Second Life Interviews

I do not like the idea of hosting career fairs and job interviews in second life. Although I realize that they indicate that it is not a replacement for a real-life interview, I still deem it absurd for various reasons. First of all, how does the interviewer know that the person they are interviewing in second life is the right person? It could be someone else who the interviewee hired because he or she is not as good at responding to questions. Also, the article mentions that an interview in Second Life is good because there is a backspace, so you can retract thoughts and plan out your response more. I view this as an unfair advantage and I believe you learn most about people when you hear what comes out of their mouths.

Technology comes with glitches, computers freeze, things just happen when using technology. One example used in the article is when an interviewee handed the interviewer a beer instead of a resume. This type of technical mistake could happen to anyone when using a program such as Second Life, but I certainly do not believe it would happen in real life. Just the other day when we had class in Second Life my computer froze and I could not type or see what anyone was saying. What if this happened in an interview? It could be detrimental to the outcome of whether or not one was offered a job.

I see how people would also view Second Life interviews as a more creative way to interview, but I believe it is also a lazier way. The interviewees could be sitting in bed with their pajamas on eating out of a box of cereal. I don’t believe this should be the way in which interviews are held. It requires far less effort, and therefore I believe it makes it more difficult for the interviewer to determine how much the given person actually wants the job. I believe this idea of conducting a virtual interview reflects our society’s present tendencies to take technology too far. There needs to be a point when we stop using technology for everything because it is impersonalizing life and reducing the quality of work and ethics.