Need to break back into the IT industry after 8 years

In My Humble Opinion
1

Alright, so I’ve been playing poker for the last 8 years exclusively for an income. Long story short, with the online poker ban, the poker economy is showing signs of collapsing in on itself and the viability of continuing to play poker as a primary income is not a great prospect. I may be overestimating its demise, but I’m starting to think it might be about time to get a real job.

My skills lie in computer stuff. I have a pretty generalized computer skill set. I can build and repair them, set up networks (to a certain level of complexity anyway), troubleshoot, tech support, code (not at a professional level), software rollouts, etc. More importantly I’m very smart and quick to learn, and I have a decent base of knowledge, so I can pretty quickly learn whatever is needed of me.

Next few paragraphs are about computery stuff, so if you’re just going to give me general jobseeking/resume advice you can skip down a bit.

I went to school for 2 years in 2000-2002 for management information systems, but I focused on the classes that were geared towards teaching to certain certifications and skipped all the general ed type classes, so I didn’t get a degree. I also didn’t get the certs I was training for, other stuff came up.

Most of the classes were geared towards supporting/administering windows domains and desktops, and general networking stuff. I took classes specifically geared towards getting an MCSE. Which is obviously out of date, but not completely useless - I’d imagine a lot of it carries over. I know enough about networks to get a network+ cert and could get an A+ cert (like pretty much anyone can…).

The microsoft certs have all changed, so I don’t know if I could cram for any of them and pass a cert exam anyway, I’d have to learn more about them. I know I could go out and get an A+ and network+, but those are of limited value.

So I have basically nothing to put on my resume. I have an 8 year employment gap (I mean, I had a job/income, but I doubt anyone is going to view it that way), a couple dozen classes for school but with no degree, and that was 10 years ago, knowledge for certifications that are outdated, and no employment history in the IT field. So, as you might imagine, I’m in high demand.

I’d like to start at least trying to get into entry level positions - I’d be willing to do tier 1 help desk or computer repair or stuff along those lines, hopefully with an eye on advancement as I show my competance. But I literally have nothing to put on my resume, so it seems unlikely that anyone would even give me a second look to give me a chance to prove myself.

I also need to figure out how to explain the last 8 years. It’s really hard to tell how a prospective employer would view poker as a job. I would suspect that most would react negatively. Some would assume it’s a lie or a cover for something else, thinking that perhaps I did something illegal to feed a gambling addiction or some such, some might not know what to think. Some might even be positive, but I doubt many. And it is a positive in a lot of ways - you need analytical skills, self motivation, consistency, discipline - it’s actually really fucking hard to play poker for a living and anyone can do it is pretty smart. But I doubt anyone is going to look on it as a positive.

But what else can I do? Just not put what I’ve been doing for the last 8 years on my resume? Give some sort of vague “self employed” answer that they’ll probably want to know about anyway? I have no idea how to handle this issue. And I live in Las Vegas - and I don’t know if that would make them more or less understanding.

I’ve been looking at various entry level jobs (level 1 helpdesk type stuff mostly) and every single job says “2+ years experience”, even the ones that say entry level. Apparently no one knows wtf entry level means. I don’t know how flexible companies are about this - it won’t hurt to just send my resume around anyway, but I need to be able to come up with something to make a resume anyway. At this point I really have no idea which direction to go with that.

So, what sort of positions can I look for to try to break into the industry? What certifications might be worth getting to try to at least have something to put on my resume? They’re so damn expensive, with even the basic stuff like A+ costing over $300 and a lot of them significantly more, so I have to plan that out carefully.

What sites should I be using to look for jobs?

What can I put on my resume, given my lack of history? How should I present it?

Any sort of general advice would be welcome.

2

My boyfriend works in IT and it’s a really, really cutthroat industry right now. He’s looking for work himself to get out of his current company, and it’s really hard. I wish I had some advice, but just pay close attention to what the online job postings are for the companies in your city, and tailor your resume to include as many of the keywords as possible.

He is doing online searches by going to company, hospital, university websites, searching their careers, and applying en masse. He has gotten 1 interview so far.

