Using my WoW experience to get a job

[frejborg]

With respect, I think you are out of your mind.

The 'oldskool' thinkers, as you put it, are the ones that had a firm grip on reality. Managing a bunch of whining kids or whining 50 year olds, 10, 100, 150 fold in a computer game guild scattered across Europe has NOTHING to do with real life, or real management/responsibility situations in the work place. I would seriously reconsider if you are going down that route.

You are wrong. It's real people behind those characters in situations simulated from life. While it's not axactly the same obviously, it does have value. Most intelligent people do realise this, I believe.

[zoarial]

Should I answer the question citing the three year long, multinational, multilingual, multiracial and mixed gender/age team management work I did for five nights a week, or sack it off and go with 'Plan B' and just make something up?

Call it the moderator/admin of an online-community.. that should clear you from anti-gamer prejudices

[Kalyyn]

No. Management is more than assigning 30 civilians to cut down trees and 30 to farm...

---------- Post added 2011-02-09 at 04:03 PM ----------



Oh my...I don't think YOU understand the real world enough. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if you have 500 unhappy people in your guild. What if a bunch leave? What if they overthrow you as GM? Not a big deal. You're playing a game, so it really doesn't matter that much.

What if you're managing 500 unhappy people? What if a bunch quit? What if you get fired? That's a HUGE deal. We're talking about employment here, and real money/quality of life for those 500 people and yourself.

It's ridiculous that people could think being unable to lead your guild to the slaying of a fake dragon could possibly be equivalent to being unable to lead your employees to a productive quarter.

Well perhaps you feel that being a bad guild leader has no consequences, but thats likely because you've never been in a top-100 guild. Theres a lot more on the line than "killing a dragon", and the competition is just as real as in any market.
Also, no matter if its a game or a volunteer group, you handle people exactly the same way. If you have no leadership skills, you can't run a top-100 raiding guild. I find it absurd that you seem to think any moron can do it.

[Rooflesstoofless]

Unless you are applying for a job at Gamestop (or similar video game store) you'd have to be daft to use WoW as way to prove your leadership abilities or job-worthiness. You need to prove your are going to be an asset to the company and I don't think your involvement with WoW is a way to do that.

I play WoW and like playing video games in general, but if I see anyone using their experiences in gaming in their resume I shred it without giving them an interview.

[fizikz]

For all the people suggesting taking something like "guild leader in wow" and mixing around the words to make it sound all nice while being vague yet accurate....what do you do when they call you on your bluff? go "oh, you mentioned <blah blah blah your vague word play here on playing a video game> what do you mean by that/can you tell me more about that/etc" ? look like a retard and admit you dressed up playing wow as something that sounded nice? lie to their faces and make up something they hopefully won't ask you more questions about?

...seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. what would you do?

[bantu]

So they throw "different from you in any way" and you can't think of a situation other than wow? Never mention WoW in an interview unless it's some gaming job.

[Ltsmash]

I think they only way this will work is if your interviewer understand the dynamics of WoW and how hard it actually is to run a successful guild.

[The Big Ape]

don't do it...

i interview for my company... i am self employed...

tho i may not be as internet saavy as others, i still see that it is NOT a good reference... more so if it is in a game...

yes, i'm an avid wow player and i do see the organizational skills that is required to be a GM but the first and foremost 1000m thick brill wall you'll see as an obstacle is when you mention wow and mmorpg's...
if one of my candidates play wow... i would not hold it against them... but if they mention it as a reference? no... have a nice day.

think of this... how old is a candidate, say, low to mid 20's? so in 20 years, the ONLY reference you can make is a game? seriously?

negative press spreads faster than positive press... you see reports of addiction to a game and even addiction to wow frequently... and among the general "older" corporate community, your association will never be seen as a positive point in you as a candidate.

find something else... even sports is better...

but as been said many times... NEVER mention or reference a game, especially a online game, in an interview...

and wake up... there is no "positive way" of referencing wow and hope to give you an advantage in an interview...

[Squirreludecker]

If you think for one second that leading a guild is more difficult then magaing real life people in a proffesional setting, then you have zero real world experience, period. I cant believe this is even a discussion.. There are teenagers succefully running guilds in this game, you gonna let a 16 year old high schooler run your company, i think not.

refer to sig please. all people who think real life is harder really dont know what they are talking about. im guessing its from lack of experience and just assuming.

[Cadell]

Hate to say it, but youre out of your gourd if thinking that even MENTIONING WoW on a resume wouldnt mean it is auto-trash-canned.

[usiris]

I think they only way this will work is if your interviewer understand the dynamics of WoW and how hard it actually is to run a successful guild.

I agree with the concept that it takes a lot to manage a progressive raiding guild. Unfortunately if they don't understand how a guild structure works, especially how much discipline top us/world 100 guilds take, they are most likely going to write it off as a childish game or hobby.

and wake up... there is no "positive way" of referencing wow and hope to give you an advantage in an interview...

while i cannot think of anything off the top of my head, you can spin any hobby to sound good

[Deleted]

Personally I wouldn't mention I even play games on a CV, unless the job was specifically aimed at something to do with the field, anything from retail to design, to be perfectly frank most employers don't even like to see that you have an interest in video games, because they see them as pointless wastes of time.

While I too would consider much of the organisational skills needed to run a guild are in a lot of ways, far beyond what it takes to manage the personnel of a business, for frankly the simple fact, most people are in jobs to simply earn money, go through the daily grind, do what they are told and go home at the end of the day. In a guild it is quite a different atmosphere, whereas I would say its more of a slack and friendly atmosphere, frankly ego's, drama, and general attitude of members is a huge issue, far above and beyond that of what you will find in the average workplace, and you aren't their employer, you cant really threaten them with reprimands you would in a normal work place for doing a poor job, most of the time these people can move on and be somewhere else in a day, to run a guild often takes more of a diplomatic skill and motivational skill than a workplace does, where it is simply pure administration rather than personnel organisation that is required, simply because the issues guilds have do not occur to the same degree they would in a corporate structure.

The above been said however, fact of the matter is as someone who has managed a programming design team, and as a gamer myself I have never looked poorly on someone who has an interest in gaming, but it hasn't exactly helped them to tell me it either, but i'd say in general I'm one of the few out there who would look upon it with mostly indifference, almost all others, especially those of senior generations, which are unfortunately 90% of people in managerial and senior business roles, will only look at it with either utmost disdainfulness or disinterest.

[Smoopie]

make up any type of lie before you use this story..horrible idea imo

[Bluey111]

i might put it into other words then a world of warcraft guild leader, the employer may not find it relevant