Second Life as a resume item

I thought that for a change I would post a thread of a positive nature. I know that this defies the logic of my sarcastic nature and such things. But, I think that it is at least worth sharing.

As some of you may know, I have been dissatisfied with my current RL job working in the development department of a small independent public television station. About a month and a half ago, I decided that it was time to start exploring my job options elsewhere -- a decision I came to reluctantly having spent six months during 2004 on unemployment and barely being able to even remotely interest a handful of prospective employers. I had to take the first job I was offered even though it was part-time and without benefits and beneath my intelligence and skill set. With the suggestion and help of Flipper I beefed up my resume and decided to add a section about the work I have done within Second Life from clothing design to being one of the organizers for the SLCC.

Much to my complete and utter surprise my resume has been receiving non-stop attention from potential employers. In the past month I have had more interviews than I did within the entire six months that I was unemployed last year. Each of the potential employers from varying fields such as Women's Health, Art Museums, Universities etc. have really taken an interest in the things that I have done within Second Life and with Second Life itself. Fearing that I lacked the proper words to adequately describe Second Life to potential employers that are not familiar with the "metaverse" so to speak, I printed some basic information from the website for each of my interviewers to keep after the interviewer. Heck, even if I don't get the job, I will at least have helped to spread the word.

I am not saying any of this to toot my own horn as a content creator in Second Life, but rather to inspire the rest of you, that if you have not already, to really consider the skills you have improved upon or have learned through the Second Life platform. Whether you are a land owner, a mall manager, writer for an SL magazine, clothing designer, animator scripter, live helper or virtual architect etc. you all are gaining valuable real world skills from within Second Life.

Regards,
Jennyfur

Jennyfur, that's so lovelytrue!



I hope this will be quoted many times to comes.

It's like I once told a friend from The Matrix Online, something to the effect of: "In MxO, when you 'code', it's just simulated. In Second Life, when you code, you're really scripting!"

I hope many Resis take their time+energy from SL and put it on their resumes and that it bounds them towards greater successes. At this point too, given how relatively uncommon it is, the sheer novel value of being on the edge of the future is worth a lot! Aaand one doesn't have to cluster big words together to fake it.

I need to play up the SL service I could offer. Like the ability to fix up scripts, build stuff, or organize large-scale riots over tiny, little disputes.

I did this on my most recent job search largely because I took close to a year off to do SL stuff. As a technical writer, it was relatively easy to include graphic and animation tools and talk about the things I do in Second Life. I think only one interviewer freaked out at the idea of a virtual world. My current employer is fascinated.

It's all a matter of presentation.

In that, a potential employer's reaction reveals who you might really wanna work for too. Good sign!

for awhile now, i've been planning on updating my resume/portfolio with the same type of information.. SL related works as they can apply elsewhere.

i just feel i should get a few more things under my belt to warrant a complete redesign of my personal website.. i mean, i could update now, but that would pretty much be limited to two things.. creating the avatar for Harvey Smith when he visited and designing the SLCC nametags. (my clothing creation is limited to a couple of items and i'd rather have a line of clothing to refer to instead of just the outfits i made for The Quirk and myself)

don't get me wrong.. i'm proud of those two(-ish) things, but i want to have something beefy to show off when i get around to updating my site.

point is, you're absolutely right. anything we do here is great for a resume/portfolio. i hope more people get into the habit of doing so.. not only will it be good for them, but it will also help spread the word (as you said) AND help to broaden the acceptance of SL as something much more than a "game".. to help elucidate it's true function and myriad purposes.

huzzah!

wow, that's a great idea 2 add. i never thought about that. but ur absolutely right !!! ur learning skills to become creators, scriptors, designers and why shouldn't u promote that ?!?! i'm updating my resume riiiight now

While having fun in Second Life, you may learn object-based programming (it's not C++, but it teaches you something, a'ight?), computer graphics (designing and applying textures for everything), animation and basics of 3D modelling (some of the things I saw make me wonder how long would it take to build such things - an example might be a guy turning himself into a Warhammer 40K Necron Destroyer. He started from the ground up - and when I saw him, he was making the right side of Destroyer lower body, which looks much like a metal beetle). Someone has to do more than just have kinky pixel sex.

Oh, this is a great thing to bring up!

A few months ago, I was interviewing at Electronic Arts for a pretty neat position. Those guys were fascinated by Second Life. It was one of those day-long marathon interviews, so in total, I must have talked about SL for about three hours with four people.

There's plenty of employment-related stuff you can learn in SL, including the obvious creative and development stuff (skinning, texturing, basic 3D, scripting, etc). There are also less obvious things like project management, informal quality assurance, marketing and brand management, and... well, I could go on.

I didn't take the job at EA because I got another offer just after that was paying a good chunk more (good thing too, EA posted a loss that quarter right as I would have been hired). But even in the other interview (in a marketing department) Second Life came up, as I discussed the weird week-to-week trending of e-commerce-type activities.

