Posted under Interviewing on August 22nd, 2007
More and more the virtual world is taking on many of the activities of the real world – for business and enjoyment. When it comes to work, we have online job boards, e-networking sites and now virtual job interviews. This week there’s a job fair going on in a virtual world called Second Life, an online community where people or their avatars “congregate” for enjoyment, work and business.
To learn how it works, you can tune in on npr’s web site and listen to (or read) Kathleen Schalch’s report on “Virtual Recruiting for Real-World Jobs.” Dave Lefkow, CEO of Talentspark (and former VP at Jobster.com) is interviewed by Avie Schneider on the virtues of virtual recruiting in the companion Q&A piece on “Adventures in Virtual Recruiting.”
The job fair is organized by TMP Worldwide, a recruitment-advertising firm, and includes recruiters from Accenture, EMC Corporation, GE Money and US Cellular. Although the venue is different, some of the same rules apply to virtual job interviews.
Apparently, a Second Life interview is similar to instant messaging or a phone interview, but is not a substitute for an in-person interview. There seems to be an advantage to a virtual interview. Second Life can serve as a warm-up because candidates are able to hit the backspace button when they start to answer the interview question. Now don’t you wish you could do that at your next face-to-face interview?
Don’t get too excited, though, there are only about two dozen or so companies currently recruiting in Second Life—and many digital issues to overcome before this becomes a key part of the recruiting process.
Posted by Louise Garver
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