Level Up! Gaming Skills to Pay the Bills

An old stereotype of video games is that they do nothing but dull your brain and drain your time. But more and more studies show that playing video games actually gives you important skills translatable to the working world. So what makes gamers the perfect employees, and how can these talents actually help gamers find and keep jobs?

Who Games?

58%
Percentage of Americans who play video games (1)
30 years
Average age of gamers (1)
9.6 million
Number of unemployed Americans (2)

From Controllers to Careers

Video games help job-seekers not only find employment, but also keep it. Here’s a list of skills that frequent gamers both gain and develop. (3,4)
Having persistence. Many gamers pride themselves on reaching 100% completion of a game. That takes a lot of time and patience. But most of all, it takes determination.
Learning to network. In most RPGs (role-playing games), it’s very important to talk to everyone you meet. You pick up hints, quests, and in some cases you learn valuable knowledge that helps you beat that final boss.
Did you know… Candidates for a job with an internal recommendation make up 7% of the hiring pool, but 40% of the actual hires. (5)
Research. Doing research about a game’s mechanics or story benefits you before you start – just like researching a company before interviewing gives you that competitive edge.
Creativity. In nearly every job, employees are asked to “think outside the box.” Doing so is much easier if you’d already had practice playing inventive games like Draw Something or Scribblenauts, or created your own character in an RPG.
Did you know… Only 25% of people report feeling that they’re living up to their creative potential. (6)
The initiative to take on extra tasks. Side quests are imperative in most games; they help you level up. In the real world, they help you get in good with the boss and learn new skills.
Increased memory. In video games, players often have to remember the location of various towns, items, and people for later use.
Did you know… Certain studies have shown that playing video games for 30 minutes each day can increase the brain region responsible for memory retention. (7)
Planning. Games where you build your own city or garden, like SimCity and Harvest Moon, take a lot of careful planning and preparation.
Accuracy. First-person shooters especially train gamers in the importance of accuracy, also in getting things right the first time instead of taking multiple shots.
Did you know… First-person shooters account for 20% of video game sales in the U.S. (8)
Problem-solving. It all started with Tetris, really. Gamers are master problem solvers: from fitting colored blocks together to solving complex puzzles, like in the game Portal.
Working well in a team. Popular MMORPGs like World of Warcraft often make it difficult to get through areas without working in teams. Gamers in this genre, or any who play multiplayer games online, know the importance of teaming up to get work done.
Did you know… In a study by BusinessWeek, 82% of professionals reported needing to work with others throughout the day to complete tasks. (9)
Problem spotting and awareness. Gamers are trained to notice anomalies in their environment. Spotting errors in a spreadsheet is just like spotting snipers or other enemies.
Multi-tasking. Ever fought ten enemies at once while maintaining the health of everyone in your party and ensured your magic didn’t run out? Yeah. It takes major multi-tasking skills to be a gamer.
Did you know… Not many can multi-task successfully; research suggests that only 2% of people can do so with ease. (10)
Management. Gamers make great managers. Combine all the skills above, especially teamwork and planning, and you’ve got yourself a very capable supervisor.

Sources:
1. http://www.theesa.com
2. http://www.bls.gov
3. http://ellefeeney.com
4. http://www.washingtonpost.com
5. http://smarterer.com
6. http://adage.com
7. http://www.dailymail.co.uk
8. http://www.statista.com
9. http://blogs.hbr.org
10. http://www.psychologytoday.com