Way back in July during the whole kerfuffle about Blizzard and RealID, I wrote this:
When a potential employer is googling names off a pile of hundreds of CVs, is he going to click through and read my proven successful point-by-point tactic for taking down that rare elite? Of course he’s fucking not. He’s going to see my name, see the phrase “World of Warcraft” and decide that I’m a fat spotty loser with no social skills who probably lives in my parents’ basement.
Me – When Journalism Meets Naivety: CrunchGear Edition (The Average Gamer)
I’ve been experimenting over the past couple of months and my hunch seems to be bearing true. As you know, I’ve been self-employed since July. I’m casually looking for full-time employment but mostly doing exciting games-related things so I do send out CVs now and then. Back when I had nothing but the NHS on my profile? Loads of interview requests. Now that my most recent employment includes “Reporter for the London Games Festival 2010” and “Editor-in-Chief of The Average Gamer”, I get zero interest.
Just to put this into perspective, in my last NHS job – and please forgive me if this sounds like boasting; not my intention – I managed multiple, simultaneous (and sometimes even successful) projects worth £4 million of public money. Shouldn’t that kind of experience warrant at least a telephone interview? It did, until I started including my games activity to fill the 6 month gap.
Now, I’m not saying this is definitely the cause, but its certainly a correlation. I’m gonna spend January applying to as many project manager jobs as I can and track which CV version gets a higher response rate.
I’ll leave you with another quote:
In this way, the process of becoming an effective World of Warcraft guild master amounts to a total-immersion course in leadership. A guild is a collection of players who come together to share knowledge, resources, and manpower. To run a large one, a guild master must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members; creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes. Guilds routinely splinter over petty squabbles and other basic failures of management; the master must resolve them without losing valuable members, who can easily quit and join a rival guild. Never mind the virtual surroundings; these conditions provide real-world training a manager can apply directly in the workplace.
John Seely Brown – You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired! (Wired)
What’s been your experience of mixing games and workplace culture? Is playing video games accepted as normal yet?
Originally posted on weefz.wordpress.com
The One A Day Project 
Posted on January 3, 2011 by Weefz
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