3

I agree with the above. Failing to complete a degree, or event certs, and then playing porker for 8 years isn’t what hiring managers are looking for. Part of the problem is that many of these jobs are overseas and the other is the general state of the economy. It is tough to see anyone overlooking that to hire you as a walk in entry level candidate. There are just far too many people with better experience, work history, or that are just flat out younger. Even a place like Geek Squad at Bestbuy probably has better candidates on the list.
What I would suggest is to go freelance. Call around to local businesses and see if you can become their guy to set up CPUs, do updates, connect printers, etc. You can also check freelancer.com and start picking up small projects there to pick up a reputation. You probably won’t make very much as a generic IT guy because you are competing with people from India, but it might get you enough of a reputation to get a foot in the door somewhere.

4

I hadn’t thought about suggesting freelance work, but I think it is a great idea. There are a lot of on-line sites where people looking for IT people for short jobs and IT people meet. elance is one, but there are plenty of others. I’ve looked at them to try to find some to do some Ruby on Rails stuff for my conference. Most are overseas, so being in Vegas might be a plus. Now people have records on the site, so breaking in might be hard, but if you can get someone local to “hire” you for a job (even if you work for them for free) you can start to build up a record. No resumes on these sites, so no problems.
Of course you obviously have to be able to do some work which can be done on-line, but if you can get started, then you can build up a record.

5

Is it impossible/unrealistic to continue with professional poker in casinos rather than online?

6

I do play in casinos and have done so exclusively for years. When online was banned, it displaced a lot of online pros, some of which joined the live games. This means there are far more tougher players that you can’t gain an edge on. Additionally, the advertising for poker TV shows dried up, so they’ve all stopped, and between the lack of advertising bringing in new people, and online poker being less intimidating to new players to test the waters, the influx of new players has slowed down massively.

So with the online pros making the live games tougher, and the lack of an influx of new players, the remaining live players, who are weaker than the online pros, are getting destroyed with more regularity and severity than they used to be. They can’t afford their loss rates, and quit, further collapsing the economy so that only the good players remain - and no one can get enough of an edge on the others to make the games profitable.

It hasn’t come to that point yet, but I can see the trend starting, and it becomes a vicious cycle. Unless US-based legalized poker revives the entire economy I forsee it collapsing in on itself pretty hard.

I may be wrong - and I still plan to play poker on the side for some extra cash - but I want to be prepared by getting a steady income just in case it goes as I expect it to.

7

If you’re willing to move to Dayton, Ohio, a company will soon be looking for hundreds of people with IT backgrounds:

http://mo.daytondailynews.com/business/tech-deal-may-yield-hundreds-of-jobs-serving-wright-patt-1319118.html

8

I’m not really in a practical position to move for a job right now. I’m likely only qualified for an entry-level job, so it’s hard to justify moving across the country for crappy pay, and I’ve been planning to save up the money to make a down payment on a cheap house or condo before I move anywhere. Plus I think I can still use poker as a substantial supplemental income if I stick around Vegas. But thanks for the info.

9

For general job seeking advice, I really like this blog. She answers a lot of questions from readers and seems to enjoy the oddball ones, so you could ask her how to put ‘poker pro’ on your resume. Personally I’d put it on there and treat it as being perfectly legitimate, since, well, it is.

I started studying for an A+ in 2009, and then dumped it when I realized that much of the material is seriously out of date. They wanted me to memorize specs about slot A processors - I’ve never even seen one, that’s how old they are! And you really don’t need to memorize processor specs to work on computers, you just need to know what the specs mean and how to look them up. So while some employers might like to see an A+ on a resume, honestly I don’t think it’s worth much as an indication of actual useful skills. It’s possible they’ve updated that, but I’m not really optimistic.

My current job title is ‘Desktop Support’, I’m doing all the workstation related support work for a small company (as opposed to doing server administration work). It’s much more pleasant than doing ‘help desk’ or ‘tier 1 support’ which usually means answering phones for a large number of internal or external customers, and generally pays better to boot. If I were in your shoes I’d also go talk to people at small computer repair shops and see about a job doing hands-on fixes.

I broke into the industry by volunteering my computer skills at a non-profit. They hired me after a couple months, but even if they hadn’t it would have been good relevant experience on my resume. I highly recommend it.

The thing about “Two year’s experience required” is more like a guideline than an actual rule. Companies frequently hire people with far less time in the industry than what they ask for. They’re more interested in whether you can check off all the specific skills they ask for.

