RPG Evolution - D&D Goes to Work Part I: Adventures in Resume Writing

Playing Dungeons & Dragons teaches a wide range of skills, from complex math to problem solving to team work. How can you convince employers that your gaming experience makes you the best person for the job?

An "Outrageous" and "Off-Putting" Hobby?​

CareerBuilder posted "outrageous and common mistakes" candidates make in job interviews according to a 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 http://CareerBuilder.com among 2,720 hiring managers (employed full-time; not self-employed; non-government) ages 18 and over. Aja Frost at The Muse agrees, listing Dungeons & Dragons as a "random, unrelated, or off-putting" hobby:

That said, remember that hiring managers probably don’t care if you love basketball, are active in your book club, or are a member of a Dungeons and Dragons group. Eliminate anything that’s not totally transferable to work-related skills (or a really, really epic conversation starter).

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.

+5 Vorpal Resumes​

The title graphic makes a tongue-in-cheek case for incorporating D&D into your resume, but others have taken it quite seriously. Artist Sean McNally put together his resume as a character sheet. If you think that's an impressive, check out the resume MrDeepImmersion sent to Wizards of the Coast:

One of the Dungeons and Dragons staff members heard from a friend of mine about my passion for immersive gaming and dynamic story telling. They encouraged me to apply for a position in game design. At the time these pictures were taken, I was working full time with Walt Disney Imagineering but was seeking out new opportunities; however, my background is in electrical and computer engineering, so my resume reads VERY dry to companies with heavily creative backgrounds. I figured that I’m only going to get one shot at showing them I’m an diligent worker that understands story-telling and is comfortable with thinking outside the box. So they’re getting my hand-crafted "summoning" tablets which contain wax-sealed scrolls (my resume and cover letter).

His Tumblr picks up the story:

Hey there guys! I heard back from the CEO of Wizards today. While it seems that there is not an available position that meets my skillset, I am proud to report that Mr. Leeds stated that this was by far the most impressive resume presentation that the company had ever seen He also notified me that he intended to pass my resume around to a few yet-to-be-named companies to share with them my passion and professionalism, so I think I may have opened more doors than I originally thought I would! And the recommendation from a CEO is a gift in itself! So I consider this a big victory! I am proud to have showcased my talents and will continue to do so! Thanks for all the support as I put this package together guys! Its because of you all that I aspire to dream big, thanks again!

An edit later amends the story:

HAHA, Got a job and that tablet really helped, though in a way I never expected! This is definitely an opportunity I cannot pass up. I’ll be seeing you guys in August!

These examples are from artists in creative fields. But being a dungeon master or player in Dungeons & Dragons entails quite a few other skills that employers might value.

The Softer Side of Killing Monsters​

The workforce needs "soft skills" more than ever before:

Because despite the supposed “disconnect” of the digital age, humanity is still a very social species, and unless we as individuals understand how to communicate, cooperate, and coordinate with others, we are at a significant disadvantage—especially in the workplace...There's a reason why 77 percent of employers say that soft skills are just as important as hard skills. In a workplace, the diversity in experience, demeanors, age, goals, and cultures, sometimes all on the same team, means we have to be able to juggle a varied set of personalities and end up at the same end point.

Role-playing develops a multitude of these soft 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. Aaron S. Rosenberg, a novelist who has written for numerous franchises (Exalted, Warcraft, and Warhammer to name a few) and ENnie-winning game designer, said:

Roleplaying games have long been underrated, seen as just a silly amusement, when in fact they have invaluable use as a social teaching tool, a narrative exercise, and a situational testing device. This is not to say that roleplaying games can accomplish everything, but they have a great deal to offer people of all ages and walks of life. All they require is the willingness to participate fully, the interest to learn and enjoy, and a little bit of imagination.

In my own personal experience, the value of gaming in the workplace has been invaluable in a variety of professions. 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. These communication skills are critical to business. Ronald Corn, game designer and high school principal who has incorporated role-playing games into school activities, explained in an interview:

Playing cooperative games forces gamers to talk. In order to achieve their goals they are forced to verbalize their plans. Gamers often find that the more they talk-out their solutions the more likely they are to find unique ways to solve those problems.

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. David Millians, a premiere gaming advocate who uses gaming tools in class, shared his view in an interview on how gaming promotes social awareness:

The most important skills are those of social awareness, reading the other players and oneself. One can then alter elements of play and interaction to make it work better for everyone, but it is most important to learn to read the social cues of the players and people at the table.

