Second Life: The Virtual Job Interview
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You'd think you needn't worry about dressing for success when attending a virtual job interview. Don't tell that to Stephan Dowler, a 37-year-old chef who recently interviewed with Sodexho Alliance, a food and facilities management company at a job fair run on the virtual community Second Life. |
Dowler, for the interview, created an avatar he called Estephan Dollinger, but he couldn't figure out how to dress the computer-generated image that represented him in a suit, so he arrived wearing jeans and a pullover, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Dressing the avatar wasn't Dowler's only glitch. He couldn't figure how to maneuver Estephan to get the avatar to sit in a chair; instead, he sat on top of it, the newspaper reported.
Besides Sodexho, other companies recruiting at last month's virtual job fair hosted by the ad and recruitment firm TMP Worldwide included Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, T-Mobile and Verizon.
Despite the glitches, the virtual job fair fits a business need. Recruiters see the Second Life job fairs as a way hook up with youthful job seekers. Microsoft recruiting manager Warren Ashton told Baltimore Sun workplace columnist Hanah Cho that Microsoft is "looking at this generation in a slightly different view on a day to day, hour to hour interaction that they've incorporated into their lifestyles."
The Second Life job fair provides some advantages to employers, according to The Journal: it's cheaper than holding an actual job fair and more senior executives can attend in the form of an avatar. Job seekers seemed more relax during interviews, conducted via instant-messaging chats.
Still, the kinks need to be worked out. Some job prospects missed appointments because they were confused when they were to show up for their interviews because they lived in different time zones.
"One of the candidates couldn't make it to the interview room. He kept banging on the walls," Kelly McCorkle, Verizon's manager of recruitment, operations and strategies told Baltimore Sun workplace columnist Hanah Cho. "Once you get used to it, it's nice to laugh at yourselves and share these experiences."
