Lazy slackers, nerds, basement dwellers.
Gamer stereotypes have been around nearly as long as the games they play. But the soft skills developed playing Call of Duty, Fortnite, NBA 2K and other games are now making experienced players desirable to headhunters and job recruiters.
With the overall US unemployment rate hovering around 3.5%, and the unemployment rate in the tech industry at 2.3%, employers are struggling to fill tech jobs. So they’ve begun looking outside traditional venues for talent — and gamers are a now a hot talent pool.
“We haven’t necessarily targeted the gaming community, but we’re talking to the gaming community through different avenues. One of our key clients is a big esports leader and I’m a gamer,” said Lavonne Monroe, HPE’s vice president of global talent acquisition and onboarding.
Skills developed through electronic-sports (esports) and gaming can translate into valuable soft skills for employers; creativity, critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving, leadership, collaboration, and resilience are all skills that can be honed through video games. Today, more than half of employers globally say they would consider gaming skills during the hiring process and 65% say they plan to consider them in the future, according to a study by global staffing firm ManpowerGroup.
Soft skills hard to train
“These soft skills are hard to find and even harder to train,” said Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, chief talent scientist at ManpowerGroup. “Forty-three percent of employers say it’s more difficult to teach the soft skills they’re looking for. The pandemic crisis has accelerated demand for soft skills like collaboration, communication and the ability to learn, and gaming can help fill these skills gaps.”
ManpowerGroup recently created a “Gaming Skills Translator” that asks job seekers to input the games they play, the amount of time they spend playing them, and their experience and skill level. The tool then spits back career skills gamers can add to their resume or talk up during a job interview.
“I do believe gaming builds a lot of skills, but it also depends on the game,” Monroe said. He likened the Gaming Skills Translator to calculators that translate military occupational specialties into skills that can be used in civilian jobs.
“They may not be able to see a direct correlation, but there is a direct correlation. I believe if there’s something that can help a gamer and/or a hiring manger make that correlation, like the MOS calculator, then that’s phenomenal,” Monroe added. “We’ve not gone down that path yet, but I’m totally game to look at it.”
In particular, ManpowerGroup’s report highlighted multiplayer games such as Fortnite and League of Legend that develop creative thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
“Gaming fosters the skill of continuous learning, and this ability to adapt one’s skill set is increasingly critical as people…
2023-08-08 13:00:04
Article from www.computerworld.com rnrn
