Hey Guys, I quit my job 2 years ago to become a stock trader (own fund, 500k, self-employed), the first year was great, I made 230k, unfortunately, in the second year, due to some risk management mistakes, I lost all the profit previous made and then some personal savings (small lost, about 50k). I realized I was not good with trading, it's too risky and stressful with your own money, and the worst part was I did not make money by trading. plus I have 2 dependents needed to take care of, I need to provide for them, cannot take high-risk positions, and I believe it's much more reasonable to get a 9-5 job to provide for your family. since I am hoping to get back into the tech industry, not sure how to explain the gap year, should I write in my resume I was a home trader for 2 years? Doesn't that sound like I was a gambler which seems bad? If I write nothing on my resume, the HR or hiring manager would question what happened to me in the past two years? #gap #year #stock #trading #tech #career
What are your tech skills? I’d start there.
Java back end dev
Founded an algorithmic trading startup that identified trading opportunities using mix of proprietary algorithms and AI. Exceeded 50% returns within a year of operation.
good idea, but deep in my heart I want to be honest about my failure, the sad truth is nowaday, if the candidates put something negative on their resumes, they won't even get an interview in the first place.
Honest about your failure? If I was interviewing you, I am going to sense you bailed as soon as you failed or that you didn’t plan for some failure in your business plan. Not a good impression. How do you plan to counter that?
Good points, I have dependents now, family relies on me, if it was just me, I could go on
Nothing wrong with being self employed for 2 years. Owning your fuckups is underrated on blind but very mature. Besides you can spin that into a huge “i learned about myself” behavioral interview story
Op I applaud your self criticism. It sounds like you need to take a break and decompress; you’re beating yourself up and trying to create an exciting marketing campaign for a new product (eg. Your resume, you as a candidate). Give yourself permission to embellish your successes truthfully and clearly to show what you’ve done and can do. Save the hard lessons learned for the interview questions that will ask about a hardship you overcame. It’s one thing to be honest, it’s quite another to wallow in failure. The important lesson here to show is that you learned from failure and can apply it .
thanks for the encouragment
Running your own business- no one needs to know the details
seems strange, from java back dev to running my own business, saying I was building a video website selling ADs?