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. Corn elaborated in an interview:

Gaming, especially cooperative gaming, promotes teamwork. In most games players are asked to work together to solve a puzzle, stop a villain's nefarious plans or do something little like save the world. The very nature of role-playing games nearly requires teamwork and forces the players to support each other through their respective roles. Other tabletop games have incorporated a time limit such as Pandemic and thus require players to talk, plan, and implement a strategy very quickly. A perfect exercise for those corporate deadlines.

Sounds a lot like an adventuring party, right? The only thing missing from business meetings is dice. But don't take my word for it. Martin Yale explains in "Knock 'em Dead Resumes: A Killer Resume Gets More Job Interviews!":

A Korn Ferry study once showed that executives with team sports on their resumes averaged $3,000 a year more than their more sedentary counterparts. Now, that makes giving a line to your personal interests worthwhile, if they fit into certain broad categories. If you participate in team sports, determination activities (running, climbing, bicycling), and "strategy activities" (bridge, chess, Dungeons & Dragons), consider including something about them.

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. Aaron Vanek, Executive Director of Seekers Unlimited, a public charity dedicated to fostering education through live action role-playing (LARP), said in an interview:

I don't think fighting monsters is good practice for conflict resolution in real life, for it demonizes The Enemy and puts forth violence as the first, best solution for resolution. I hope people aren't learning to solve their problems by smacking it with the business end of a longsword. However, conflict can help one in real life through failure. Games allow people to fail without serious real life consequences--professional sports or professional designers not included. I believe it is extremely important for folks to be able to deal with failure--to not resolve a conflict to their satisfaction--and games are a great way to rehearse this real life eventuality.

Failure in business is an increasingly critical skill for companies trying to keep up with the fast-paced world, as outlined in Fast Company's "7 New Skills Needed for Business Success in 2015":

Think of failure as the price of getting an education: It’s alright to fail as long as you're failing quickly, cost-effectively, and learning from mistakes, using the insights gain to improve future tries. Leading innovators are constantly introducing new products, prototypes and solutions, and learning from these efforts, steadily adjusting and adapting these ventures to be more effective until they eventually find success.

There's plenty of compelling reasons to explain the value of your gaming experience in an interview, but what if you don't get that chance? Is it worth putting game experience on a resume that might screen you out before you even get the opportunity to explain?

Finding the Game Balance in Resumes​

Yale adds an important caveat to adding game experience to any job search:

Yes, poker involves critical thinking skills, but it's not worth the bad press your mention can get if the interviewer doesn't understand that it is a game of skill. The rule of thumb, as always, is only to include activities that can, in some way, contribute to your chances of being hired.

It seems context is key. Game experience should be brought up when it makes sense to do so; creative fields and jobs will likely value game experience more than other professions. The interviewer's experience matters to. As gamers become more common, interviewers who are gamers might put higher value on your game experience.

Should you put your game experience on your resume? It depends on a variety of factors, including a careful assessment of the job, the interviewer, and the company. There's an appropriate time and place to discuss Dungeons & Dragons in a job hunt, and only the candidate can make that determination. But managers could do a lot worse than hire a role-player. For the other articles in this series please see:

• D&D Goes to Work Part I:Adventures in Resume Writing
• D&D Goes to Work Part II: Professional Game Masters
• D&D Goes to Work Part III: The Gamified Workplace

 

[neobolts]

Here's a thought: Don't put playing D&D on your resume. Or your Pokémon badges. Or your ability to speak Klingon. CareerBuilder has it right.

I mean, you could explore a "variety of factors, including a careful assessment of the job, the interviewer, and the company" and hope you get it right. Or you should just stick to professional subjects in your resume and interview. It's easy to forget most of the world doesn't even know what you are talking about. I've heard D&D called "that Satanic game", anime called "China porn", video games referred to as "Marios", and the names Star Trek and Star Wars used interchangeably. This is by people as young as in their 20s and 30s -- people whom you would think would have grown up with basic knowledge of the existence anime and video games. Resumes are about first impressions. There is a strong chance that your resume will cross the desk of someone who has no idea what you are even talking about and proceed to toss your wacky resume in the trash.

 

[Dire Bare]

Here's a thought: Don't put playing D&D on your resume. Or your Pokémon badges. Or your ability to speak Klingon. CareerBuilder has it right.

