4 Ways Video Games Can Help Boost Your Graduate Career

Video games have long been thought of as meaningless distractions. However, gaming in moderation can help you to develop valuable skills and traits that successfully translate to the workplace.

Here are four key ways video games can enable you to succeed in your graduate career:

Communication, adaptability and resourcefulness

According to a recent study by the University of Glasgow, game playing can strengthen your communication, adaptability and resourcefulness – all skills considered desirable in graduates!

When playing video games, you’re usually thrown into unknown territory, testing your ability to adapt to new situations and develop solutions. Multiplayer games assess your ability to communicate and work well with teammates. With industries, teams and technologies rapidly evolving, graduates need to be able to respond promptly and effectively – something many gamers learn to do with confidence.

Mental and creative prowess

Traditionally, video game playing can improve your problem solving and strategy development skills by getting you to accomplish various tasks. In many cases there’s also a time pressure, which develops your speed in thinking tactically and making intelligent decisions on the spot.

Strategic thinking, decision-making and problem solving are all likely to be essential aspects of many graduate-level jobs. If a challenge arises in your professional career, employers expect you to use your initiative and creativity to evaluate the situation and decide on a course of action. Likewise, in virtual world, you’re often required to figure out the best way to solve tasks so you can progress to the next level.

Nowadays, there are also plenty of brain-centric apps that can develop your cognitive functioning by getting you to think outside the box and solve increasingly complicated problems. These types of apps are definitely worth the download, strengthening your ability to think strategically and creatively on the go.

Resilience and determination

There’s one thing that all video games teach us and that is to not give up. After all, you can’t win if you quit! When faced with failure, you have to use your resilience and perseverance in order to successfully return to the objective of winning. This very much applies to the workplace, as employers expect you to possess the ability to bounce back from setbacks.

Resilience is closely associated with determination, which is known to be a key graduate attribute. In fact, a number of surveys reveal that drive comes under the top ten skills that graduate employers’ want. It’s essential that you have the determination to reach goals and to get things done. This is something gaming can help you to become a professional at.

Overall workplace productivity

When working long hours, you may find your concentration starts to fizzle out, causing you to be less efficient and effective. However, not to worry! According to an article by the BBC, a few minutes of playing video games during your work break can help you to decompress, which in turn gives you more energy to continue working.

Like any another type of employee, graduates are expected to be productive to deliver quality results within set time frames. So whenever you’re feeling less than productive, the best advice may be to take a break and play a short game on your smartphone.

All in all, it’s important to remember that video games are more than just an amazing form of entertainment. They’re also a powerful tool that can be used to develop many graduate-level skills and traits, varying from communication to decision making. In fact, video games might very well be the secret to your success!

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