Audio & Transcript

In this week's in-focus section we take a trip back to Second Life, the online virtual world, for TMP's first UK virtual careers fair. The event, sponsored by the GuardianJobs and BrandRepublic, allowed job seekers to be interviewed by the employers Yell, RBS and KPMG.

< music >

I've just arrived at the online careers fair after some difficulty finding the event and I'll give you a brief visualisation of how the event is presented, it is taking place on TMP's UK Island in Second Life. I can see several 3D buildings, one for each of the employers attending the event and others for the event sponsors and of course a building for TMP.

I'm just about to be given a tour by Phil Owers, Deputy MD of TMP and we are heading to the TMP building for a chat.

< music >

Although Second Life does support voice conversations it's a recent addition to the platform and this event is being conducted using textual conversations only. While initially this seems to be a little restrictive, Phil and I quickly seem to get into a well flowing conversation. This is important, as it's exactly the same scenario as the candidates and interviewers will be experiencing.

Phil explains that they are expecting to interview up to 100 candidates over the three-day event. A pre-screening process was completed first to generate a candidate shortlist with first contact interviews being conducted within Second Life.

Phil also highlights a key feature of Second Life based interviews, the remove of travel and location based constraints. Candidates simply don't have to travel for miles to get to an interview.

We head off to the KPMG and RBS buildings for a look around.

< music >

The branding aspects of Second Life as an interview location are clear to see as we walk around the employer buildings. Phil explains that the whole island was put together in about two weeks, using a mixture of TMP's internal resource and some outsourcing.

The RBS building is a replica of their head office and the use of brand colours at the KPMG building is effective. Phil explains that TMP have gone into the event with their eyes open, to make sure clients understand the opportunity. The virtual careers fair is an opportunity to be innovative and to test the environment while also taking advantage of the branding opportunity.

I bid Phil farewell and head off to find some candidates to get their opinion on the event.

< music >

I've spoken to two candidates, both of which have just been through the interview process, one with Yell and one with KPMG.

They were enthusiastic about the Second Life interview experience and while they both were new to the virtual world, they seem to be navigating and interacting without any problems.

The advantage of a Second Life interview from a location perspective was again clear in our discussions, both of the candidates said they would not have been able to attend a real life careers fair. One due to a busy schedule visiting a string of real life careers events, the other because he was based in Sri Lanka.

The KPMG candidate said there were some aspects of a real life interview that the virtual interview could not reproduce, such as understanding a person's personality, judging mood and making jokes. However, for competency-based questions it seemed to be an effective medium, and for the candidate the chat style based approach allowed them to take time when answering questions.

The Yell candidate said the whole interview experience was informal and that they felt more at ease in the virtual environment.

I'm off now to sit on a wall and reflect on the virtual event.

< music >

We'll I'm sitting on a virtual wall, watching virtual people fly around a virtual sky and recapping on the event. Despite some unforeseen amusement, like my surprise when a horse appeared at a window, the event seemed to have a professional approach and to be well managed by the TMP team. If anything perhaps, there were too many helpers on hand, which made it feel like you were being press-ganged.

However, as an overall experience, I'd have to say its been a positive one. The strong branding aspects of the virtual buildings stand out as important elements, just as they are in a real world careers fair.

Will the event lead to a host of new employees joining the recruiting companies? Maybe not, but I'm not sure that is the aim of a virtual career fair at this stage. For now I'd say it's about getting to understand the limitations of the technology, about seeing where the environment works in the recruitment process and getting a little positive branding exposure along the way.

Could a Second Life job fair replace a real life job fair? I think not, but could it compliment it - I think the answer is: yes.