Leveling up your employability. Video games and skill building

· by · in Journey of a Geeky Grad, Social Recruitment. ·

I’ve got some good news for all of the gamers* out there! (Including myself :3). Gamers ARE more social and educated then our non-gamer counterparts.

The new generation of gamers have been brought up in a social environment. Some of the most popular games in the community (such as World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V, etc) allow users to play together (or against each other). Facebook games such as Farmville (all those requests!) require users to get their friends on board to build their community or raise their characters stats.

The ‘Gamer’ definition

According to LifeCourse Associates (a consulting firm), the definition of ‘gamer’ was (Tsukayama 2014):

“Anyone who has played a game on a digital device in the past 30 days”

According to Tsukayama (2014), gamers were also more likely employed full-time, helping them fuel their gaming habits!

Are we leveling-up in any other area?

Well I’m glad you asked! We have been training our minds and reflexes since a young age (The first console I ever played was a Sega Master System – Totes oldschool!). Some of our strengths include:

  • Problem solving – those countless hours spent navigating a maze, or clearing lines on tetris has really set you up for success. You can now see a problem and swiftly fix it. Have a flatpack? No problem! Just give me a screwdriver and watch in amazement!
  • Design – Remember that amazing home you built using the ‘Cha ching’ cheat on The Sims or developing your own game from scratch using RPG Maker? Those hours you spent dressing up your character on Animal Crossing has come down to perfecting design!
  • Resource Management – Almost every RPG and first person shoot requires you to manage your resources to complete the mission. Head to the shop, buy the shop out with all your money, sort your resources, defeat the boss, repeat. Translate this to the real world and you’ll be stocktaking the whole office to ensure you beat ‘the next challenge’!
  • Decision making – Action and Massively Multiplayer Online (MMOs) games require players to think on the spot or face death (or worse, absolute slaughtering). Scientists have even proved that gamers make quicker and more accurate decisions based on an analysis of their surrounding environment.
  • Strategy – Pokemon is a classic example of strategy. Building the right team, with the right moves and EVs to beat your rival is key to your success (and fame in the World Pokemon Tournaments). I didn’t spend hours researching on Bulbapedia to not build a boss team!
  • Adaptive to technology (not really a skill but important!) – We have a tendancy to always buy the next console model or change the way we game online for the benefit of our leaderboard. I never used an instruction manual to learn how to play a game, I just played it. So why wouldn’t we just adapt to various forms of technology?

 

Are you an active gamer and currently employed in the workforce? Did you mention any gaming skills in your interview? Leave your comments below!

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