Could You Get A Job in Your Halloween Costume?

Posted on | October 25, 2007 | No Comments

Maybe not in real life (with the possible exception of team or business mascot, a la Ronald McDonald). But, all things are possible in Second Life.

TMP Worldwide hosted it’s first virtual job fair on its TMP UK Island in Second Life on October 16-19. The event, a first for the UK, featured the T-shirt clad avatars of recruiters from Yell (Yellow Pages), KPMG and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) waiting to interview jobseekers’ avatars.

KPMG was there to fill jobs in its audit, tax and advisory services practices. Yell was there to fill sales positions. RBS recruited jobseekers to fill customer service, sales, financial planners and mortgage advisors.
The event got off to a slow start, with “recruitars” standing around doing nothing and the occasional monster, biker or jet skier dropping, popping or flying in and then standing around. Every now and again someone would declare their reason for dropping in–to get a copywriter or accounting job–and a “recruitar” would eventually make their way over.
The recruitars had names like Scavenger John, Darth Kilby, Swiss Barrymore, Athanasia Nikolaidis, Siren Cochrane and Yinnyboy Sadovsky. They attempted to conduct real-world interviews in the virtual world, but were forced to compromise with a combination of in-world (inside Second Life) IM exchanges and real-world email, phone and IM exchanges with jobseekers.
To participate, jobseekers visited www.i-jobsforreal.co.uk and followed these directions:

1. Select/create an avatar
2. Register
3. Upload your CV or resume
4. If your qualifications match the employers’ needs, you’ll receive an invite to the event.
5. Once your interview is scheduled, you’ll receive a link to bring you directly to TMP UK island, where you’ll be trained on how to use Second Lifeâ„¢
6. Alternatively, just sign-on at your allotted time and you’ll be teleported from out Island to the company’s unique island residence.
7. You’ll then chat, ask questions and discover more about the roles you have a specific interest in.

According to TMP, more than 9,000 people logged on to the www.i-jobsforreal.co.uk website that publicized the event, 300 people actually applied for the jobs that were advertised by the three sponsors there, and more than 90 were called to Second Life interviews that took place over the three days.Yell interviewed 50 people at the Second Life event and will call about 15 of them for real life second interviews.
Phil Owers, deputy managing director of TMP Worldwide, felt encouraged by the participation and the feedback he received from recruiters. TMP initially represented the virtual job fair to its clients (RBS, Yell and KPMG) as an “opportunity for innovation”. Recruiters from the three employers were told not to expect “big-volume” penetration or a big return on their investments. So, the recruiters and the companies they represent entered into the virtual job fair as an experiment that would hopefully be good exposure for their brands.

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