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Monday, May 14, 2018

Job and hobby overlap

One of the things about wargamers as a sub-section of society is that we're pretty good at finding ways we can put the old day job and whatever 'edumacation' (formal or otherwise) we might possess into the service of the hobby. It is clear to see that the skills and resourcefulness of the joiner, carpenter, accountant, researcher, office worker, teacher, academic, math savant, sign writer, hardware store clerk, I.T. wiz and many more vocations besides all add their own value to the wargaming table.

The gamers I know personally are excellent examples of work being also deployed in hobby service, but anyone who looks around a few blogs will note that wargamers everywhere bring their own unique sets of skills and approaches to the hobby. No matter how seasoned a wargamer one is, for a regular blog reader it would be rare to go a week without encountering a method, product or insight that one would not have been exposed to otherwise.

And this added value works the other way around, too: the things we do in wargaming can often be helpful in our working lives [witness the skills needed to order and paint figures, prepare terrain and table, organise rules, wrangle players and do all that's required to plan, stage, record and report back upon a multiplayer wargame, for example!].

Anyway, the reason I'm thinking about these kinds of things is that we are upping sticks and leaving Japan later this year, and I am therefore in the process of looking for work back home in New Zealand, after being away for almost twenty years.

I don't think anyone needs me to tell them that job hunting and all that it entails is a bit of a downer, but I'll go ahead and do so anyway. I particularly dislike the requirement to temporarily suppress conventional notions of truthfulness and modesty, but there's also the nomenclature designed to exclude. There are the tedious, box-ticking buzzwords, the codes, the codes within codes, the bright requests and the definitive silences, all of which lead persons of otherwise reasonable experience and accomplishments to begin to doubt themselves and their own worth.

So in future, should the roles ever be reversed, I think I will be asking HR people to demonstrate their excellence by putting on a wargame. Naturally, it will not be anything tricky, just standard fare: a game for three to ten people (depending on who makes it on the day), with clearly defined but flexible victory conditions; cooperative, but reliant upon responsible individual contributions; under a rules framework essentially complex but simple to explain, requiring constant individual and plenary feedback in response to new or unforeseen circumstances, and clear, firm and authoritative justifications should discontent arise.

Candidates will need to be prepared to explain how the course of action on the day would relate to real-world probabilities, and to acknowledge with good grace genuine shortcomings where they arose, as well as to diplomatically counter the objections of persons concerned about how problematic events or circumstances impacted on their own individual or team performance, without allowing the achievements of the victor(s) to be undermined by perceived sour grapes.

Candidates will be asked to submit a report in the form of a blog post or magazine report, including period information, background details, photographs, game commentary and a conclusion, all within a 48 hour period. The game participants must of course still be on speaking terms with one another at the conclusion of this process.

If the candidate meets requirements to this point, they will then be asked to purchase and paint a 28mm Samurai army to confirm their interest in the position.

The joke however, is on them - whether they paint up the army or not, I'll already've decided back in April that I was giving the job to Steve from accounts, and the HR person will never hear from me or my company again!

And then I'll give myself a positive evaluation and some really useful feedback.

17 comments:

  1. Good luck with the job hunting (and the move of course). Your bang on with your analysis of the job 'market' btw. Seems no matter where you live (i'm in the UK) it's essentially the same process: the applicant lies to the interviewer and the interviewer lies to the applicant! My experience is that there is more luck in process than anyone will admit. But being a wargamer you know how to make your own luck, so you'll do ok.

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    1. Thanks Lee! This is all tongue in cheek of course but it is funny that you'd probably get a better idea of a person's suitability after ten minutes of gaming with them than you would from their resume, cover letter, essay and 40 minute interview!

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  2. I’ve been on both sides of the desk and don’t envy you. Good luck!

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    1. Thanks Steven, it's just one of those little trials we all have to deal with on occasion, I guess!

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  3. More HR depts ought to contract you for consultation! I like your approach and your interview process may provide more actionable results. At the very least, it would provide a potential pool of gamers.

    Best of luck in your relocation and job search. Why change of careers after twenty years?

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    1. Haha, thanks Jonathan :)

      The change is just due to practical considerations. Time to cast the net a bit wider, and hopefully it will pay off down the track a bit...

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    1. Thanks Paul! Am sure we'll land on our feet.

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  5. Hope all your plans go smoothly.

    A possible approach to being interviewed for a job is to tell oneself that you are actually interviewing them for their suitability as an employer.

    Having done some interview assessments, I was left with an impression that too many people and their CV's sound the same, as though over time we have all been groomed how to meet the interviewers 'key word' sheets. Throwing some wargame elements into all that might shake things up ... or at least be interesting.

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    1. Thanks Norm - that approach might liven things up a bit! Yes, I can certainly appreciate it from the other side as well, having done a little bit of hiring here and there for our school. They have to know you can do what they want you to, but you need to stand out a little as well. It can be a delicate balance!

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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  6. Good luck Aaron, with the job hunting and relocation back to NZ.

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  7. Whahahaha! That was an awesome ending! Let this wargamer offer you a highly sought after and critically acclaimed reference for that new job posting;)

    Dude, seriously, I have no doubt in my mind that you will climb this mountain successfully. Don’t over think it, go with the flow. It’s human nature to dislike change. But based on our correspondence etc. I don’t think you will have any trouble.

    The Aaron family adventure is about to begin!

    Cheers
    Kevin

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    1. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kevin. I'm sure we'll be fine, but there are certain forms to observe and certain decisions to be made that will have long-term effect, so exciting but a little scary too!

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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  8. Best of luck with the job hunting Aaron. You forgot to mention that Steve is the nephew of the second cousin of the boss.%~)

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    1. Thanks Bill - and you're right, I did neglect to mention that ;-)

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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  9. Job hunting is a pain in the proverbial posterior, and I am happy to have the last time I did it be 34 years ago... although the negotiations with 2 different organizations to transition to employed status were certainly tedious Still, it was more me interviewing them.

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