Shelby Lyman on Chess: Chess or Golf, What Do You Think?
Sunday, September 14, 2014
(Published in print: Sunday, September 14, 2014)
Take your choice job-seekers: chess or a video game on your job resume.
Of course there are the old standbys of bridge and poker. Many employers recognize that skill in either can be beneficial in the workplace.
On the other hand, according to The Wall Street Journal, video games such as fantasy football or the multi-player video game World of Warcraft may be the choices of the future.
There’s is nothing new in all of this. In the late ’50s, the Rand Corp. was aggressively advertising for prospective employees whose training would be focused on computers — an emerging field at the time. The company specifically cited a chess background as desirable. Clearly the game had a special status.
Chess players, in particular, have long been thought to possess a special kind of smarts. The game is a “gymnasium of the mind” we have often been told.
Any of the above games — old and new — can have an even wider appeal.
I recall my first college interview in which the interviewer focused primarily on my chess skills. Clearly he was convinced of their relevance.
Whatever the future will require, for the present, chess remains the game of choice.
According to the Journal: “More than 250,000 people list chess on their LinkedIn profile, mostly specialists in the fields of IT, computer software and finance.”
Second most listed is golf, which was cited in 116,000 profiles.
Source: http://www.vnews.com
Chess.