Waiki's Blogspot

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I've been doing some intern/co-op recruiting and filtering through a whole lot of applications of current college/university students. And I noticed this weird trend -- I'm starting to see a number of students list League of Legends on their resume, mostly in their interest & activities section. However, I saw an application talk about LoL in their cover letter! The letter was quite engaging and entertaining -- he just wanted a breakthrough chance on his first job, and LoL was his best demonstration of his teamwork and leadership abilities.

Sorry, perhaps instead of playing so much LoL, you could write a personal website, Android app, Flash game and talk about how fascinated you are with creating software, rather than just gaming while you wait for your breakthrough chance.

To be clear, I have nothing against playing games, or playing games often; I look at it as a hobby, much like cooking or tennis. Appropriately, it belongs under interest & activities, not your cover letter. I would argue, however, that putting it in has greater risks than benefits given the stereotypes of people who play a lot of video games. But for me at least, I will not treat it as a negative, because I play lots of games myself.

Your cover letter and resume give the first impression to a potential employer, you should leave them with "hard worker", "takes initiative", "smart" or "quick learner". "Hardcore Gamer" is not the impression you want to leave. I'm looking for a software developer, not a chef, tennis player or gamer.