I don't know if I would bring up SL in all interview situations, but I would highly recommend you leveraging your experience here for creative, interactive, marketing or new media-type positions.

SL got me my job.

I was actually interviewing for a different position, which he said I was overqualified for, than the one I ended up in. The company owner tore off on a tirade about how few people were applying for the job - managing quotes and making bids as well as other business-side stuff - who actually knew anything about business. I mentioned that I ran an "online business" and how I was also amazed at how few people seemd to "get" the concepts behind business anymore.

He started quizzing me about what I do in SL, and after two hours - which included him signing up with SL to have a look - he offered me the job on-the-spot.

Seems that even on the tiny scale of SL, basic business concepts hold true, enough that he chose to overlook my lack of MBA or any experience in the area otherwise.

I thought that was very cool.

That is fantastic, Jillian! I'm so pleased to hear that story.

That's one of the amazing things about SL. It's a next-to-no-risk business sandbox. There's a lot you can learn just by doing!

I've picked up quite a lot of freelance graphic work for architectural firms based on my texture work in Neualtenburg.

Wow, these are the kind of stories that proves SL is a platform, not a game...and I'm not just saying that cause I'm boinking the thread-starter. (I coulda said married to, but that's in in the true SL spirit, is it?!) Jennyfur had an interview today at the school I got one of my degrees from (OMG FIC!) but the "RL FIC" had nothing to do with it... the fascination with Second Life did. Otherwise, she would have had an interview in the last round.

To quote one of my best friends Asher - who printed all the schwag for SLCC - "10 years ago I would have called you a geek. But now, its just so damn cool, I love it."

My company has embraced SL with open arms. Jennyfur's experience only goes to underline my belief that GEEK IS NOW CHIC - let's face it. When the first dot-com thing made people rich, they were all really happy, and geek became chic. Soonafter, the whole thing imploded, except for the super-smart geeks and finance folks who knew how to divert funds, or got lucky. Now, wave two is coming on, Google is become the new Microsoft, and Linden Lab is the new Google that's going to save the world. The difference this time? There are 78000 people - or at least 69 - making sure Philip, Jeska, Bub, Robin, Cory, et al behave themselves. And I trust these folks to be kept in check by one simple fact: they're not above the community, they're PART of the community.

Google's two founders just bought themselves a Boeing 737 to "help the world" for themselves at the cost of their shareholders. This will end in flames - hopefully, only figuratively. I say, "PFFT".

Hey Philip - never buy yourself a plane... and I'll believe in y'all. Planes are the new "jumping the shark!"

Regards,

-Flip

This is so totally awesome! This is a story I would love to hear about from the press! So cool! Congrats!

I can't wait until we have more "Second Life helped get me hired!" stories in the PR Suggestion Box, huh? 'Specially for those who lurve SL but don't a fulltime job in SL, but are looking to get hired somewhere in the spectrum of their whole life nonetheless.

There's the ongoing "RL work in SL" angle but this is "RL work outta SL, but partially because of SL"!

I could probably use the newspaper as a decent portfolio.

I wonder how one would go about quoting that, though.

I tried to get college credit from just Intermediate Programming using the results of the Game Dev Competition. Their response: "Huh?"


Academics...

And no, that isn't a joke.

Would ask me why I wasnt cleaning the home, doing house chores etc. Making my spouse happy. They would say I have too much time on my hands and need to do some more unpaid overtime. :

I do not dare bring it up in the workplace. In my real life job.

Psst... psst! Pick it for an alt!

Huh?

Originally Posted by Jillian Callahan
*is jealous of your last name*

I dn not understand...........

Can't... all alted out They have Troughton up as a last name too! *sigh*

The TARDIS was the time/space vehicle of the Doctor. All from a television show I dearly love.

I had thought that Tardis meant turttle in English.

Back to the thread so I do not get in trouble for changing the subject, My co-workers do not understand why I spend my time on the computer at home. I stopped talking to them about it after getting "flamed". They have no sense of humor at all. Things here in Japan are done only by the company way. No matter how stupid. It is very frustrating.....

No, this was apparently Doctor Who week. Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Tardis, Bessie, Eccleston, etc.

Like I said to some local friends, I may not be particularly fond of the last name system, but at least they've got good taste. (Occasionally)

Edit: Not to go off on a tangent. Um. SL on Resumes, thumbs up from me.

Slightly more substantial comment:

I do find it interesting that one can essentially practice business skills here without much risk. Goodness knows it's a better way to learn than doing it in the real world.

It's something I'll definitely keep in mind in the future, assuming I can finish chopping my way out of the "I can make Stuff! Look! Whee! Now what the heck do I want to make?" stage... (it shouldn't take long ... I've been using 3d software and FPS engines for this for over a decade).

Ranma, back when I played TSO, I would try to tell my co-workers about it, but their eyes kept glazing over. I have since realized that those not in the nerd category will never understand the cool factor of TSO (then) and SL (now).