The Military Wants To Hire Gamers ‘Due To Their Skillset’

A great man once said that the times they are a-changin’, and sure, he might not have been talking about video games at the time, but for us gamers those words have never been truer.

Long gone are the days where gaming as a hobby was viewed as a waste of time. Thanks to technological advances, the wealth of video games out there, and the many skills that gaming can help you develop, more employers than ever are choosing to hire people with gaming experience.

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Speaking to the BBC, a representative for the Royal Air Force explained why gamers make the ideal recruits, saying: “The ability to assimilate information, react swiftly and co-ordinate actions whilst remaining calm under pressure are often attributes of people that are good at gaming.”

They added that these skills are just what the RAF is looking at for “a variety of roles.”

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The RAF isn’t the only company looking at gamers when recruiting. Hays Recruitment regional director, Ryan Gardner, says: “There are plenty of soft skills that gamers can utilise in a professional setting, such as teamwork, problem solving and strategic planning…

“It’s about how you either make it relevant to the job you are applying for, or how it makes you more interesting as a potential employee.”

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Earlier this year, gamer Matthew Ricci told Kotaku: “If you’re playing EVE Online you basically already have an MBA [Master of Business Administration]”.

The emerging trend amongst employers is an incredibly interesting topic, and it’s one that a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, Dr Matthew Barr, is making the focus on his new book.

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Dr Barr says: “For now, I think the stigma around games means that telling someone you’re a hardcore gamer is more likely to harm your chances of getting a job.

“But if someone can articulate how they’ve led a team in an online game, for example, they may be able to persuade an employer that this is useful.”

Time to put my 200+ hours of The Sims 4 onto my CV then. I’m thinking…experience with managing people?

Featured Image Credit: Pexels