Adding my Pathfinder GMing experience to my Resume / CV

Here's the scoop: I've been jobseeking for over two years. I don't have anything going for me in work experience and job skills, so I'm trying to make up for it in volunteering.

A year ago, I started playing at the sanctioned Pathfinder table at my local gaming store, and about four months ago, I accidentally fell into game-mastering the table, and I fell in love with Pathfinder GMing.

I'm grasping for content to put in my work resume, so I'm considering adding my GM experience in the volunteering section. (Though the gaming store gives me a store credit token for running the table, I don't think it counts as paid employment.)

Do you think adding GMing to my resume could be a help? I am learning and exercising skills in leadership, people management, communication and organization. If you do, then what info should I include in the resume, and how to display it?

Thanks for the time and help. Job hunting for years really sucks, especially when I had been raised to think having this college degree that I have should keep me from having to job hunt this long. I need all I can get to make myself look employable, even if it means including or discluding Pathfinder GMing experience.

There must be a way to spin it. I've heard of former WOW guild leaders doing something similar.

If you do include it, be very careful to keep the blurb jargon-free, and instead focus on the leadership/communication/organization/flexible response aspects. In fact, I'd call what you're doing something other than gamemastering, because people who don't know what it is will skip right past that bullet point without reading it.

Good luck!

You don't want to do that. Trust me. I know people who did. Didn't get jobs till they removed that. Didn't even get a call. One for four whole years, and he sent dozens of CVs, verywhere.

I have an idea, why don't you try running pathfinder at a church, school, boy and girls club, library, or some other event, where you can really be volunteering? Just would look better.

What type of degree did you earn?

If you have been actively applying for jobs that you are qualified for for two years and have not received any offers, the reality is that adding your DMing experience to your resume is not going to fix the problem. There is some area of the job application process that you are not nailing, and that's what you need to be focused on.

Are you writing strong, customized cover letters when appropriate?

Is your resume clean, concise, accurate, and formatted properly?

Are you applying for positions that you are qualified for - positions that are actually entry-level?

Are you being called in for interviews? If so, are your interview skills strong?

Have you been treating the job application process like a job? You should be spending multiple hours (at least two) every work day researching for and applying for jobs.

In the meantime, consider applying for work you are over-qualified for and that is easy to get, even if it's something as menial as fast food work. You are wasting time right now, and the more time that passes without employment, the more questions prospective employers are going to have about why you weren't working for that period of time. Getting a job, even if it's not a desirable job, will give you an income (however small) and will allow you to list your employment on your resume. Just make sure that you don't become complacent; you need to keep applying to jobs just as frequently.

Good luck on the job hunt.

Edit - The world is coming to an end. I agree with Scott. ~goes off to prep for doomsday~

I wouldn't do it. I don't think it's professional.

I agree with Bill. Only time gaming ever got a look in during my applications for my last 3 jobs was when the interviewers asked a direct question like 'what do you do to relax?'. I don't think I'd try to swing it as volunteering either unless you're doing it for a community organisation (yes game stores are a community too, but volunteering usually refers to charity or community service). As HarbinNick said, if you were running games for a group like scouts or something, that might be relevant, but even then I'd be wary of it.

I actually started job-seeking at the end of September and included some of my gaming-related experience in the "Personal Interests" section of own my resume. Seeing as how my new/current job began just a month after I started looking, something must have clicked. :)

In my case, I was seeking an IT job as a Systems Administrator or similar. IME, IT guys are often stereotyped as being socially awkward, difficult for non-techs to communicate with, and not the best team players. That I defied those stereotype was something my prior managers had always listed among my strengths/selling-points. Therefore, it seemed beneficial to leverage that gaming experience to highlight skills that set me apart from other 'computer nerds'.

While our experiences may be different, it's definitely possible to illustrate the positive benefits of a roleplaying hobby. My only caution would be to avoid using specific terms "Dungeons and Dragons" that may have negative connotations amongst older or more conservative employers.

In case it helps, here's what I wrote...

Many of my hobbies are based around leading team-based activities or engaging in creative pursuits where data-presentation and communication skills are key.