Good luck. :slight_smile:

10

This is exactly what my husband did after he was laid off. These little assignments eventually led to his beng rehired by his old company on a contract basis. Whenever the work there dried up, he had amassed enough contacts through freelancing to actually build a client base.

Word to the wise, though: You cannot depend on the client base to keep you continually employed. My husband has done rollouts and other one-time projects for clients. There could be a month or two where he has no contract work. He picked up a PT non-IT evening job so at least we still have some money coming in.

11

In a weird way, I think putting “poker pro” on your resume might actually work in your favor in some situations. For example, jobs in business analytics or something statistical, especially if you can back it up with a course.

12

If you’re looking to pad up your certs I would start with a CCNA. The *+ certs just don’t carry much weight but the CCNA is still worthwhile.

13

The key challenge is making sure your story isn’t “I’m a screw-up and degenerate gambler who couldn’t hold a real job” but is rather “Excellent statistical and business skills allowed me to make a rational decision to take a unique opportunity with high earnings and (at that time) reasonable long-term prospects”. Cover letters are going to be very key, here. Be sure to mention (if it’s true) that you amicably left your last full-time job to pursue poker, that your excellent recordkeeping enabled you to determine consistent profitability, and whatever else you can to make sure the second story is what people get, not the first.

I would definitely create one version of your resume that plays up the business/investing/rational risk-taking aspects of your poker career, and try using that version when applying for jobs with financial or other kinds of companies.

I’m not (anymore) an IT person, so I have less advice for how to make yourself look current enough to get hired (or maybe harder, get past the HR flacks to the real IT people.)

14

Have you had any interviews yet, SenorBeef? Any luck?

15

The CCNA is a good idea, especially in Vegas right now. The casinos are all going to ethernet slot floors. This requires lots of work with subnetting, cabling and switch config.

To give you an idea, where I work we have 4 core switches, 2 for gaming. There are 2 distribution switches running VSS in each closet for the floor. We have 4 closets for slots. Each bank of games has an edge switch. The edge switches are etherchannel for redundancy. Each closet has 3 vlans and each vlan has a /23 dhcp scope. I have a couple hundred switches on my floor.

And that is just for slot data.

On top of that, you need to know OSPF fairly well.

In other words, you have to know networking pretty well to get anything to work or to troubleshoot any problems.

Additionally, the big buzz word these days is Virtualization. VMWare knowledge is a bonus.

Also SAN knowledge is good. Casinos produce a large amount of data and gotta store it somewhere.

All that is on top of general Windows XP/7/Server 200x or AS400 knowledge.

The downside is that the casinos got nailed hard by the economic melt down. They trimmed IT stuff quite a bit. I am rather lucky because my management understands that IT can drive revenue and we get more respect because of that. A lot of the casino management sees IT as purely a cost and therefore it can be a rough place to be when things get tight.

The other big downside is that there aren’t a whole lot of entry level computer jobs in Vegas outside the casinos as far as I can tell.

Slee

16

FYI in IT “2+ years experience” usually means schooling and or education.

The hard part is that you will be working against lots of people with degrees and or experience in an area with a limited number of computer jobs.

There are a few hosting companies there but most are run by ex military guys at least the ones I rented space were.

You have to realize there are dozens of “entry level” candidates with even Masters Degrees, not many with a CS or EE degrees but the MIS/CIS field is flooded.

If you could go back and finish your AS it would be a big help, I would highly recommend doing CS degree, many of us who do hire are pretty disappointed by these non-tech degree programs.

I last week I had a candidate in an interview with a Candidate with a MSc in CIS from a well known college that could neither answer what a stack was or explain the OSI layers. I will most likely ignore that it is a “computer” degree from that school and only count it as a liberal arts degree for scoring purposes.

If you want the management track open do a double major with a Biz degree this will be a huge advantage.

If I am going to take a risk on an employee I have to train it will be on one that knows the basics and can adapt to new products vs. one who only knows how to use one or two vendors products. Some HR departments love Certs, they only draw directed interview questions from me, if you get them learn them because handing out boot-camp certs has been an issue in IT for decades. Google “paper CNE”

We also never do direct hire on junior positions they are all contract to hire so that we can tell how capable/destructive a person is.

The frustrating part is that it is hard to fill experienced positions, if you can get a few years under your belt and don’t burn out the job market is pretty open, if you are open to moving.