Communications of the ACM
When Passion for Videogames Helps Land That Job
Employers across a spectrum of industries are welcoming applicants with experience in making or playing videogames.
Credit: Otto Steininger
Employers across a spectrum of industries are welcoming applicants with experience in making or playing videogames, believing such backgrounds can help workers with online collaboration, problem-solving, and other key workplace skills.
For example, General Electric (GE) is hiring people with game development expertise to train robots to inspect hazardous areas via virtual reality technology, a role that GE's Ratnadeep Paul said "came out of the gaming industry."
Although some people still regard gamers as socially maladroit, in recent years that assumption has been dispelled, partly due to increasingly popular online multiplayer games that encourage players to form team and strategize via online text or voice communication.
Said the Rochester Institute of Technology's Andrew Phelps, "What we used to stereotypically think of as a weird thing some folks did in their basement is now part of everyday life. Gaming has become a common touch point for people."
From The Wall Street Journal
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