• Running my own VMs (LAMP stack) to host MediaWiki and MyBB sites for organizing information and conversations about my creative writing projects.
  
• GameMastering and authoring tutorials for both tabletop and online roleplaying games, including the creation of 2D & 3D artwork and cartography.
  
• Using Excel to create time-saving tools and reports for the gaming community.
  
• Refereeing matches and mediating disputes between competitive first-person shooter teams as well as running servers and broadcasting live matches.
  
• Singing both karaoke and choir.
  
• Mountain biking and hiking.
  
• Tailoring Hollywood-quality costumes for professional models.

In respect to the interview, many of these points did come up. One director was interested in tutorials because he wanted to see better process documentation coming out of IT. Likewise, a knack for making forms in Excel lit up a few faces in the hopes some internal dashboards might see a rework. (D&D and such did come up by name when one of the Directors mentioned playing in college.)

In terms of 'soft skills' those conflict-resolution and communication skills that a GM needs were of great importance to both my future boss and the HR manager. Why? Well in a manufacturing environment, such as this, we have a wide range of cultural and educational backgrounds. Someone who was apt to get flustered or be condescending would have been a no-go.

As for some of the other bullet points, they were mostly to illustrate that I'm not single-minded — something (IME) many folks worry about when dealing with people who might be seen as 'nerds'.

Anyway, hopefully some parts of my experience will help with the brainstorming. Remember: focus on what sets you apart as the ideal employee, and use lots of 'strong words' that communicate leadership, action, etc.

Best of luck to you! :)

If you have been actively applying for jobs that you are qualified for for two years and have not received any offers, the reality is that adding your DMing experience to your resume is not going to fix the problem. There is some area of the job application process that you are not nailing, and that's what you need to be focused on.

This.

I'd ask -- I do ask -- what you think your GM experience will actually bring to the hiring process. I suspect that there are other flaws in the way you present yourself that no amount of "leadership, people management, communication and organization," especially in a niche environment like role-playing games, will cover.

I don't think people will be turned off by RPGs at this point as they may have been a few decades ago. But I also don't think they'll be impressed by it any more than they'd be impressed by the fact that you're a bassist in a garage band or teach baking at a local church. (Hobbies are like armpits; everyone has a couple....)

I'd probably try to spin it into a positive, without using any of the following terms: game, tabletop, role-playing, dungeons and dragons, pathfinder.

If you create your own custom content, I would chalk it up as enjoy creative writing or amateur author.

For other aspects of GMing, I would list it as good organizational skills.

If you've created any supplements for your game (wiki page, custom roller, etc,) I would list those specific skills and disassociate them with what they were used for.

Good luck.

Don't, and beware of creating "spin" in your resume by fluffing a game played for leisure into a job skill. When asked by the employer about your "people management" pursuits, the last thing you want to try and say is you are actually managing people who pretend to be wizards who kill dragons.

If the game has led you to collateral skills (maintaining a blog, the aforementioned excel sheet know-how), then great, mention those. But you're not going to impress an employer by citing your "money management" and "accounting" skills gleaned from playing multiple sessions of Monopoly.

Defer to Scott and the others who have advised there may be a more basic issue. There should be several community resources or university based resources for alumni that can help you not only rework your resume but may have practice interviews to sharpen your skills and help you aim toward the employers most likely to hire your skill set.

What everyone else said....unless you are trying to get a job at a gaming company. And even THEN...

I'ma go against the grain and say "It couldn't hurt". If you're already not getting call backs then you're not going to get any LESS call backs by adding this.

Spin it in some way that sounds good, and it could potentially get your foot in the door. If you've got to the interview stage then you've already gone infinitely farther than before, and a good interview can make all the difference.

I'm assuming when you say you have no job experience that this is for an application at some entry level position at like a Wal-Mart or something, and I'd be astonished if they gave two f@!~s where your "experience" comes from as long as you look like you're willing to work for cheap.

Hell, it's similar to how I started getting interviews for stuff like that. Applications ignored for many years before hand.

Put a nice spin on babysitting my little brother after school and suddenly I have job experience that makes me a potential employee.