A study tested the perception of two identical CVs, except for differences in hobbies, with one preferring video games and the other volleyball. Candidates who prefer video games were seen as less hireable.
Are you a video game fan and looking for a job? Well, maybe it’s not a good idea to include this affinity on your resume.
A new experiment carried out in Germany in the Journal of Personnel Psychology suggests that job candidates who include video games as a hobby on their CVs may be perceived as less hirable than identical candidates indicating participation in a traditional team sport.
The study, led by psychologist Johannes M. Basch, examined how extracurricular activities influence hiring decisions in the initial stages. Although it is known that electronic games involve skills such as strategic thinking, problem solving, quick decision-making and teamwork, these skills are still often underestimated by employers compared to skills associated with conventional sports.
To investigate this discrepancy in perception, researchers recruited 162 participants in Germany via social media. The average age of participants was 32, nearly two-thirds were women, and more than one-third had at least a college degree. Only a small fraction had prior experience as hiring managers, explains .
Participants were asked to imagine themselves as recruiters evaluating candidates for a customer service consultant position at a fictional organization. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups and received a fictitious CV after reading the vacancy announcement. All curricula were identical, except for one extracurricular activity: “video games” or “volleyball.”
These activities were presented on two levels, either neutral or high proficiency. In the neutral condition, only the name of the activity was listed. In the high proficiency condition, volleyball was described as playing in Germany’s third national division as a team captain, while games were presented as competing in the Prime League, the official German-language League of Legends competition sanctioned by Riot Games.
Across conditions, the results were consistent: candidates who nominated video games were considered less contracted and their CVs as being of lower quality than those who listed volleyball. This pattern remained even when the games were presented at a highly competitive and organized level, comparable to elite amateur sports.
The researchers note that the findings point to persistent stereotypes about video games, despite growing recognition in some sectors, such as computing, engineering and data analytics, that games can develop transferable skills.
However, the authors warn that the study has limitations. The customer service function emphasized interpersonal skillswhich may have implicitly favored team sports such as volleyball to the detriment of electronic games, potentially influencing the participants’ judgment.
