Recruiters from some of the world’s largest
financial organisations have revealed that when it
comes to searching for new trading staff these days,
there is a whole new set of criteria employers are
looking for. It seems that a new approach is seeing
applicants being put to the test on video gaming and
online poker skills, with recruiters believing that
the skill set required to be successful in these
activities correlate well with the skills required
to be a successful financial trader.
As well as
now being used as a test for prospective employees,
the video gaming and online poker skills are also
being incorporated into training programmes for
traders for the same reasons. It is now becoming an
increasingly popular belief that training in these
games will help to develop the attributes of the
most successful traders in new employees.
One institution already utilising this new
recruitment and training programme is Geneva
Trading. President of the company, Mary McDonnell
explained the new direction and policy. She
commented that: 'It is unlikely that we would hire
someone who didn't show good proficiency at a
GameBoy or online poker or similar video-type game
where hand-to-eye coordination is important. It's
the discipline of not getting too emotional about
your transactions, and also the mathematical ability
to keep track of numbers, as in card counting.
Online poker practice helps traders to read the
markets correctly. It helps to determine if people
are bluffing, trying to make the market move one way
or another.
This kind of thinking has also emerged from a
University in the UK where academics have created a
link between success at either online or land based
poker games and success in the work place. Gambling
expert at Nottingham Trent University, Mark
Griffiths explained: 'Poker-playing managers will be
used to asking, 'did I play that right?', and
equally are likely to be more objective in reviewing
the decisions they make. They may be more pragmatic
than others, as playing with the cards you have is a
winning strategy in poker. And top poker players are
insatiable in their desire to win. Being this
focused is an important leadership skill in the
workplace. Then there's the art of deception, not
normally seen as a desirable skill, but in poker
it's all part of the game. After all, in many
workplace situations the ability to get away with
white lies, to save face or be diplomatic, or to
smooth over or disguise mistakes and errors, is a
big advantage.'
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