Gamers can still often get a bad reputation; it's seen by many as a hobby or pastime that is for those who lack any real-world experience or life skills.
However, far from being a waste of time, gaming can actually help you to enhance many aspects of your life, from boosting your confidence to improving your career prospects! Yes, really. Gaming has multiple transferable skills, especially now as games become more complex and advanced and incorporate many realistic scenarios, increased character development, and challenges that put players through their paces.
If you're looking to move into a new career, find your first job, or go for that promotion, then you should look at your gaming skills to help you fill out that application form and give your career the boost it needs.
What gaming skills can you use to further your career and gain employment?
Patience and Perseverance
There are many games that require you to have patience and perseverance. Games like The Legend of Zelda or Minecraft require tremendous patience, Minecraft especially as you build elaborate structures and new worlds. You really need to pay attention to how you are going to be able to get to where you need to be.
Both of these skills are desirable qualities in candidates for many job roles, and being able to display these qualities and put them into practice when at work can make you a valuable team player and a highly sought-after candidate.
Critical Thinking
While the situations aren't real, you still need to display critical thinking in most games as you work your way through the levels and challenges to be able to reach the end of the game or improve your gameplay experience.
All decisions you make in gameplay have risks and consequences, and you need to be able to analyze all risks and make the best decisions possible based on the information you have available to you.
The ability to remain calm under pressure, make the right decisions, and see the bigger picture to drive results is a desirable quality in many careers, from medicine to positions in combat roles and high-pressure environments. If you can keep your cool when the stakes are high, then get this on your CV and demonstrate your critical thinking skills to move forward on your career path.
Multitasking
Multitasking is often frowned upon when it comes to juggling tasks in a working environment. Still, there are many industries where balancing various aspects of running a business, leading a team, or collaborating requires you to multitask.
When playing your game, you need to keep on top of a whole lot of variables at once. GTA is an excellent example of this. Not only do you need to get to your destination, but you also need to combat external factors and race against the clock to get to where you need to be at the designated time. Applying this to job roles in real life.
Social Skills and Teamwork
While this might not be the first thing people think of when looking at skills from gaming, in modern gameplay, people are often found playing in a team; even back before video games were a thing, people had to work together to solve quests and move through levels; D&D is a prime example of this.
Teamwork is a big part of many games, and more people are using their gameplay to build on social skills, work as a team, and help them reach their goals. Again, this is something you need to be able to demonstrate in your career to prove you have what it takes.
Leadership and Decision Making
Leading your teammates through a game is a skill not everyone can master. Multiplayer games often have designated leaders, and if this designated leader is you, then you can expand on this skill to include real-life scenarios that can be extremely attractive to future employers.
As a team leader, you will be responsible for guiding your team, making the right decisions based on the information and skills available to you, and being in charge of identifying strengths and weaknesses in the group and giving them the tools they need to succeed. Be it learning the Classic WoW First Aid Guide or deciphering your enemy's play style to spot holes in their defense and be victorious in your quest, if others rely on you to be their leader, then you need to boast about this.
These same skills you display during gameplay are the same skills sought by employers and management when looking to promote or recruit people to lead teams in a more formal environment. Embrace your leadership role and use it to your advantage.
Concentration
You know how it goes: you get into the game, and suddenly, nothing else exists, and you concentrate solely on the game. It doesn't even matter what game it is, and each one requires your full attention to help you work your way through the game. Plus, if you're not concentrating on what you are doing, chances are you won't get very far in the game and be the best you can be.
Concentration is a skill that can be extremely useful in pretty much every job role, and if you are able to ignore the world around you and get down to the task at hand when gaming, then you can shift your focus to do this in the work environment, too.
In a nutshell, gaming can be your gateway to helping you develop the necessary skills you need to pursue the career of your dreams, land your first job, or get promoted. Over time, you can learn new skills, develop the skills you have, and become more experienced, putting them into real-life scenarios.
So don't be afraid to list gaming on your CV as well as all of the soft skills you can show and use to help you become an employee that every business wants to have to work for them. From increased focus and concentration to critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership skills, gaming gives you everything you need.
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