The Android's Liberal Arts Degree (Meta/Critical), The Android's Mother's Basement (MMO)

World of Warcraft on Your Resume

4 Comments

So Europa Universalis IV has been announced, which is something that we’ll no doubt be talking about in greater detail within the next few days, but for today’s Friday post I want to share a video I found the other night.  Basically it’s a guy talking about how an MMO guild or raid leader is probably better equipped for a leadership position than someone who has just gone to school and has no other experience, and how the guild/raid model could be applied to businesses.  In other words, he’s reiterating stuff any MMO player has already known for years.  It’s kind of nice to see other people realize it, though.  Now if only we could clone this guy and put him in charge of employment around the world, right?

Written by: Pike on August 10, 2012.

4 thoughts on “World of Warcraft on Your Resume”

  1. I saw this when you tweeted it last night. In theory, I agree with the argument, but there are some key differences between playing a MMO and work that I feel like are being overlooked including regulations, best practices, and the fact that one is a game and one is a job. I have been in a lot of guilds (and even led two of my own) where WoW indeed felt like a second job — raids five nights a week, meritocratic reward structures, hours and hours on test dummies — but throughout all of it, the work is genuinely engaging. Work seems to imply (at least to me) a fair amount of doing what you don’t want to do. If I were in a situation where I was hiring someone, I would look at past experience, personal achievement, and personality and then if they passed that, I’d interview them. If the person then said in the interview that they happened to also lead or play in a high-end raiding guild then that’s a feather in his/her cap, but it doesn’t seem to equate to professional success in any field other than raiding.

    In many ways, it would be like saying someone is a really great at banking, and would therefore would be a fantastic lawyer. One achievement does not necessarily lend itself to the other… plus I’ve met far too many great WoW players who I would never want to work with.

    With all that said, I do think that competing in a top raiding guild is a good show of some parts of a person’s character. It’s not useless — yet I don’t think anyone would actually hire someone who mentioned their world ranked raiding guild and no masters over someone who has a masters. Definitely an interesting video though!

    (sorry for the meandering)

    1. Don’t worry about the meandering, we love those as comments! I think you bring up a lot of interesting points. I agree that we aren’t at the point where people will actually be putting WoW or other MMOs on their resume… but it’s nice to think that some people out there “get” it regardless.

    2. If work is doing what you don’t want to do, then something is wrong. Granted, we all take shares at jobs that lack a certain dreamy creaminess, but attitude at work really does make a difference. We frequently only hire someone after half a dozen or more various types of interviews to make sure they’ll fit with the team.

      I can see where having been part of a high ranking game might seem a bit silly (to some); however, it does show some initiative. Either the ability to lead a team or pay attention in to direction in high stress situations. There are ways you could word gaming experience on a resume without alluding to the fact that you might be a gamer.

      I’m not sure why there’s such a social stigma associated with gaming either. Topic for another post some day.

      Pardon me while I go slay some moar drag0nz!

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