotne]

I think mentioning just being poker player is not enough. As I heard some on HFT interviews it's a good advantage to have a poker bot created or something like that. "Multiple-hostile" handling mechanism.

 

[roni]

I heard its good for trading jobs
don't know if it's true, though.

 

[Joy Pathak]

It depends on who you interview with.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

During the course of this revelation, if it comes out that you started playing poker after you heard it's good for trading jobs, I don't imagine people would think of you very highly.
Poker skill is not something you use to boost and pad your resume. Chance is you will not very good at it.

 

[amanda.jayne]

It also depends on how, and in what context, you are bringing it up.

Like everything else, space on a resume is at a premium and listing cliche 'activities' are often frowned upon as they add little to no value.

Do you stand out in any way? Accomplished anything significant? Have you competed at a professional/semi-professional level? Did poker 'pay your way through college'? Have you built a poker bot? Have you learned any life lessons directly related to the quant/trading profession (Hint: Risk Management)? etc.

There are many ex-professional poker/card players/athletes floating around the street. You want to be prepared to discuss/defend/be drilled in this area.

Simply put, if you can spin a story around it, its a no-brainer (and you shouldn't need to the question )

If you plan to simply list it next to underwater basket weaving.... well...