A Poker Job Search reader, Mark, sent me the following email.  I asked him if it was cool if I posted it here and responded to it here since I’m sure it’s a question many others have had as well.

I have been reading your site with interest.

I am a keen young poker player (22years) and am making a reasonable living through playing and am a top ranked player on a couple of online sites.

To date I have funded my uni thru playing and travelled extensively.  I have a good degree in accounting and finance from a top UK uni and am a high achiever both academically and in sports. I would love to work in the poker industry as I regard it as an exciting, fast moving environment and I feel I could make a contribution.

My preferred areas of work would be operations but I would also be very interested in the acquisition and retention side of the business.

My question is do you have any advice on how to get into the industry?

At this stage in my career I lack commercial experience and would be looking for an opportunity to build up skills.

Would you regard it as a possibility to find a suitable position to achieve this within the industry or in your experience are there no openings for
trainees, internships or work experience placements sand would I be advised to look outside initially?

Are there any further training programs I should consider taking to enhance my employment prospects?

Any advice or contacts would be appreciated.

Many thanks

First off, congrats on doing so well at poker. Despite what many people might tell you, not everyone does well enough to be a winning player, let alone fund their university education.

One of the good (and bad) things about the online poker industry is that it’s still relatively a new industry.  There are no real career paths that lead to a job in the online gaming industry.  Many of the people I know in online gaming have backgrounds that have nothing to do with either gaming or their current position.

With a degree in finance there would seem to be plenty of jobs available depending on what you want to do.  Obviously, poker rooms need people to count the money so accounting with be the most obvious fit.  In fact, I think more than a few poker rooms would love to have someone in finance who actually know something about poker since most don’t even know the rules of the game.

If you would like a job in acquisitions or retention it’s a little more difficult because they’ll probably be looking for people with backgrounds in some sort of marketing.  I say difficult but it’s not impossible if you can demonstrate that you have the skills and the desire.

Another area you might excel in is affiliate management.  Many affiliate managers have no clue about poker so having a rep who can speak their language can go a long way.

As far as how to go about your search . . . obviously Poker Job Search is a great way to submit your CV to companies with job openings.  That being said, it’s still a bit of a who-you-know sort of industry so you might try for a role in customer support first just to get your foot in the door.  Then when the company has internal openings for other roles you can apply and will probably have priority over outside candidates.  The pay and hours aren’t great for customer support reps but many people have graduated from the phone banks to their dream jobs  using the role as a stepping stone.  In fact, many self-professed “poker pros” end up working in customer support when they blow their bankroll.  They work a few months getting a salary while they build themselves back up.

Another avenue you might explore is going to conventions and/or large tournaments.  For instance, at the affiliate conventions you can speak to employees at many poker rooms and you might be able to ply some phone numbers or email addresses out of them.  At a big tournament like the EPT they’ll have a lot of staff there so you can also try to work your personal charms and find out what sorts of openings they might have and ask if they could give you an intro to the hiring manager.

All in all, you sound like you have a lot of things going for you and I see no reason why you wouldn’t be able to get a job in the industry.  It’s just a matter of finding out what you want to do and getting your face and CV in front of the right people.  Recruitment agencies can help but your best bet, especially if you have no previous experience, is to try to make some connections so you go in pre-qualified.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Best,

Bill

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