Despite the technological have adjusted their rosters over the last few months, they continue to needing many professionals with specific skills. And the difficulties to find them do not stop, especially when they need professionals who master certain skills considered soft. In their search, they have found them where few expected to find them: in the gaming world.
This is because gamers have such a high level of soft skills that they are increasingly attractive to recruiters, according to Computer World. For many it is likely that their highest aspiration is to work in a gaming company, but they may be offered even more attractive positions in other technology companies just because of what they have learned to do by playing.
According to a study by the recruitment company ManpowerGroup, more than half of the companies that offer jobs would value mentioning the skills acquired in gaming in the hiring processes, and 65% say they have plans to take them into account in the future. This is because the skills developed through e-sports and gaming can become highly valued by companies.
Among these skills are creativity, critical thinking, reasoning, problem solving, leadership, collaboration or resilience. On the other hand, 43% of the companies that offer work indicate that it is more difficult to teach the soft skills they are looking for. In addition, the pandemic has accelerated the demand for several of them. Especially communication, learning capacity and collaboration. And gaming can help players achieve them.
Each game allows you to learn specific skills
Of course, each game allows you to learn specific skills. For example, with Fortnite and League of Legends, you can improve creative thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. In addition, gaming drives continuous learning, and the ability to adapt skills is increasingly important as people constantly have to adjust to an ever-changing work environment.
It is estimated that there are some 2,500 million gamers in the world, who have various skills that are in high demand. They play very different titles, and ManPower has studied the skills that are necessary to play with them, coming to the conclusion that gamers have the exact talent that companies are looking for. To get there, he has examined more than 11,000 games across 13 genres, ranging from action-adventure to roleplaying.
In the process, the consultancy has discovered the main skills that are developed in each game category. After doing so, they mapped skills to correlate them with job skills, and identified the types of jobs where those skills were top of mind so they could map them to job recommendations.
When playing the game, there are titles that present players with complex challenges, and they have to develop a strategy in order to overcome them. Thus they can improve their problem-solving abilities. Multiplayer games boost teamwork and collaborative skills, through improved effective communication, as well as coordination with other team members.
Through gaming, a player can show resilience by completing a quest or task to level up. In addition, games can help improve players’ writing ability and multitasking ability. They may even go so far as to learn project management skills.
In addition to these skills, many gamers have other knowledge more related to technology. Gamers of a certain level have to know a lot about hardware and software. Also about how to set up a computer, and how to use various software tools.
The expansion of Artificial Intelligence will also accentuate the need to have professionals with a high level of certain soft skills: critical thinking, negotiation, empathy, communication, creativity, design, collaboration and storytelling. Above all, as the automation processes free up employees to carry out other more complicated tasks or that require more involvement.
Companies evolve little by little in their selection processes
Meanwhile, 88% of companies are using completely outmoded recruiting practices, filtering candidates who have the skills they are looking for in favor of those with specific educational degrees or who fill positions that match the ones they offer. They do so even though research indicates that skills, not education, are most important, according to Forrester Research.
Only 20% of employers hire developers without a college degree. Additionally, only one in three organizations wants to improve the experience in their IT or technology departments by improving access to skills development. But the times are changing. Hiring based solely on real skills, knowledge and experience, and not just college degrees, has grown since the beginning of the pandemic.
In addition, with remote work, there has been a direct relationship between the pandemic and a significant drop in the unemployment rate in several countries in certain sectors. Especially in the technology sector, as companies have accelerated their digital transformation plans.
Things have changed so much that according to an April 2022 study by the Indeed job search portal, 59% of employers are considering eliminating a degree from hiring requirements. 30% believe that removing the degree as a hiring requirement would help them hire more diverse talent.
On the other hand, 87% of the high-level managers surveyed indicated that they were not prepared to solve the lack of skills. Forrester Research points out that 78% of companies are prioritizing the development and acquisition of skills internally. But if you search within the gaming community, you can find people who have the abilities of people who have played team sports.
But passion is also important, and according to several sources, in the gaming community there are players who have skills that are usually found in people who have played team sports. For this reason, gamers have long ceased to be seen as kids who lock themselves in their room for hours playing between pizza boxes. Now they are highly valued to fill positions in technology of all kinds.
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