Hiring in tech? Pick a gamer

Tech is a job that requires a lot of attention to detail. Missing a hyphen in your code, forgetting a security patch, or not terminating a cloud resource can have outsized, catastrophic business consequences. And with the adoption of AI, organizations are asking tech professionals to be eagle-eyed watchers, picking up on hallucinations and embarrassing AI errors.

Now more than ever, soft skills matter more than technical skills, though the latter is still important. But as any leader knows, they’re much harder to verify. There aren’t industry-recognized certificates on critical thinking and resource management, and most candidates have practiced their STAR methods for behavioral interview questions.

But here’s a tip for your next interview: gamers often make great tech hires. In this article, I’ll detail why, as well as discuss how gamification can boost the skills of your existing tech talent. 

Let’s start by diving into a popular game called Papers, Please, and how just playing this demonstrates and nurtures someone's work-relevant soft skills. 

What exactly is Papers, Please?

Papers, Please is a puzzle simulation video game and, despite its low-frills look, it’s incredibly popular. In it, you play a border-crossing immigration officer for a fictional dystopian country. The player must review travellers’ passports and other supporting documents.

Over the course of the game, the rules and items you need to check steadily grow. Worse, you’ve only got a small desk space to process everything. You’re against the clock, and you need to successfully process enough people to keep your family fed.

If you accidentally accept or reject someone by mistake, you don’t get paid. Worse, there’s consequences. That person you let through might be a murderer mentioned in the morning’s papers, and your mistake winds up making tomorrow’s headline. The people in line get angry at you, tugging at your emotions, and pressuring you to make a mistake.

Eventually, you’ve got to decide how much of your limited time to spend on a task—whether you’ll scan someone for weapons and really grill them, or move on to ensure you stay productive. You assume nothing, question everything, even the very orders you’re being given.

At the end of the day, you’ve rarely got enough money to pay for everything. You’ve got to balance your finances and make risk assessments: do you hold off on paying for heating and save the money, or splurge on it because your son is sick? 

If this sounds intense, it is! And for the keen-eyed, all of these are also valuable soft skills, like:

• Critical thinking and attention to detail

• Problem solving and decision making

• Time management

• Risk identification and assessment

• Resource management

• Planning and organization

• Quick adaptability

• Resilience and dealing with pressure

And for many gamers, this is what they do to relax. Dealing with these situations is their default setting. Off the clock, they’re honing these skills daily, and paying money from their own paychecks for the privilege.

Most games are indirectly working some sort of soft skills

While Papers, Please is challenging, that’s not unique. By nature, game designers are always trying to challenge the people playing them. Unchallenged gamers are disengaged with the product, which is obviously bad. Exercising these soft skills, which are necessary for the player to advance, also keep them engaged. 

Even ‘cosy games,’ which are designed to help people relax, involve decision-making and problem-solving elements. And games are interactive by nature: they need active participation, which is what differentiates them from books and movies. That’s why gamification is so powerful for organizations seeking to engage or educate their target audiences.

Stardew Valley is the ultimate cosy game, but running a farm takes proper resource management, strategic placement, and time management.

Gamers also tend to be comfortable with technology and learning

Technology adapts. Gamers adapt with it, or else they can’t engage with the medium. Everyday people can use the same desktop for word processing and checking emails for over a decade, but gamers are rarely given that luxury. 

Continuous learning is perhaps the most important skill a great hire can have, namely because when it’s paired with introspection, they’ll go and develop all the other soft and hard skill gaps. Gamers by nature are always learning—even within the same franchise, no two games are ever the same, and this is considered a cardinal sin by developers. 

You’re always learning new rules, new mechanics: that’s why games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders no longer work for today’s audiences, because the experiences need to always be increasingly challenging and complex.

Gamers are often competitive and achievement-driven

The gamer mindset is very beneficial when it comes to success as a tech professional. 

Capture the flag? That’s table stakes for anyone who’s played a first-person shooter, the most popular genre of video game, and also a common computer security exercise. 

Getting certificates? That’s basically game trophies, and gamers love achievements and advancements. For illustration purposes, here’s some badges on Pluralsight’s learning platform…

…And here’s what Steam badges, on the world’s most popular gaming platform, look like.

See much difference? Me neither.

Competing with others? Also a big tick. Every organization either has competitors, and even the public service looks to compete and stand out from other agencies. Cybersecurity teams compete with bad actors in a very real sense, and they’re even personified as monsters to defeat—they name them things like ‘Scattered Spider’ or ‘Stargazer Goblin,’ mythical creatures to be confronted and vanquished.

And, best of all, gamers compete with themselves internally to be the best they can be—to stand out, to score more, to beat their own records.

Many games also nurture communication and leadership skills

Quite often, people mistakenly think of gamers as introverts and individuals, but it can be a highly social enterprise. In particular, people who play online multiplayer games are often versed in communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, and—perhaps surprisingly—emotional intelligence. 

Without it, there’s no cohesion, and trying to play the game successfully isn’t possible, just like in the workplace. Guild masters, a common role in online gaming, is very similar to management: you have to set guidelines, lead by example, defuse conflict, and make people feel heard. There’s even firing and hiring—booting people from the guild and giving appropriate justification.

