World of Nothiredcraft
According to one crackerjack source — a random yahoo on an Internet message board — recruiters may very well be discriminating against MMO players:
I met with a recruiter recently (online media industry) and in conversation I happened to mention I'd spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online games, which I described as "the ones before World of Warcraft" (I went nuts for EQ1, SWG and the start of WoW, but since 2006 I have only put a handful of days into MMOG playing - as opposed to discussing them - I've obsessed over bicycles and cycling instead).He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc. I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head. He has been specifically asked to avoid WoW players.
I wouldn't say there isn't a lick of sense to this, but it's simply the distinction between the addict and the normal, run-of-the-mill gamer. You might as well not hire people who admit to liking to have a beer once and then because they are clearly jactitating alcoholics.
Should Employers Discriminate Based On World of Warcraft [College OTR]
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photoatomic
#1 – 10:50 AM December 17, 2008
LULZ.
i work in recruiting and while we are not focusing on media based companies, this seems like a big pile of BS by whatever headhunter this guy is dealing with. there are a lot of hoops to jump through for candidates applying for jobs, but i would wager a good amount of money that a majority of hiring leaders are barely aware of WOW. like i said whoever this recruiter is the guy is working with is making stuff up so that his candidate will not show up to interview and bring up WOW. it has less to do with drive to succeed and work hard and plenty more to do with what is perceived by hiring folks as an unprofessional topic for an interview.
Strophe
#2 – 1:01 PM December 17, 2008
Footnote 1, for us lexically-challenged plebs:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jactitate
(SFW)
HarshLanguage
#3 – 6:43 PM December 17, 2008
Being asked about WoW, or just video games in general, in an interview would set of alarm bells for me. I'd dodge the question as best I could and not admit to anything more than passing familiarity. Not because I have some terrible secret MMO addiction to hide (gasp!), but because I could never know what the interviewer thinks about video games in general. A lot of people still consider playing games to indiciate antisocial, lazy, weird, or otherwise stigmatized behavior. I wouldn't want to accidentally run into that perception even if all I did was admit to having played a WoW free trial once.
mikeeyebeams
#4 – 6:14 AM December 18, 2008
I had a mini-debate with my boss once about the validity of video gaming as a hobby, which they thought was a giant waste of time. I just simply said it's one of my many hobbies, I enjoyed reading and bike riding.
It's not necessarily that video gaming is a bad hobby, but it's likely the amount of time gaming is portrayed in a negative light outweighs the positive in the news media (as with many news stories).
Enochrewt
#5 – 7:32 AM December 18, 2008
I can't believe how much play this message board post is getting. The idea that things said in a forum with no sources or companies named is a reportable story should send any so-called reporter back for a Journalism 101 refresher course.
cha0tic
#6 – 8:03 PM December 19, 2008
Fuck 'em. Ask the interviewer how much time the CEO spends playing Golf.
If I had my way we wouldn't employ Football fans in our company. I breathe a sigh of relief whenever England get knocked out of an International Tournament.