Spice Up Your Work Resume With Your MMO Stats

While reading Shacknews this morning, I came across this interesting little tidbit from Massively regarding the unheard of idea of putting your MMO experience on a resume. Incredulous as it may sound to you, the author of the piece, Cameron Sorden, makes some very good points and even the Harvard Business Review states that games allow people to “hone the same leadership skills necessary to lead tomorrow’s workforce in an increasingly global and digital business environment”.

According to Sorden:

“Businesses want employees who are punctual, intelligent, analytical, and driven — problem solvers and team players. What’s funny, however, is that those are exactly the same qualities which a guild looks for in its raiders. Good luck trying to explain that to a non-gamer, though.

As an officer in a raiding guild, you’re performing many activities on a daily basis which are directly applicable to a business environment: conflict resolution, organizational tasks, data tracking, long-term planning, and managerial decision-making in a fast-paced and dynamic environment. You might not even think of it that way, but it’s true. In case you’re not seeing the parallels, I just described the following activities: settling an argument between two guild members, planning the group composition for a raid, maintaining the DKP spreadsheet, making class recruitment decisions, and giving out orders that require a change in strategy when something goes wrong during a boss fight.

It’s not just the officers who are honing their business skills, either. Every active member of a raiding guild routinely practices time management skills, conducts personal research outside of the game environment, self-manages to optimize their contribution to the group effort, learns effective communication skills, demonstrates patience and persistence in the face of adversity, and proves that they’re willing to be a team player to advance the goals of the guild. These are exactly the same attributes required of business professionals in a structured work environment.”

It never states whether it would be a good idea to include this information on a college application or not, but when I apply to Veterinary School in the Fall, I may just consider adding my LotRO experience to the list of my wonderful extracurricular activities.

I will let you know if they escort me out of the admissions office by an armed guard.

VVia: Shacknews, Massively