Article and Video Interview by Brooke Allen
I’ve often wondered what can be done to make it fun to learn new skills and hunt for a job. Surely if FarmVille can make farming fun, and Call of Duty can make war fun, isn’t it possible for the people who produce those games to apply what they know to making the process of finding and qualifying for a job just a little bit more effective and enjoyable?
As it turns out, the answer is: ABSOLUTELY.
Recently I discussed this very question with Gabe Zichermann, an expert in “gamification,” author of Game Based Marketing, and creator of the Gamification Blog.
Gabe explained that the job search is usually a long process that has many moving parts including the concept of career mastery. He says this is the kind of thing that is well suited to modern multi-player social games.
In order to take someone through the “player’s journey,” game designers break complex processes into their component pieces and by providing guidance and rewards along the way. As missions are completed and skills are “leveled-up,” the player can look back later to see that they have accomplished something amazing – and had fun along the way.
After hearing his fascinating advice on how you can make your own job search more fun for you and for those who are helping you, I asked Gabe if this idea has ever been commercialized.
After all, Zynga has figured out how to get 1% of the world’s population to play Farmville, growing crops that nobody can eat. You join for free through Facebook and begin building your farm. Then you invite friends to start neighboring farms, and you interact daily, by visiting each other and complete specialized tasks in order to receive rewards and “farm coins” which you can use to buy gifts for your friends.
Gabe has famously highlighted Farmville’s social aspect by calling it “poke with cows.”
Wouldn’t it be great if Zynga created a “JobsVille” as “poke with resumes” – a place where you and your friends can help each other level-up your real-world connections and skills, land good jobs, and put real food on the table? What’s in it for Zynga? After all, if Zynga goes public, they will have shareholders to feed. As Gabe suggested in the interview, if people help you with editing a resume, making an introduction, or practicing an interview, it is entirely appropriate you reward them, perhaps with a real (or virtual) gifts bought through the game platform.
Better yet, why not help a charity in the name of the person who helped you?
Zynga has already thought of this; they handle the distribution of charitable contributions from their users through their non-profit Zynga.org.
Gabe told me he has not heard of a single person who has made a massively multi-player on-line social game out of the job hunt, but that it is ripe for development.
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119 Responses to How America Can Level-Up Skills and Land Good Jobs
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WATCH THIS VIDEO to hear Daniel Pink describe what motivates people to work. This is what No Shortage of Work is all about.
If you are unemployed, you are autonomous. We help with purpose and mastery. If you are employed, find purpose in helping those who are not. NSoW is not a commercial venture; it is created by people who believe that creating something of intrinsic value is compensation enough. (Note: We are not affiliated with the producers of this video or Daniel Pink.)
Most recently I have been doing volunteer work with ex-offenders and other people with significant barriers to employment. I also volunteer with Goodwill and tutor adult learners working toward their GED. I am a part-time tutor at a technical college as well. My heroes are people who remain genuine despite the twists and turns of life and accept responsibility for their actions. People who keep their joy and hope : )
Best Wishes Brooke. Reading this I can hear your voice…Right ? Right ?
I particularly laughed at the sales/programming divide with recruitment consultants.
I really like your game; our company’s main problem right now is the lack of available skills in our locality.
When hiring people it would be really useful to be able to interact with them virtually without being in the same place or in front of a VC.
They would of course have to promise to stop playing once they worked for us…
My friend Jon Loomer has gamified his job search. He’s created a set of rules on his website that allows people to earn points for helping him 1.) publicize the game, 2.) get him interviews, and 3.) get him a job.
Help get this guy a job and you too may be eligible to win some glorious prizes! See here for the official rules.
We need more thinking like this!
It is a fascinating idea, and arguably, it is the problem with linkedin — there is no way to follow up to find out whether your help did any good, which creates a broken feedback loop. If, somehow, that feedback loop could be closed, I can well imagine that people might be more motivated to help strangers in this way.
What an intriguing idea. In theory, I think this would be wonderful. Rarely does anyone associate job search or post education skill development with fun, so if someone can make it fun, it could be quite helpful.
Can it be done with a game is yet to be seen. I think the challenge to make it fun and realistic at the same time is quite high. Farmville is encouraging people to tend crops online but it doesn’t really develop anyone’s farming skills. Other games give people a great sense of accomplishment and skills, but I haven’t seen any game where that skill really translate in the real world. A Jobsville could lift someone’s spirits in job search but will the skills he or she use to progress in Jobsville really translate in the real world?
