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Is Working For the Gambling Industry a Black Mark?
An anonymous reader writes 'I'm a recent university graduate and I have been offered a software developer position in a company that supplies software to the gambling and betting industry. At first I was very excited about the opportunity, however, a few of my friends have told me that working for the gambling industry will put a permanent black mark on my career as a software developer. I don't know that many people in the industry with experience in hiring. Google has not helped, and everybody else I ask doesn't know. So I'm asking Slashdot. In your experience is this true? When you hire developers, is the fact that they worked for a gambling company a big turn off? Also, I'm currently in the UK, but would like the freedom of working in US or somewhere else later on in life. So experience from anywhere in the world is welcome.'
Seriously, as a hiring manager I care if you can do the job I am hiring you for. If that's software development then that means I'm looking for education, experience, and successfully completed projects. I really can't delve into the minds of HR types so I guess they might hold it against you in the more conservative parts of the country, but they are generally used as a glorified GREP from what I have seen.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
In today's economy, a job is a job
Maybe if this, working for the gambling industry, is your concern, you don't really need a job.
Anything can be a black mark if the person hiring dislikes it. There is nothing particularly unique about gambling.
"Gambling, pretty much by definition, has to work with people who don't know what they are doing."
I'm not entirely sure how you managed to arrive at this conclusion.
People gambling aren't always idiots that think "Ima go win a million bucks". Often times they are people that do it for recreation or fun knowing full well that they're loosing money. For example, you can gamble at a slot machine for many hours on only $20-$50. Some people have fun watching the wheels spin and lights flash. For them, it's worth the money. Other people enjoy the social aspect of gambling such as in blackjack where the players aren't competing against each other. Or in craps, where the players are all competing against... the shooter... or the house.. unless they roll a 7 and it's the third tuesday of the month.... anyway, there's a lot of people cheering for someone so someone is having fun.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
You've just described about 90% of all jobs.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
IGT is one of the worlds largest suppliers of slot machines, and trust me, they hire just as many mediocre programmers as any other industry. The thing is that because releases of slot machines and other gaming devices throughout the US is so heavily regulated that they have better quality control and testing procedures than most other industries. The on top of that the gaming commissions from each state that allow gaming follow up with their own testing procedures and protocols. Even with all of that slots with bugs still get out. There were three men recently arrested on the east coast for getting a slot tech to put a machine into a different game mode, and then used a series of rapid button presses/screen changes to cause the slot to fail and award erroneous jackpots. They apparently got about $300k before it was figured out what was going on. Of course the fact that they always hit on the same machine should have been the first clue to casino staff.
As for it being a black mark on your resume... well that's probably one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of unless of course this person is indeed referring to offshore/shady gambling sites. Not that there aren't or can't be legitimate online gaming sources, just that I wouldn't trust most of them.
I don't see experience with a gambling site to be an instant disqualifier. Maybe if that's the only kind of site you were involved in it would be, but if it's one of various projects, it shouldn't be big deal.
The only time a resume gets thrown into the trashcan right away is if I see "telemarketing" in any fashion that doesn't involve stopping them or hunting them down. It's something you try to hide, not something to put on your resume. I want someone with some brains.
Also, as an aside: try to avoid going into detail about any activities that are trivial compared to the job you're applying for. Some people seem to think that if they have a 10 page resume padded with irrelevant history, they'll look better. Nope, doesn't work.
see a Text Widget
And some people would call you an idiot for spending $20-$50 on a video game, because there are better options out there. Quite simply, there will ALWAYS be a better option, depending on who you are, how you were raised, etc. So everyone can go around calling each other idiots because of their favorite pastime. Seems kinda pointless doesn't it? Just because video games are your form of poison doesn't mean they are for everybody and it certainly doesn't make them a better choice for everyone else.
Three days from now?? Thats tomorrow!! ~Peter Griffin
I read that as "Moron"
Sadly, they are similiar in that people cheat either way.
Whether it's loaded dice or insider data, someone is always happy to rip someone else off.
How is it so hard to understand that playing a game for stakes can be simple, recreational fun? Going into an evening of gambling with only the money you are prepared to lose is no different than going to a fair or holiday holding only the money you are prepared to spend on rides, gifts, foods, and frivolous purchases.
Loban Amaan Rahman ==> Anagram of ==> Aha! An Abnormal Man!
I would think this depends a lot on what exactly you are doing. If you're writing a DB back-end for a Caribbean island company who specializes in selling what is likely to be illegal gambling services to americans, that might be a black eye for your resume.
Then again, if you're writing bleeding edge gambling software for video poker machines, that could be a huge positive mark on the resume.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
Just because they are statistics pros doesn't mean they have studied the game theory of poker, nor does it mean they are trying. Sometimes it also depends on what kind of poker you are playing. Some versions are more predictable than others.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
Tax benefits AND the right to discriminate openly?
Hell, if I start a business, it's going to be a religion.
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