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A friend of mine recently lost his job, and he happens to be a pretty decent chess player; Over 2000.

There is not enough chess teaching positions in the area to employ him full time, and he hasn't quite found his niche yet in the working world. What sort of job opportunities really take advantage of spacial logic and other characteristics that would belong to a good chess player?

Anon
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    See also http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/75553/should-i-mention-chess-performance-as-strategic-planning-skills-in-my-cv –  Oct 18 '16 at 15:49
  • These are great links, and useful. Please keep them up. I would just like to clarify that this is not about other chess related jobs, but jobs which take advantage of the skillset developed in chess, say for example, spacial logic. – Anon Oct 18 '16 at 16:01
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    I of course appreciate the benefits of having played chess, but when it comes to finding a job in the chess market online teaching seems to be a very successful choice, think lichess.org + skype – Purefan Oct 18 '16 at 18:41

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If you're question is: What job can I get if I put "strong chess player" on my CV, the answer is probably nothing. Although a difficult game to master, the skills you acquire with chess has very little resemblance to the skills prospective employers are looking for. Employers value real world experience in their domain - they are not usually too interested in abstract similarities.

On the other hand, if you're question is: I'm good at chess - what else could I be good at? I imagine any career that is founded on logic and mathematics would be a reasonable fit - perhaps computer programmer or actuarial work. But you still have to do show that you can do the job - either by getting an education or getting experience even if it means doing work in your free time.

Being a chess player is a certainly a benefit - it shows you are able to grasp complex problems and perform under pressure - but at your friend's level it is not nearly enough by itself to get any kind of job that I'm aware of.

firtydank
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  • I'm good at chess - what else could I be good at? << That is how I should have phrased the question. Well put. – Anon Oct 23 '16 at 16:13