WATCH: Should You Put Video Gaming Skills on Your Résumé?
It’s been perfectly acceptable for years to list certain leisure activities on a résumé, such as golf, bridge, or even poker. But what about some of the more modern and digital pursuits — say World of Warcraft, Minecraft, or fantasy baseball?
As the Wall Street Journal recently noted, some avid video gamers are starting to include their gaming prowess on their résumés and LinkedIn profiles. After all, many young people enjoy video gaming instead of traditional leisure pursuits including golf and tennis, which have seen their popularity take a dive.
Catering to this audience, YouTube recently agreed to pay $1 billion for the game-oriented video service Twitch TV, which claims to have more than 55 million visitors per month. And to succeed at a multiplayer game like World of Warcraft requires skills that are also relevant in many business jobs in fields such as finance and IT.
Still, excluding people who work at video game companies, fewer than 2,000 have mentioned World of Warcraft on their résumés on LinkedIn. More than 250,000 people list chess on their LinkedIn profiles, mostly in the fields of IT, computer software, and finance. That beats the 116,000 who list golfing skills, mainly in the fields of finance, real estate, and marketing and advertising. Poker is less common, listed on only 43,000 profiles, and about half are people who work in the gaming industry. The rest, about 22,000, are concentrated in IT, advertising, and marketing and finance.
MIT researcher Michael Schrage says a whole bunch of modern, digital pursuits such as fantasy baseball and Minecraft should eventually become appealing to hiring companies, since they signify modern skills. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett made playing bridge “cool” in the business world. Maybe it will take a top tech CEO from Facebook, Apple, or Google to make video games acceptable as a future business skill.
“If a Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page or Sheryl Sandberg were to be quoted saying that they’ve found that their best coders and project managers tend to do very well in WOW and/or fantasy leagues, then we’ll be on our way to creating new ‘norms’ for knowledge worker assessment,” Schrage says.
There are two ways that those skills can come into play, so to speak. On the one hand, succeeding at video games can require some of the same teamwork, real-time analytics, and composure under pressure that many jobs also require. Reigning supreme in a fantasy sports league requires statistical analysis, trading acumen, and focus.
But there’s also the business leisure aspect — salespeople who bond with customers over golf or drinks might add some new pursuits. It’s even more likely to become common as a team-building exercise in fields that are closely related to digital play, such as IT or finance.
And just wait until the Millennials start taking control as hiring managers — winning your fantasy football league will be worth that much more.
