Choose Wisely - Enhancing Career Prospects Through Games

A study based on Steam user play data finds that online gaming behavior varies between three different professions, IT professionals, engineers, and managers. The games played by participants suggests that they could help in developing different soft skills, such as team-working, spatial ability, risk management and problem solving.

IT professionals and engineers shared a higher associated number of puzzle-platforming games, especially Portal, which includes elements of complex maze-like problem solving and changing physics-based rules, which requires fast adaptation from players. This could be considered to help improve spatial problem-solving and persistence skills.

Engineers were also stated to play more strategy games, such as Sid Meier’s Civilization, a complex game where players are tasked with building civilizations requiring aspects of critical thinking, problem-solving, organizational skills, and planning skills.

From the non-technical jobs, managers were instead associated with action roleplaying games, such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ( “Skyrim”). In Skyrim, players develop their character and complete various quests while increasing their character skills in a single-player environment, allowing anyone in a managerial position to improve problem-solving skills which are essential in managerial positions.

Collectively, multiplayer online games were an attractive choice for all three profession categories, but there was no significant deviation between different online games, such as the first-person shooter games Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2.

The study, which composed of 16033 participants whose job details and gender were available through a dataset by Game Academy Limited. A larger secondary dataset was also employed to find associations between professions and types of games. The results of their games were narrowed down to investigate the participants’ top ten most played games in order to find possible associations between different professions.

The author, Anna-Stiina Wallinheimo (2023), claims the ability to develop and strengthen soft skills by playing online video games already has supporting evidence from previous research, but less information is available on representation based on different professions. Further research on the subject could help validate possible enhancements in soft skills related to certain types of games is suggested. In conclusion, professionals playing different games can be beneficial for soft skills related to their professions, but many may already be playing the games most beneficial for their career.

Wallinheimo, A.-S., Hosein, A., Barrie, D., Chernyavskiy, A., Agafonova, I., & Williams, P. (2023). How Online Gaming Could Enhance Your Career Prospects. Simulation & Gaming, 54(1), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/10468781221137361

Photos: Screenshot from Team Fortress 2 (Valve Software, 2007), taken by the author.

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Nicolas Boucht

A game enjoyer interested in the educational potential of games, enthralled by simulations, adventure, and role-playing games. Aiming to figure out what makes them tick all the right boxes and painting a cohesive picture on the allure of games.

Teoman Kars

Passionate about video games with strong narrative, competitive and exciting games and racing games in general. Basically, a literature, music and video game nerd combined into a person.

#game research #career #soft skills