Can video games boost your career?
Videogames have long been thought of as distractions to work and education, rather than aids. But there is a growing school of thought that says game-play, in moderation and in your free time, can make you more successful in your career.
John Hagel III, co-chairman of a tech-oriented strategy centre for Deloitte, has been studying the effect that playing videogames has on the performance of young professionals in the workplace. "We're finding that the younger people coming into the teams who have had experience playing online games are the highest-level performers," he says “because they are constantly motivated to seek out the next challenge and grab on to performance metrics.
Elliot Noss, chief executive of domain name provider Tucows, has spent the past five years training to become a better leader by playing "World of Warcraft" for six hours a week.
"'You have these events [in "World of Warcraft"] that are very leadership-driven," Noss says. "For example, when you're in a raid that's poorly led, it's really easy to see how valuable are skills like managing the social dynamic, making sure there was the right level of preparation and making sure that there was a clear hierarchy in terms of who is performing what roles."
Noss does a regular lunchtime series called "Tucows Lore." Around 20 employees come to each session. Noss plays the company poet, telling tales of Tucows over the years -- its heroes, villains, battles with large telecommunications companies or the early days of the domain registration market. "The feedback is fantastic. It helps people feel they are part of something bigger," Noss says.
Noss' efforts seem to be paying off. He says he has seen employee satisfaction rise and turnover decrease.
Hagel cites Stephen Gillett, a gamer who became chief information officer of Starbucks while still in his 20s. By playing "World of Warcraft" Gillet developed the ability to influence and persuade people through leadership rather than trying to order them around.
A book published in April called "Your Career Game" discusses how online Xbox games like "Modern Warfare 2" can teach players about game theory. The strategies gamers learn in interacting and competing with others in games, assessing different motivations and finding and utilizing mentors can help employees get ahead in the workplace or help job-seekers get an edge in their search. The book was co-authored by Nathan Bennett, a management professor at Georgia Tech, and Stephen Miles, vice chairman of executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.
Videogames can also inspire entrepreneurship. In 2004 then 22-year-old David Storey entered the Guinness World Records as having bought the "most valuable object that is virtual," a virtual island in the online game "Project Entropia," for a whopping $26,500.
Far from being a digital sucker, Storey had moneymaking in mind: He now runs the island as a virtual game preserve, making $100,000 a year from taxes he charges hunters on his island. Being a virtual property owner, says Storey, has taught him a lot more about business than he ever thought a game could.
Does that mean entries like "guild leader" or "virtual island business owner" will become more common on resumes? Not yet; but, says Hagel: "I anticipate in the not-too-distant future this will be as standard a part of your résumé as where you went to school."
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