It’s worth a try. If Zanga plans to develop Jobsville to help people develop real skills – I think I might even apply for a job there as Product Manager. I highly doubt though Zanga will do this as the objective of Fun vs realistic skill development conflict with each other and Zanga is going for more fun and feel good games than realistic.
Maybe Zanga won’t do it, but it’s a great business idea that I hope someone will try to do.
Actually this is a damn good idea! You might think about other aspects such as social banding together of “teams” not to hunt the next evil ork in the path but to do something useful for the job search. I could also see enlisting business to offer “prizes” to people to have gained X points (via sending out X resumes) and so on. Good luck!
Brooke,
I’ve been only partially employed for more than 2 years and have been to several No Shortage of Work meetings. I’m intrigued with your idea for the game of JobsVille. I’ve never played FarmVille, and I’m not much of a computer game player (except for Mahjongg). I’ve read most of the other comments posted, and I agree with the few people that there would have to be safety features in place to protect privacy from abuse by total strangers. However, the networking potential for this game, if done right, could put people in touch with others who could exchange insights, encouragement, etc. in the job search effort. In fact, as in No Shortage of Work, people helping each other through JobVille could contact each other (only by mutual agreement) in real life beyond the game, as well.
All in all, I think this game is a great idea. I do have one suggestion: For those of us who are digitally challenged (we’re way past 50 and grew up before computer-literacy was considered a survival skill), there should be simply written instructions available on how to sign up or download the game, or whatever one needs to do to get started, and how to navigate through the various levels.
Good luck as you talk this up!
A (good) game can help you in everything…(even how to lose weight)
This actually seems like the perfect feature linkedin should consider. It will add a gaming aspect but also rank people’s profiles by employability based on how complete it is, number of answers, blog posts, articles published, length of service in jobs, etc. Pitch it to linkedin!
This is a good idea, and I like the TED talk about “Games to save the world.” I would like to throw out some questions:
1) Would “SkillsVille” work as a name as well?
2) What are some examples of point scoring activities?
3) I like FarmVille’s “nest-building” activity, where, rather than pursuit of higher levels, one could craft something nice to look at. In this case, this goal could mesh well with job search tasks. Any comments?
A lot of my friends are believers in “funology” – the science of having fun; or, the idea that “fun” is necessary and useful – intrinsic to our lives.
It seems that JobsVille is a great way to incorporate “fun” with “work”. Humans need both to survive. We need fun, games, and even competition to some degree. We also need jobs. And, we need to be useful; we need to feel useful and be needed. We like to think that we can help others and that there are some things that others can also teach us.
What a wonderful idea! I look forward to see how it progresses.
This is a great idea, but we keep forgetting about that pesky digital divide. How will you get the computer-illiterate, or those lacking the equipment, to be a part of JobsVille? Make sure you coordinate with libraries to advertise this.
I think the jobsville idea is fascinating. You get a lot of the experience without the high stakes involved with a real search
I’m in the UK, but the approach looks better than a lot of the gloom and doom I see around me! The only issue I can see with it is that you’d need to offer a very wide variety of ways to “score points”. Perhaps some of it could be connected with sharing blog entries, as being better-read would improve employability? Also inviting each other to professional institute events could be a good one – this will be another issue though, as only a few will be in the same area as the event. Still, start somewhere and see where it grows, I say.
the new depression is a great time for startups, lots of unemployed professionals who have spare time to contribute
I like the idea. I once managed a game by STSC called “The Management Game” -
it was used with the Pepperdine Key Executive MBA Program in the 80′s. The students agreed that it was fantastic having a gaming environment to discuss many of the issues that had been given in class.
I think that getting any positive feedback when you are looking for work helps. I am currently looking – again. It’s early in the process right now, but I still like it when someone gives me an “attaboy”.
Hopefully the game will be designed to give plenty of strokes to those who need it… without being a “pity party”.
Have a good trip to the Bay area.
Job Hunting gane development.
I think that the idea of a job /Resume/Interview and Research skills game that would allow job hunters to get information but most important to connect to others to share not only information but to have others to connect with to express the frustrations and little successes along the way to a new job.
Hello Brooke
I must say it sounds interesting. However, I would be very concerned with the handling of so much private data. In Farmville you are a virtual person. In Jobsville you would have to present a lot of sensitive information to other, complete strangers. Also, do you not fear that people could get too occupied with playing Jobsville rather than actually going out job-hunting? I like the idea of a platform where you can exchange knowledge for job-hunting though!
Best wishes,
Jacky