5 Reasons You Should Be Able to Put

5 Reasons You Should Be Able to Put “Guild Leader” On Your Resume

By Yuliya

Yuliya Geikhman has a degree in teaching, but would rather teach others about the wonders of MMOs. She (yes, she is really a female gamer and not a guy pretending) has a life and a husband, but spends much of it glued to Atlantica Online (and other ftp MMOs).

You can learn so much from playing MMOs, and so much more from being a guild leader. Unfortunately, it’s probably not a good idea to put “Leader of X Guild on MapleStory.” You can try putting down your time as a guild leader by putting it as experience. But you’d better be prepared to explain the circumstances. If you write, for example, “Experienced in leading a large group of people,” following that up in an interview with “…to a 40 man raid against a huge monster”… that’s not exactly a job landing comment.

But it should be. It’s time for employees to realize that leading a guild is a valid and valuable experience. Here are 5 excellent reasons why:

1. The most obvious benefit of being a guild leader is experience in a position of power. As a guild leader, you are in charge of a number of people. You are responsible for making decisions, resolving problems, and planning special events. You have to know when to intervene in a dispute, or even when to kick a person from the guild. To successfully lead a guild you should have the ability to listen, communicate, and respond to various things accordingly. It is often frustrating and difficult, and a great way to see if you make a good leader.

2. There are many different kinds of people on MMOs, and this can lead to many different kinds of obstacles. Being a guild leader teaches problem solving skills. You can organize a 20 person guild dungeon with 10 of these people living in different time zones, only 3 being healers, 5 speaking different languages, and 2 hating each other? Definitely impressive.

3. Being the leader of a guild also strengthens your powers of communication and negotiation. You must, as mentioned before, talk to your guild members to resolve problems and reach compromises. This is made even more difficult through the fact that many times, the people you are playing with can’t speak English well. But certain MMOs also require guild leaders to communicate with other guilds, plan big events, and form alliances. Some MMOs allow guilds to join together, wage war, and acquire territories. This means that who you ally with and you who annoy might well decide the fate of your guild.

4. Guild leaders must put in a lot of time into their game, which means they have to learn time management skills. This is only true of people who managed to be guild leaders, and still get good grades in high school/college and get things done in general. Some people can’t even handle playing an MMO and going to class, but we’ll just assume that the employer in question has already weeded those out.

Yeah, not this guy.

Yeah, not this guy.

5. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly for an employer, being a guild leader shows dedication. Most of the time, creating a guild takes a lot of in-game money. And raising that money is the “easy” part. Many guilds rise and fall quickly because the leaders lack dedication and motivation. Somebody who has managed to stay guild leader for a while shows that they can be serious about something when they set their mind to it, and that they carry things through. This is even more meaningful if the guild has managed to achieve some position of power in the MMO.

It would be nice of guild leaders could even put their guild members as references. “She’s been a great leader! She never minds lending out her mount!” …But that’s pushing it.

You don’t understand, her unicorn mount is so pretty!”

“You don’t understand, her unicorn mount is so pretty!”