I'm not sure how much I personally buy the idea that playing styles in board games mirror people's behavior when interacting with their coworkers. I play a lot of board games, and tend to do a lot chaotic or risky things (eg why play Hearts if you aren't going to shoot the moon[0]), but I definitely don't act like that at work.
If someone tried to infer anything about my marriage from observing some of the games of Settlers of Catan that my wife and I have played together, I suspect that their conclusions would be hilariously wrong.
(Given the way that some of the games of Catan we've played with other couples have gone, she and I have joked about whether Catan has ever lead to a divorce.)
For anyone engaged or in a serious relationship I highly recommend playing board games with their partner's immediate family (and partner as well.) You will likely gain a valuable insight into the family dynamic and sibling personalities that you may not otherwise.
Whether this also applies to job interviews is highly variable so I can see why it should be presented as an option, but I would never pass up the opportunity to be able to see my potential future coworkers' interaction styles.
> I personally buy the idea that playing styles in board games mirror people's behavior when interacting with their coworkers.
As long as there is no money involved it's always all fun and games and I agree that board games don't mirror people's behavior towards others. But when you introduce real money into a game, just enough that it hurts to lose, everything changes and I claim that then the game is a much better model for real world situations.
It's also a good way of ensuring culture fit in that it excludes those who don't like board games. If I came to a job interview where they asked me to play board games I would find the first opportunity to excuse myself - clearly I am not the candidate they're looking for.
If they explained the rubric for how you'd be evaluated, I might play. I'd probably play the game for fun and then politely withdraw. Or maybe not. I'd have to see how I feel, which means it's probably not a terribly objective interview.
given how bad most interviews are, do you really want to pass on a good job just because you didn't like their interview style?
ok, sure, given how unusual the idea of boardgames is, you don't risk much, but if i were to apply that same approach to interviews with trivia questions then i'd probably not find a job.
an interview would have to be outright offensive before i'd walk away. or i would have to be skeptical of that job already for other reasons and i just needed an excuse to drop it (the last straw sort of thing).
e.g. i can understand not wanting to go to a bar, but what's wrong with boardgames?
Interesting story about the one person with the bad attitude, but the plural of anecdote is not data.
Replace “play a board game” with “go to a bar” or “watch football” or “play basketball” or “go to a wine tasting” or “put on boxing gloves and spar” or about a thousand other things that we think would range from useless to inappropriate and I think you can see the problem with this. You learn something from asking a person to do anything, but not necessarily something useful in terms of their qualifications as an employee.
But no doubt this is a good way to build an organization of people who like board games.
I was actually asked to play a board game during an interview. I was interviewing for a Big Financial Corp and in one of the sessions we were asked to play Pandemic [1]. The point was that Pandemic is a collaborative game, so it should reveal something about how we, well, collaborate. In a later session that I watched the interviewees were asked to play Forbidden Island, another cooperative game [2].
I don't know whether you can really get any insights into a person's mind from playing games with them, other than how they are when they play games. I mean, I really don't know. It's an attractive idea. And I've certainly formed general opinions about peoples' character based on how they behaved in games we played together.
By the way- I did get hired by Big Financial Corp. I ended up in the same team as one of the people who set up the Pandemic session and with that dude as a senior colleague. He was a keen gamer so we played Magic: the Gathering a few times. We stopped after a while because I kept kicking his ass and he didn't like it :|
>He was a keen gamer so we played Magic: the Gathering a few times.
In my experience there are a lot of ultra competitive people who play magic, who exist mostly to create decks to see how much suffering they can cause.
In theory I like this idea but it comes with problems. Like others have mentioned, not everybody likes board games. Also trying to gather anything from how a player strategises when they are quite possibly playing the game for the first time makes no sense. In first few games players have no idea whether it is worth forming or breaking alliances, playing to win or playing to make others lose and so on.
As a fun idea what about returning the situation? You ask an interviewee whether they like board games and if they do ask them to choose one, for 2-4 players, preferably less known and bring it over. Then you task them to explain the rules, guide others through the first game and then judge on that? I think you would get better information about a person like this. How do they explain the rules, do they explain just the rules or do they also touch on strategy a bit, do they give tips for winning or do they keep them for themselves. Do they stomp over new players and so on.
I don't know if this kind of interview would be good, but I am quite sure it would be better that what TFA explains.
Interviews are a test, and everything you do during an interview will be treated as such, even meals sometimes. That board game won't be the kind of fun game you have with your friends.
So unless board games, or whatever activity is related to the job, I would keep the interview to the point. If it is somehow related to the job as the article makes it to be, then the "fun" argument doesn't hold. In fact, to some candidates, it may end up being the most stressful part of the interview.
If I go for an interview I'm not there to play board games and I'm not there to be your friend. I'm there to interview for the jobs. Stay on point and focus on the position and don't waste both our times. If you are into this psychological nonsense then I'm not interested. For fit and culture you can ask open ended questions but only in a job context.
This seems to be the exact red flag they’re looking to weed out. If you can’t be friendly, do something you’re not 100% thrilled with, and get along with others during a 1 hour game, what are you going to be like to work with?
But then, trivia-style algorithm questions are probably not a good way to evaluate future day-to-day performance on the job either.
I don't think there's a proven way to evaluate candidates, but in the end they all boil down to spending an hour or two with another, and seeing how you get along.
Playing a game in that time seems less stressful than algorithm questions. So unless you are only interested in seeing how they perform under stress, it does seem like a sensible aproach.
I've always found that it makes the game far more interesting when someone defects. In fact, it takes a lot of skill and tact to play a villain effectively.
But that would lose me the job, so I'd play according to their biases now that I know it's riding on their one observation of me playing an irrelevant game...
Generally, the people who find a nice, easy solution to hard social problems are probably not the kinds of people you'd want as a boss.
I don't like board games, I find them tedious and restrictive. I prefer more creative games like improv or higher stakes games like poker. When I do play boardgames I don't have a big picture strategy, I make and break alliances for the sake of a joke and I find myself forgetting the rules (since there are so many and they all seem so arbitrary). I'm just not invested. I've learned to not play because it upsets people who take the game more seriously.
What you will learn about me from playing board games with me is that I don't like board games. Not that I lack big picture thinking, loyally etc. I'm perfectly capable of playing the long con in a game of poker and planning all the way to the end because I'm invested and focused.
If you are looking for a filter that only lets people who like board games into your team then great. I'm sure you will have a nice monoculture of board game nerds and hopelessly agreeable people who don't like boardgames.
The "board game interview" is a spectacularly clueless display of net-negative cultural and gender bias. Not to mention just juvenile and unprofessional (my bias, sure).
> A relatively recent demographic survey that elicited 3,427 responses among a publisher’s subscribers that found 91.7 percent of respondents were male and 8.1 percent were female.18 Another 2016 table-top gamer demographic survey of 2,397 respondents that found 24 percent of board gamers were women, 1.1 percent non binary and 0.6 percent were trans, while the remainder—74.3 percent—identify as male.19 The overwhelming majority of survey respondents were also white, with survey reporting that 2.1 percent were Chinese, 2.7 percent were Latin American, 0.6 percent were Aboriginal and 0.7 percent were Filipino.
I don't disagree that the board games are stupid, but to call it gender biased is ridiculous. Women and minorities are just as capable of playing board games as everyone else, even if they don't do it as regularly as men.
> There’s nothing wrong with savoring a win, but players who gloat over successes tend to be the engineers who have trouble interacting with and leading teammates later on.
I actually feel sorry for anyone that would be forced to try these games for the first time, while simultaneously being in an interview situation.
Such a strange culture fit test as well, and culture in general where you're expected to stay in the office during unpaid time (lunch and similar). And the test is kind of game-able by someone who is a board gamer, especially ones that love games that are more socially intensive like the hidden traitor genre.
the main problem probably is that board games and work have different objectives.
i play board games to have a good time and not to win, but i write code to solve a problem. so if i am being cooperative in a game then that doesn't tell you how i will react to your code in a code review, or how i'll take your criticism to my patch that i happen to believe is the best solution to the problem.
If they're at the end of the interview rounds, pair with them for a whole day with different pairs for morning vs afternoon. If you want to see how they work solving real-life-like problems, give them one. You'll get a good assessment whether they can code at an acceptable level and secondly they'll have to be able to communicate and have some semblance of social skills.
[+] [-] eindiran|6 years ago|reply
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_(card_game)#Shooting_th...
[+] [-] a_e_k|6 years ago|reply
(Given the way that some of the games of Catan we've played with other couples have gone, she and I have joked about whether Catan has ever lead to a divorce.)
[+] [-] itronitron|6 years ago|reply
Whether this also applies to job interviews is highly variable so I can see why it should be presented as an option, but I would never pass up the opportunity to be able to see my potential future coworkers' interaction styles.
[+] [-] weinzierl|6 years ago|reply
As long as there is no money involved it's always all fun and games and I agree that board games don't mirror people's behavior towards others. But when you introduce real money into a game, just enough that it hurts to lose, everything changes and I claim that then the game is a much better model for real world situations.
[+] [-] _nalply|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lancebeet|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PopeDotNinja|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] em-bee|6 years ago|reply
ok, sure, given how unusual the idea of boardgames is, you don't risk much, but if i were to apply that same approach to interviews with trivia questions then i'd probably not find a job.
an interview would have to be outright offensive before i'd walk away. or i would have to be skeptical of that job already for other reasons and i just needed an excuse to drop it (the last straw sort of thing).
e.g. i can understand not wanting to go to a bar, but what's wrong with boardgames?
[+] [-] peterbonney|6 years ago|reply
Replace “play a board game” with “go to a bar” or “watch football” or “play basketball” or “go to a wine tasting” or “put on boxing gloves and spar” or about a thousand other things that we think would range from useless to inappropriate and I think you can see the problem with this. You learn something from asking a person to do anything, but not necessarily something useful in terms of their qualifications as an employee.
But no doubt this is a good way to build an organization of people who like board games.
[+] [-] YeGoblynQueenne|6 years ago|reply
I don't know whether you can really get any insights into a person's mind from playing games with them, other than how they are when they play games. I mean, I really don't know. It's an attractive idea. And I've certainly formed general opinions about peoples' character based on how they behaved in games we played together.
By the way- I did get hired by Big Financial Corp. I ended up in the same team as one of the people who set up the Pandemic session and with that dude as a senior colleague. He was a keen gamer so we played Magic: the Gathering a few times. We stopped after a while because I kept kicking his ass and he didn't like it :|
_________________________
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_(board_game)
[2] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island
[+] [-] LegitShady|6 years ago|reply
In my experience there are a lot of ultra competitive people who play magic, who exist mostly to create decks to see how much suffering they can cause.
It's an interesting subculture.
[+] [-] yoz-y|6 years ago|reply
As a fun idea what about returning the situation? You ask an interviewee whether they like board games and if they do ask them to choose one, for 2-4 players, preferably less known and bring it over. Then you task them to explain the rules, guide others through the first game and then judge on that? I think you would get better information about a person like this. How do they explain the rules, do they explain just the rules or do they also touch on strategy a bit, do they give tips for winning or do they keep them for themselves. Do they stomp over new players and so on.
I don't know if this kind of interview would be good, but I am quite sure it would be better that what TFA explains.
[+] [-] GuB-42|6 years ago|reply
Interviews are a test, and everything you do during an interview will be treated as such, even meals sometimes. That board game won't be the kind of fun game you have with your friends.
So unless board games, or whatever activity is related to the job, I would keep the interview to the point. If it is somehow related to the job as the article makes it to be, then the "fun" argument doesn't hold. In fact, to some candidates, it may end up being the most stressful part of the interview.
[+] [-] sys_64738|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulcole|6 years ago|reply
This seems to be the exact red flag they’re looking to weed out. If you can’t be friendly, do something you’re not 100% thrilled with, and get along with others during a 1 hour game, what are you going to be like to work with?
[+] [-] jakobegger|6 years ago|reply
But then, trivia-style algorithm questions are probably not a good way to evaluate future day-to-day performance on the job either.
I don't think there's a proven way to evaluate candidates, but in the end they all boil down to spending an hour or two with another, and seeing how you get along.
Playing a game in that time seems less stressful than algorithm questions. So unless you are only interested in seeing how they perform under stress, it does seem like a sensible aproach.
[+] [-] em-bee|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kstenerud|6 years ago|reply
But that would lose me the job, so I'd play according to their biases now that I know it's riding on their one observation of me playing an irrelevant game...
Generally, the people who find a nice, easy solution to hard social problems are probably not the kinds of people you'd want as a boss.
[+] [-] partyboat1586|6 years ago|reply
What you will learn about me from playing board games with me is that I don't like board games. Not that I lack big picture thinking, loyally etc. I'm perfectly capable of playing the long con in a game of poker and planning all the way to the end because I'm invested and focused.
If you are looking for a filter that only lets people who like board games into your team then great. I'm sure you will have a nice monoculture of board game nerds and hopelessly agreeable people who don't like boardgames.
[+] [-] jmromer|6 years ago|reply
> A relatively recent demographic survey that elicited 3,427 responses among a publisher’s subscribers that found 91.7 percent of respondents were male and 8.1 percent were female.18 Another 2016 table-top gamer demographic survey of 2,397 respondents that found 24 percent of board gamers were women, 1.1 percent non binary and 0.6 percent were trans, while the remainder—74.3 percent—identify as male.19 The overwhelming majority of survey respondents were also white, with survey reporting that 2.1 percent were Chinese, 2.7 percent were Latin American, 0.6 percent were Aboriginal and 0.7 percent were Filipino.
http://analoggamestudies.org/2018/12/assessing-gender-and-ra...
[+] [-] Invictus0|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyberias|6 years ago|reply
Is this based on ANYTHING?
[+] [-] chapium|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lithos|6 years ago|reply
I actually feel sorry for anyone that would be forced to try these games for the first time, while simultaneously being in an interview situation.
Such a strange culture fit test as well, and culture in general where you're expected to stay in the office during unpaid time (lunch and similar). And the test is kind of game-able by someone who is a board gamer, especially ones that love games that are more socially intensive like the hidden traitor genre.
[+] [-] em-bee|6 years ago|reply
i play board games to have a good time and not to win, but i write code to solve a problem. so if i am being cooperative in a game then that doesn't tell you how i will react to your code in a code review, or how i'll take your criticism to my patch that i happen to believe is the best solution to the problem.
[+] [-] karmakaze|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] im3w1l|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsjw7sbw|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pintxo|6 years ago|reply