[Japan's first] We held an online game company information session

My name is Fujisawa and I am in charge of public relations and recruitment

"Wouldn't it be fun to hold a company information session through an online game?"

I came up with the idea during a meeting one day, so I decided to try it out

▼Video of online game company briefing session

The first online game company information session in Japan (or the world?)

1. Advantages and disadvantages
2. Delivery Method
3. Interesting points

I have summarized what I learned and felt after trying it out

overview

• The target is 2021 graduates nationwide
• You can listen to company explanations while moving around within the online game
• You can also tour the company and get work experience (?) within the game

This project fulfills both the desire for students to have fun while participating and the desire for those taking part to have fun as well

Advantages and disadvantages

Holding information sessions online has benefits for both companies and students

merit

• No transportation costs
• No travel time required
• Students from all over the country can participate
• It's ok not to wear a suit
• Participation is more relaxed than in person
• fun

The fact that there is no cost to either party is a huge advantage

This should also reduce the mental burden on students

However, it's not all good news

Disadvantages

• You can't participate if you don't have the online game
• You can't know the atmosphere in the office
• It's difficult to understand each other's personalities and have a conversation

As with online interviews and consultations, the biggest obstacle is "having a conversation."

It may not be a problem if both parties are accustomed to interacting online, but that's not always the case

In particular, at this online game company briefing, students will only be able to communicate via chat, so the conversation tends to be one-sided, with the companies doing the talking

Delivery Method

It will also be streamed live on YouTube Live so that people who don't own the online game can participate

Our engineers built a server for the online game company information session, and provided the students with the IP address to log in. (The cloud was Microsoft Azure.)

You can always post questions in the chat box

Whether you're participating in-game or just watching YouTube Live, you can post questions in the chat at any time

For those participating in the online game, there will also be special in-game gimmicks

We have also prepared an "in-house tour" and "alert response experience" that can only be experienced by in-game participants

Interesting points

Skins are unique

Students participating in the game can create their own skins as they wish

Since it was an information session, some people came dressed in suits, while others came dressed in characters that had nothing to do with job hunting

Even if you can't meet and talk to someone in person, online games are unique in that you can get a sense of what kind of person they are by the way they express their personality

Recreate an office using blocks

In fact, this stage was entirely created by high school students attending 8x9 (Hack)

We simply provided them with a few photos of the Osaka office where we normally work, and they created a stage in no time at all

▼Thank you to everyone at Hack Co., Ltd. for your cooperation (Noboru, the genius high school student on the left)

Simulate work with a zombie outbreak

We pondered whether we could create an experience within the game that involves our company's main business of "cloud/server operation monitoring," and came up with the idea of ​​"killing zombies and troubleshooting issues."

Sudden server failures are treated as zombies, and players can physically hit and defeat them, something that can only be done in the game

I hope that you were able to get a taste of the work that infrastructure engineers do on a daily basis, which involves calmly dealing with unexpected situations

It ends with an explosion

Something that would never be possible at a normal company information session: blow up the venue

Since this was a special occasion, I wanted to make the punchline a big one, so I quickly came up with an explosion punchline

Seeing the stage being blown to pieces in an instant, I didn't know what to say, even though I had hoped for an explosion ending

In the feedback survey from participants, some said they were "surprised," and I thought that was understandable

In this way, anything goes at company information sessions held within online games

Finally

The online game company briefing was a great success, but I feel there are still areas for improvement

I thought that if the company side could communicate more with the participants rather than just talking one-sidedly, mutual understanding would be deepened

 

Not only our company, but many other companies are also conducting online selection processes for the 2021 graduates

Some companies are even conducting the final interview online

There are various advantages and disadvantages to online communication, but speaking personally, I still find it difficult to converse with people online

So my current challenge is to do more and get used to the online environment

It may take some time to get used to this new environment, but I will try to adapt gradually and come up with strategies to communicate effectively with students online

 

I will also be writing a detailed article about the "Kansai IT Online LLC Information Session" that was held by our company the other day, so I hope you will take a look

That's Fujisawa, working from home