You might not think it’s a wise idea to list your World of Warcraft achievements on your resume, but it seems to have paid off for Stephen Gillett, who says it’s helped him land jobs at Corbis, theh his CIO job at Starbucks, and now the COO position at Symantec. In case you were wondering, he’s a level 70 paladin and priest with a focus on healing.
Here’s what the recent CNNMoney profile on him has to say:
Gillett said he includes his World of Warcraft achievements on his resume, because it’s not just about role-playing games. It shows he exercises leadership in both the physical and virtual realms. Plus, he understands the current societal fascination with earning points and interactive entertainment.
As a guild master, his current duties and responsibilities include organizing dungeon raids and managing the group’s virtual bank. And he has a knack for recruiting key talent. Think mages and warlocks.
Those skills transferred to his position as Starbucks’ CIO, Gillett says. In that role, he was tasked with saving the company’s suffering technology assets. Cash registers were outdated. Computers were scarce. Customer sales were down.
Gillett’s answer: Take Starbucks executives on a field trip to the Irvine, Calif., headquarters of World of Warcraft maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI, Tech30). The goal was to expose them to a business model that capitalizes on gaming.
I’m glad to see that all that time invested in WoW (I’m judging based on his level 70 status) paid off. It doesn’t always work out that way:
