As a gamer, you have probably never considered that your hobby or pastime could help you at your workplace. The gaming industry is massive. At this very moment, its value in the market is estimated at almost $92 billion, which is bigger than movies, music, and entertainment combined.
When it comes to professional workplace development, there are more than just a few handy skills that you need to be successful. In truth, many of the skills that you need in the workplace are very similar to those learned while playing video and mobile games. If you are a regular gamer, you might even be surprised to learn that your work skills are all thanks to what you do in your free time. Let’s look at the connection between your favorite hobby and your professional abilities.
Teamwork Becomes Second Nature
The majority of the popular games nowadays are played as part of a team. Think of Call of Duty, Gears of War, and the likes of Counter-Strike. You have to play as a team or you risk losing the round. You might not realise that by playing these types of games, you are actually building up your teamwork and communication skills. It takes a lot of effort to coordinate with other people online to reach an end goal, and it is exactly the same in the workplace.
Teamwork is essential when it comes to working with others in an office and engaging with prospective customers and business partners. With good teamwork ethics, you learn to strategise and think outside of the box. Being able to work in a team is an asset that many employers look for when it comes to promotions and performance bonuses.
Problem-Solving Through Gamification
Many video games come with tasks and quests that require a bit of creative thinking. If you enjoy games like Tomb Raider, you are no stranger to cryptic puzzles, challenge tombs, and longwinded mazes that can sometimes take hours to complete. What you don’t know is that by working through these puzzles, you are training your brain to think creatively, and find unique solutions to weird problems. This is vital in any type of career and job.
When you try to solve a complicated problem, you are putting your mind into a completely different state that allows your brain to come up with new ideas. In business, there will be countless times that this skill will come in handy.
Happy Gamer, Happy Worker
A few studies have found that people who played video games regularly reported being much happier at work. And, this was just from playing half an hour a day. The results were even more significant when the person was able to play during their lunch break. It is believed that by allowing an employee to take just 30 minutes out of a busy work day to play, they decompress enough to be more productive in their work responsibilities.
If you are lucky enough to have the facilities to play during your break at work you should jump on it. Even if you play in the evening after work, you still have a better chance of handling the next day’s stress levels. Make sure you have a decent computer like the range of RTX Gaming PCs so that you can play any game without worrying about buying expensive graphics cards or CPUs. Being happy in your job is not necessarily a workplace skill, but finding an emotional balance will help to avoid stress and handle difficult situations. This in itself is a sign of high emotional intelligence.
Networking and Social Skills
One of the best things about online video games is that you can collaborate with pretty much anyone on any side of the world. You create meaningful social connections and learn to interact and connect with others. This is an amazing skill to have in business. Partnerships and good working relationships don’t happen out of the blue. It takes time and effort, and you need good communication skills.
Playing games with others pushes you to network and create social connections that you normally wouldn’t. You can easily adapt these skills to the workplace. Being able to communicate effectively with those that are outside the office is just as important as connecting with those in close range. Whether virtually or in the same building, your networking skills as a gamer will help you significantly when collaborating with your colleagues.
Recognize Patterns and Predict Outcomes
Any gamer will know that for every creature or boss you fight, there is a pattern to their movements. It’s how people get so good at Pac-Man or simple games like Candy Crush. By recognizing patterns, you can respond much quicker and predict the outcomes of various games. Life is very much the same. People are creatures of habit, and in business, you can quite easily predict the outcome if you can see the pattern.
Learning how to recognize patterns is incredibly important in your professional life. For careers involving sales, medicine, psychology, and education, identifying patterns goes a long way when you want to produce a good outcome. This is a highly valuable life skill that many people lack, and it can be used in more situations than just your workplace.
Boost Your Brain Power
Any hobby that exercises different parts of your brain is great to increase brain power. Gaming is especially brilliant for this because you are exercising your brain in more ways than one. Many studies show that improved brain power helps fight against dementia, and reduces your body’s cortisol levels.
Gaming is even helpful for combatting the signs of aging. As you get older your cognitive ability declines, but by playing regularly, you can halt the process. Video games help to flex and strengthen your brain muscle because it requires a lot of different thought processes, especially the more difficult the game is.
Don’t get caught up in the stigma that gaming isn’t an appropriate hobby. More and more professionals are turning to play video games just for relaxation and many don’t even know that they are inadvertently improving their professional workplace skills.
Saania Kalia
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- How Playing Games Can Assist with Your Workplace Development! - June 27, 2022
