[Editor’s note: This was an anonymous submission.]
Something about “What is the point of this game anyway? What do we really get out of it? Is it all just waste of time? Some people make their living with this game: People on staff at WotC, but also shop owners, TOs, online secondary market singles. And less than that, there are people who binder trade, (pack to power?) or sell cards every month to make rent. Hell, some people judges I know spent the last 6 weeks travelling around doing GPs every weekend!
But what about the rest of us? Is this all just some hobby we pick up and put down in between the rest of our life? What are we learning and taking home with us?
We have all heard the rumours, World of Warcraft Guild Leaders getting hired as managers based on their in-game experience. It sounded absurd but in April 2006 WIRED published “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!”1 The article tells the tale of one guild leader accrediting his success in a job completion to his experience playing WoW. Unfortunately, I was still dismissive of the lesson.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago; I was chatting with a MTG player about a successful job interview he had. During the interview he ended up talking about his accomplishments in competitive Magic and was asked why he hadn’t included that on his resume. The truth is some people would be too embarrassed to mention it. Why? These are transferable skills.
One of my best job interviews ended with me telling a story about how I had gone all out on a Hallowe’en costume and wore it to work only to discover no one really “did” Hallowe’en. It was an embarrassing story but I deliberately told the story; it showed personality, could laugh at myself and that I was willing to put the extra effort in. I got the life-changing job.
Mana Deprived recently posted the article “Oops I PTQed – How to Host a Magic Tournament”2 by Kelly Ackerman. It is a great, well thought out article on how to run a large Magic tournament. But really, was the article just about running Magic tournaments? My reaction to the article was, “What a great article about event planning. He really highlights the skills required to run any successful event.” Is running a magic event that different from hosting any other type of event?
I work for the Federal Government. I like to think work hard and I take a lot of pride in my work. I am ambitious and I am hungry for experience. The problem is most of my coworkers are ambitious and hungry for experience. We are all competing to stand out and those chances to shine are sometimes few and far between. I have been lucky enough to get some opportunities to supervise staff, train staff and manage projects and I worked hard to ensure I didn’t fall flat on my face. Unexpectedly through Magic I acquired the quality relevant work experience I needed, ensuring I was up to snuff when these rare opportunities arose.
Magic is a game about critical thinking and problem solving. It is about making fast, strategic decisions with limited information. This is pretty obvious and most players know this but how many players advertise themselves in the job market with these skills?
Recently I was tasked with presenting to my Director General (DG) the regulatory process I oversee. At my level in regulatory affairs it isn’t often that you get face time with your DG so I wanted to ensure I was notable. Throughout the somewhat informal presentation my unit head kept looking at me with a BIG smile on her face. After we walked out of the meeting she gave me a big thumbs up. I guessed it went well. The following day, a few coworkers complimented me how impressed they were with my presentation, surprised at how well I explained the complicated process. My first thought was, “This is nothing. Try teaching a group of people to play Magic.”
I facilitate a few casual Magic play groups and, while I have TO’ed numerous sanction events, most events I TO are unsanctioned. Each play group have over 50 participating players. That is a lot of people to please. Not everyone in the community likes me (nor should they) and sometimes it upsets me, I feel like a failure and I want to quit. However, I have come to realise that running these groups has gained me invaluable experience.
My first unsanctioned event could have been a giant train wreck. I wanted to take a group of new and experienced players, teach or review the rules of Magic and then have them play a multi-round, competitive style event. I had 23 people show up for the event. I did an hour long workshop on the game’s basics (complete with an accompanying Power Point slide deck). I received lots of positive feedback from the group and I continued to give workshops as part of the play group meet ups. Are my workshops flawless? Heck no! But the skills I’ve learned helped me preform when it mattered in front of my DG.
When moving up in any organization, employers want to know what experience you’ve had budgeting. For me, working for the Government, budgets are very contentious issues. I was writing a job application and got very frustrated because I didn’t have budgeting experience and I had no idea how to acquire the experience. I voiced my frustration to my mentor (yes, I have a mentor. She is brilliant and I am very lucky to have her take an interest in me) when she pointed out, “Don’t you run two groups…you know…for that card game?” I replied that I did but didn’t see the relevance. “Well, what are your budgets for those?” To which I replied that I had no budget for those groups. She responded “Yes you do. No budget is still a budget.” Riiiiight. Experience acquired.
The Magic community is full of some of the toughest clients. Magic players are well informed, smart and opinionated. Dealing with external clients and stakeholders, while a little more formal, is comparable; you are trying to come up with a solution that satisfies as many competing interests as possible with limited resources. This is high level customer service.
Judges make and break events. My favourite judges are the ones who take the time to explain everything to me and aren’t dismissive of my questions. I have talked to a few level 2 judges about why they do what they do and I think the judging community has already in the know about what I am now just realizing Judging provides opportunity for personal and professional growth while doing something we all love. To all the judges I respect and admire: judging had better be on your resume.
So stop and think: what are your Magic transferable skills? Are they on your resume? How can you make all these hours spent on a card game work for you? In my humble opinion the transferrable skills we develop are in some ways a bigger financial pay off than winning a Pro Tour.
1. Brown, John Seely and Douglas Thomas. “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!” April 2006.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/learn.html
(Accessed June 5, 2013)
2. Ackerman, Kelly. “Oops I PTQed – How to Host a Magic Tournament.” June 26, 2013.
http://manadeprived.com/oops-i-ptqed-how-to-host-magic-tournaments/
(Accessed June 5, 2013)
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