Wise Startup Blog

Wired 14.04: You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!
This post is for all of you gamers out there… you might want to consider putting your latest MMORPG on your resume.

Stephen Gillett was in the running for a choice job at Yahoo! – a senior management position in engineering. He was a strong contender. Gillett had been responsible for CNET’s backend, and he had helped launch a number of successful startups. But he had an additional qualification his prospective employer wasn’t aware of, one that gave him a decisive edge: He was one of the top guild masters in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft.

They go on to say that massive multiplayer games bring about accidental learning. It’s learning to be – a natural byproduct of adjusting to a new culture – as opposed to learning about.

In online worlds, players are constantly exposed to challenges, and must accept failure and learn from their mistakes immediately to be successful.

Furthermore, being a guild master is equated to a “total-immersion course in leadership”. They believe the ability to manage and develop a large clan is akin to the kind of skills needed for a manager in a business environment. Both in an online clan and as a manager, leaders must be able to deal with quabbles within the group, they must be able to create group directives, create training schedules, and recruit new team members.

All of these elements allow an individual to be a successful guild leader as well as an effective business manager.

Check out this article to read more..

So the next time an employer asks you what you do in your spare time, you might mention your World of Warcraft “Internship” last summer.