Courtesy CareerBuilder
As reported by The Escapist, CareerBuilder recently posted "outrageous and common mistakes" candidates make in job interviews according to a new survey.Among the unusual blunders hiring managers encountered, they reported that:
Candidate used Dungeons and Dragons as an example of teamwork.
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 2,720 hiring managers (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government) ages 18 and over between November 5 and November 23, 2009.
Of course, it's never appropriate to bring up an irrelevant example in an interview. However, the manager specifically citing Dungeons & Dragons as a "blunder" because it's used as an example of teamwork. Not everyone agrees with this assessment.
The benefits of role-playing are numerous. Role-playing develops a multitude of skills that have immediate application in a business environment, including the ability to make quick math calculations, strategic thinking, developing leadership and tactical skills with small teams, language skills, and empathetic visualization. Here are a few examples of how I've used my two decades of role-playing at work:
As an instructor I taught business classes to small disparate groups. As game master, I perfected reading, eye contact, keeping my audience's attention, developing a speaking voice, being comfortable presenting to an audience, and using props as part of my presentation. All these skills, skills which business people take for granted, were well-developed long before I entered the business world thanks to role-playing.
As a manager, we regularly conduct meetings around a table. Different "players" with their own objectives have to be convinced to work together. We have a time limit (usually an hour) and a goal. Each team member brings specific skills to help the team succeed. Sounds a lot like an adventuring party, right? The only thing missing from business meetings is dice.
As a salesperson, I learned to put myself in my customer's shoes. Role-playing develops empathy and role-projection. This skill is a key part of convincing customers to purchase a product. It's also an important part of employee relations -- employee advocacy requires putting oneself in another's shoes.
But don't take my word for it. Beck and Wade's Got Game discovered that gamers are "committed, team-oriented professionals that play to win." In fact, they found that the more time young professionals have spent playing games, "the more sociable they report themselves to be." This certainly applies to Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most social games of all.
But perhaps the best argument for gamers as important team members is that they have learned to fail:
Before winning most games, gamers will have failed hundreds of times. Such high failure rates can be extremely productive. Because of the high probability of failure, players naturally focus on what they did wrong, what they could have done better, and how to get to the next level. So the game generation learns through repetition something that countless teams have tried to instill: Failure is part of the process that leads to success.
There's no disputing that there's an appropriate time and place to discuss Dungeons & Dragons. But managers could do a lot worse than hire a role-player.
Comments
I think you overlooked the biggest reason the CareerBuilder article is wrong. Touching on D&D is a blunder if your audience (the hirer) is likely to have strong negative (generally, as you point out, false) associations with the game. Certainly that was the case with the person who wrote the article.
But in this era, especially among professionals, that's less and less true. It's increasingly likely that the hirer has played D&D, or had a brother/cousin/university roommate who played. In that context, the result is not a blunder but rather a chance to communicate the positives your essay cites as well as build a personal connection to the hirer.
Asked to cite an example of teamwork (in a professional context), I don't think my first example would be a D&D session (and I work in hobby games!). But as an interest to include on my resume, it's certainly no blunder!
I agree Charles, thank you for your comment!
I have to disagree with both of you. Not disagree that D&D cultivates excellent teamwork, socialization, and management skills...but disagree that D&D is a good thing to use for a resume or job interview. I agree that D&D is more common now than in the past, and the chance that your interviewer may have played or knows of D&D is higher today. But I think their polling data speaks for itself...it's not a sure thing. I think one has to decide whether you want a job, or want to make a point. Unless you "know" your interviewer understands what D&D is and has a positive impression of it, I think it's foolish to use it for a resume or interview. I think it's much more effective and logical to use more universal and professional examples when interviewing for a job. If you don't have more universal and professional examples (other than D&D), then get out and volunteer for things that may cultivate or highlight those traits. You'll probably experience more success that way.
That's not the only strange part of the review:
"Candidate ate food in the employee break room after the interview."
If they mean that the candidate ate food that was meant to be free for employees only, ok, I get it. But just eating food in the break room?
I once had a candidate tell me that he was going to take the job for which I was interviewing him for about three months as it would make a good addition to his CV... Given that three months is about the duration of our training period, you can imagine that the rest of the interview was quite short!
Roleplaying was a major factor in getting my first job! I started work as a junior engineer at a defense firm. They spent a LOT of time in document review, looking for consistency, correctness, if the text matched the requirements, etc. I pointed out that I had a couple playtest credits, and how I'd already done pretty much exactly that for the games. Got me the job on the spot.
I think the point the article was making was people putting down D&D playing on their resume which is supposed to highlight their professional career. Everything I know about resumes says that the only purpose of a resume to get the employer interested in what you can provide for him, and hobbies generally don't provide this.
It's all about context. I agree that hobbies alone are not adequate replacements for actual experience. But the CareerBuilder article never gives any context so it's difficult to explain what was meant when the anonymous hiring manager submitted it.
CareerBuilder only cites "using Dungeons & Dragons as an example of teamwork." Dungeons & Dragons is an excellent example of teamwork. Should it be the ONLY example? No! Should it be the first example you use? Probably not. Should you modulate your answer to the hiring manager? Absolutely.
If the hiring manager happens to be in a creative industry, then heck yes you should mention it. I almost got a job doing web design for White Wolf's web site because I was a role-player. Would I have brought that up for another position? Probably not.
At face, all CareerBuilder pointed out was that using D&D as an example of teamwork is an "outrageous and common mistake." It's hardly common and I don't believe it's an outrageous mist
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