Actually using gaming to find and nurture great hires

We've talked about why gamers make great tech hires, but there are two ways you can actually leverage that information as a leader. The first is as a hiring signal for finding quality talent, and the second is a way to engage and nurture your existing talent.

1. Gaming as a hiring signal

First, ask what someone's hobbies are, and leave enough time to discuss this topic. If they mention gaming, take this as a positive indicator that they'll take to tech like a duck to water, but not a sure-fire assurance.

Secondly, if they do mention gaming, ask the following questions: "Oh, what sort of games do you like playing? Shooters, RPGs, puzzle games?" and then "What do you enjoy about playing them?" Depending on the answer, this will indicate what sort of transferable skills and interests they might have, as well as tell you a lot about their motivations. Note this down, then consult the list below after the interview.

What gaming genre preferences might say about a hire's personality

Genre	What it might say about the candidate
Action games (Fighting games, shooters)	The candidate likely enjoys a challenge. These games emphasise hand-eye coordination and motor skills. High scores, leaderboards, and team-vs-team is very common in this genre, so this is a person who thrives when competing against others, or even beating their own records.
Stealth games	This candidate likes to play games where stealth and situational awareness are used to overcome challenges. This person loves to find creative and clever solutions to problems, avoiding conflict altogether through smart moves. This genre is typically played single player, so they probably don't mind carving their own path forward.
Survival games	The candidate likes playing games where they start off with minimal resources in a hostile world, then make their own way to greatness. There's a good chance they're great at resource management, making do with what they have, and thinking holistically and opportunistically about how to overcome challenges.
Rhythm games	This candidate plays music-themed games that require intense split-second reaction time with unwavering attention, and getting high scores. If you need to hire someone who needs to pay attention to things with a keen eye and react instantly and accurately, this is a great signal.
Battle Royale games	This combines the survival and action games mechanics, so the candidate is using both of the above skill sets. These are extremely competitive and intense, so this person can make snap judgements under pressure, loves a challenge, and thinking about what to do in a pinch.
Action-adventure games	The candidate likes playing games where they've got to think methodically, search around for what they need to solve a puzzle, and use clever thinking to defeat obstacles and adversaries. This type of gamer is more cerebral, liking to take their time to learn fully about a situation before tackling an issue.
Puzzle games	This candidate likes playing games that explicitly put their brain to use, and get a thrill out of solving increasingly complex puzzle. They likely have great problem-solving skills in logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion. It's very likely they have a love of continuous learning and keeping their skills sharp.
Role-playing games (RPGs)	This candidate likes to play immersive, story-based games where they grow a character or team over time to overcome challenges. They likely value good storytelling and communication, and have an aptitude for math, calculation, tactical thinking, and resource management.
Roguelites/Roguelites	This candidate likes to play games where they lose constantly, only to get back up and try again as many times as it takes. They will throw themselves at a task dozens or hundreds of times until they overcome it, learning a little more from each loss, until they ultimately become so honed from their failures that they achieve victory. And they do this to relax! This person deals with frustration well and doesn't let defeat get them down.
Simulation games (Life, construction, management, etc)	This candidate likes to play games where they're in charge of managing something, whether it's train or farm management, complicated space flights, or entire cities. They likely have a love of making sure everything is in working order, handling interconnected ecosystems, and making sure everything comes together. This may translate well to actual management tasks.
Sports	This candidate enjoys a competitive atmosphere and challenging themself, both against themselves and others. This is often done in real time, where reaction speed is important. Even in thier downtime, this person may like to see reality as it, rather than immersing themself in fictional scenarios.
Massive multiplayer online games (MMOs)	This person likes highly social games where they engage with a large number of other people, and typically form groups to compete against other players at the same time. Likely a natural collaborator who works with others to overcome problems.

It's rare that gamers enjoy only one genre, so it is likely they tick a few of these boxes. Naturally, the above is dealing in generalizations and likely traits, not assured ones: you should absolutely use other indicators and questions when hiring for these skills. 

2. Gaming as a way to engage and nurture talent

Whether someone is a gamer or not, you can use gamification to upskill and motivate your staff, with the added bonus that if someone is a confirmed gamer, you know exactly what sort of engagement methods would be the best fit for them. Gamification results in a 60% increase in user engagement for training courses, and companies that have gamified training saw a 43% increase in employee productivity.

There are three effective ways to approach this: using a gamified training platform, gamifying your existing training materials, or running game-like events. Brandon DeVault has an excellent article on this on the Pluralsight blog, and while the article itself is discussing security awareness, the gamification methods discussed are applicable to any of your upskilling and awareness initiatives, not just cybersecurity.

Use gaming to create your high-scoring team

Whether as a positive hiring indicator or as a method to upskill your team, gaming can be a powerful tool in your arsenal as a successful leader and for filling organizational skill gaps. Remember to set aside time in your interviews to ask about people's interests, and strongly consider what this says about their transferable skills.

Getting started with gamified learning for tech teams

Pluralsight offers a fully gamified learning experience for learners of all levels — beginners, intermediate, or expert — offering weekly goals, badges, and leaderboards to keep them engaged. It has thousands of on-demand, expert-led courses as well as hands-on labs, quizzes, and Skill IQ tests. Learn how it can help you build future-ready tech teams faster.