A worrisome hiring trend?

[CaroPhoenix]

Employers now screening for World of Warcraft players ...

... and not in a good way either. There's a link to a blog, please read the blog also, as there are links to other posts/articles about this new hiring decision. Many people believe that WoW players are sleep-deprived and zombies when it comes to Real Life when they're not online.

I found the original post here, at Circvs Maximvs after my husband pointed it out to me.

[sanchopanza65]

Ironically, I am at work reading this, and WoWwiki at the same time. Granted, it's absolutely dead here today because of the snow, but I still find it quite ironic.

[Kiwi]

I lived with a flat of wow players, one guy a cop had a 4 day on 4 day off shift

he spent the entire 4 days off playing wow,so much so that he was LATE for work on his first day back and wouldnt shower eat or barely sleep during his wow days

he got put on probation and eventually fired for his behaviour.... in a country were they are SCREAMING for more police he managed to get fired. Very sad really

[Emrld]

So I need to land a job and then learn more about WoW.
Yes, I am one of those people who hasn't attempted it yet.

[Chromatix]

Personally I would skip WoW and play a decent game instead. I play EVE Online myself.

[Greenday]

I refuse to play WoW. In my experience, people I know that play WoW, play WoW...and that's it.

[Caveat Emptor]

I know a place that *wants* WoW players. I work there. At an unclassified conference on open source intelligence in September, one of the breakout sessions had a mention of this. The speaker gave a made-up scenario where WoW players were discussing how they now could "attack the White Palace because they had acquired the Breath of the Dragon"....translation: They could attack the White House now because they had an antitank missile.

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...s-spies-w.html

[Broomjockey]

The speaker gave a made-up scenario where WoW players

If you ask me, WoW would be a *horrible* choice to use as a cover for planning. Pick something more obscure, preferrably with foreign servers. There's enough Korean MMOs that would be a decent choice.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Employers now screening for World of Warcraft players ...

... and not in a good way either. There's a link to a blog, please read the blog also, as there are links to other posts/articles about this new hiring decision. Many people believe that WoW players are sleep-deprived and zombies when it comes to Real Life when they're not online.

Or they get so caught up in the game they miss work.

Sucks, but once again we see that the few mess it up for the many.

[Eric the Grey]

Employers now screening for World of Warcraft players ...

Simple solution if you ask me. Just don't discuss what you do on your free time at all, or expound on other things, assuming you do something other than play WoW. The key is to not lie if possible, because if they can prove you've lied during the interview, they can let you go (that of course, assumes your not in an at-will state like Colorado, where they can let you go at any time, for no reason at all...)



Eric the Grey

[Snowbird]

With as many people as play WoW, and I would guess that the majority of them are not as addicted as the extreme examples sited, aren't businesses shooting themselves in the foot with this restriction?

What's next, refusing to hire a tennis enthusiast, on the premise that they may end up with tennis elbow and require medical attention as well as time off of work? Just how far into a person's personal life should a job delve before it's too far?

I already have a problem with company's refusing to hire people over their past credit history (hello, do they know how long it takes to clear that up? Someone can't pay their bills, so they try to get a good paying job, but can't because they can't pay their bills... makes sense to me, really. /end sarcasm), but this takes the cake.

It just smacks of discrimination, and that truly is sucky.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

With as many people as play WoW, and I would guess that the majority of them are not as addicted as the extreme examples sited, aren't businesses shooting themselves in the foot with this restriction?

Probably, but then again I'd think businesses are shooting themselves in the foot with those BS personality tests that measure nothing more than an applicant's ability to lie about themselves.

And sadly it doesn't seem like the businesses are abandoning those.

[Talon]

What a load of steaming BS. I was a Wow player back in 2005 when I was working full time. Yes there were times when I spent most of my off-time playing Wow, but I was never late, or missed a day because of it. I knew one co-worker who was more into wow than I, and he seemed like a good worker.

At this rate of absurdity, the only people who will get hired without lying are Cylon centurion robots

[Fenrus]

I find that I just don't tell them about my WoW habits. It made a few companies turn away from me, when asked what I do on my off time. A simple "I play games with friends" turned into "What game?".

"Just WoW, Call of Duty. Games that are fun with little amount of play time" is apparently code for "I play WoW instead of coming in to work"

[Racket_Man]

Probably, but then again I'd think businesses are shooting themselves in the foot with those BS personality tests that measure nothing more than an applicant's ability to lie about themselves.

And sadly it doesn't seem like the businesses are abandoning those.

take a few psychology classes and learn how to "beat the tests" or take soooo many of them you can spot which test they are using and work around it. some are sooo obvious it is not funny

some companies are so stupid that they use a 3-part (as in top answer sheet then carbon paper then a copy of the answer sheet then carbon paper then a bottom sheet with little squares and arrows showing where your answers lead)

found that one by accident, funny as hell as I just followed th arrows to the "right" answers