My Dad just sent me a Fortune article called "I got my job through Second Life" all about real people and real companies finding jobs directly through Second Life. It reminded me that most every job I landed over my career was through my small network of friends and associates and how the same has been true for my business exceler8. Here's an excerpt from the Fortune story.
"And just as the way we surf the web changed, the way that corporate America does business has changed in this middle space. Case in point: the most radical dotcom 2.0 recruitment wave is happening in virtual reality thanks to Second Life. Instead of posting a resume on Monster.com that will hopefully net a flesh-and-blood job interview, your avatar can be interviewed and hired all within Second Life, often for jobs possible only in virtual reality." "People who have been in SL since its inception might not be professional content developers, but they have become experts," says Brandon Berger, senior strategist at OgilvyInteractive's Digital Innovation unit. Hence, Ogilvy has hired a lot of people directly from Second Life to execute projects for the big name clients who have worked to be in Second Life."
Imagine arriving for your Second Life interview in this little number...
I first heard about Second Life from Jim Stroud and went to check it out after our phone call. Back then (which wasn't that long ago) SL hadn't yet exploded on to the front page of every business magazine, blog page and tech site known to man. Despite my complete lack of interest in online role playing communities (which is strange given my dweebiness and love of online community) I recognize that I have to be involved in SL because it is a highly relevant community for my personal and business interests. I am a social media geek after all. While I find SL's interface complex, limiting and ultimately boring, I'll keep trying it for the promise that it holds in meeting real people. There ARE interesting people in this community. And just like other interesting communities, our exposure to the new people we meet in them expand our horizons on all fronts.
Hey Shannon, does this qualify for the category you coined "Job Search 2.0"?
I am the last person to disparage the networking opportunities from online communities that spring up around games or other forms of entertainment. I've been part of all kinds, and actually met my husband through the game that surrounded the release of Steven Spielberg's A.I.. I'm part of a huge and high-profile World of Warcraft guild and have met lots of interesting and real-world successful people though it. Let no one doubt my online community networking cred. (Proud to be a nerd, yo.)
But I'm not in Second Life. I just don't get the appeal. What's fun about it? Don't get me wrong- I'm THRILLED that it's working out as a networking and connection tool for people, seriously. But I don't understand why people play. It doesn't seem fun.
Like you, Julian, I'll probably take another stab at it just so I can see what the buzz is about. But I just don't get it...
Posted by: Tiffany | January 25, 2007 at 02:21 PM
Good observations Tiffany. A lot of the things that are mentioned in Second Life aren't that interesting. Is propositioning someone you don't know with an avatar of yourself somehow new and cool? Josh left me a good comment on our blog about how companies should be using SL to do things that can't be done in the real world, instead of what a lot of companies are doing, which is trying to replicate the real world on SL. Seems really on point to me. You can see his whole comment on the original story here: http://www.exceler8ion.com/2007/01/25/second-life-starts-cranking-out-jobs/
Posted by: Julian | January 25, 2007 at 05:47 PM
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Posted by: tzrapyfeu gdzeyvj | March 28, 2009 at 04:45 AM