I mean, you could explore a "variety of factors, including a careful assessment of the job, the interviewer, and the company" and hope you get it right. Or you should just stick to professional subjects in your resume and interview. It's easy to forget most of the world doesn't even know what you are talking about. I've heard D&D called "that Satanic game", anime called "China porn", video games referred to as "Marios", and the names Star Trek and Star Wars used interchangeably. This is by people as young as in their 20s and 30s -- people whom you would think would have grown up with basic knowledge of the existence anime and video games. Resumes are about first impressions. There is a strong chance that your resume will cross the desk of someone who has no idea what you are even talking about and proceed to toss your wacky resume in the trash.

Except, as part of the article points out, there are times when putting your D&D hobby on your resume would be invaluable. You'd need to be careful that the job, company, and industry would actually value your inclusion of D&D on your resume, but with the right match it could put you ahead. And not just when applying to WotC!

But for your average, non-creative job, yeah, leave it off.

 

[Wrathamon]

I work for a game company and someone sent me a resume that was red penned by his "dad" to show off his accomplishments. While it may have been creative and got me to look at it, in the end, it highlighted to me he lacked experience (maybe immature). I wasn't looking for someone (at that time) that was green. I saw a D&D character sheet resume once, but he didn't calculate his saves properly so he got rejected. Another was a comic book resume, but his sequential art didn't have good panel flow (nor was it a good story) and made it a disaster to understand his career history and experience to even evaluate.

All three got me to pass it around the office and it got looked at by a lot of people ... but it helped highlight the errors more than anything.

Keep it simple, don't fluff it with nonsense.

 

[JohnLynch]

I actually recall using my D&D experience in an interview. It was a community based activity that got young people involved in games and socialising with others. It required coordinating large groups of people, keeping people engaged and helping mediate a group of people to encourage them to contribute positively to the group activity (whether that meant bringing people out of their shell or encouraging people To listen to the ideas of others).

The words Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop were never used. I got the job.

 

[Benji]

I tend to use D&D only in interviews and then I pitch it as a community projects. But then I've used D&D as a social project for building confidence in young people/helping teach autistic people social conventions. So I'm not really dressing it up.

My wife had to give a 'Micro teach' in an interview to a panel of adults to get on her teaching course. She taught them to play D&D. She got on the course.

 

[Grainger]

Next time I'm in a job interview, I'm going to corral the interview panel into an impromptu game of D&D. If they refuse to take part, I'll cast a spell at them.

 

[Dire Bare]

I work for a game company and someone sent me a resume that was red penned by his "dad" to show off his accomplishments. While it may have been creative and got me to look at it, in the end, it highlighted to me he lacked experience (maybe immature). I wasn't looking for someone (at that time) that was green. I saw a D&D character sheet resume once, but he didn't calculate his saves properly so he got rejected. Another was a comic book resume, but his sequential art didn't have good panel flow (nor was it a good story) and made it a disaster to understand his career history and experience to even evaluate.

All three got me to pass it around the office and it got looked at by a lot of people ... but it helped highlight the errors more than anything.

Keep it simple, don't fluff it with nonsense.

Heh, heh. The problem wasn't that these failed resumes were creative. It was that they were lame.

That's the risk you take when being creative, on your resume or otherwise. You might think you're brilliant, and others might just scratch their heads in confusion.

Not being creative with a resume is the safe choice. But, to land a job, sometimes you have to risk it and not be safe. No guarantee it'll work out for you though. Then again, safe doesn't always work either.

 

[Jhaelen]

Keep it simple, don't fluff it with nonsense.

Yup. I recall a similar article trying to encourage people to be more creative when writing resumes, citing a bunch of outstanding examples. However, that's precisely the problem: These resumes were incredibly well-written/crafted. Unless you're absolutely sure you can pull it off in top-quality, just don't do it. Sure, you may attract more attention, but that attention will also be drawn to any mistakes or flaws.

 

[Imperialus]

I agree with a lot of the above posters. I'd never put D&D on a resume, but I might well bring it up in an interview. I had a job interview once at a school for a temporary teaching position where I noticed that the principal had the PHB on his bookshelf By the end of the interview it turned into a discussion involving how to bring roleplaying into the classroom as an educational tool. I then forwarded him a very lightweight ruleset I had modified from Old School Hack to simulate trying to survive in Florence during the black death.