Major U.S. Banks Are Interested In The Gaming Skills Of Recruits

A number of banks are going to take gaming skills into consideration while evaluating future recruits.

Although they will not be tested on their performance in popular titles on platforms like Xbox and Playstation, they will play online video games "grounded in neuroscience and big data to help match candidates with jobs," according to Alley Watch.

A startup in New York City called Pymetrics is interested in changing the way companies evaluate new talent and it chose the finance sector to launch from.

"The recruiting process is a little bit broken," Frida Polli, CEO and co-founder, of Pymetrics, told Alley Watch.

"I have yet to meet anybody who thinks the resume is an incredibly great piece of information about anybody, especially when you are 22. What kind of 22-year-old's resume says anything about them, really?"

And the game isn't a whimsical idea Pymetrics is trying to make a reality.

Polli has a PhD in neuroscience from MIT and the game-based recruiting tool is already being used my companies and universities. 

Pymetrics also is negotiating with four major U.S. financial institutions, according to Alley Watch.

The current set of games is the beta version, but the final one will be ready to go when the big banks use it to evaluate this coming recruiting class of graduates.

Games are simple and measure what traits employers are looking for and things like a person's attentiveness and impulsiveness.

The prospective employees' gaming results creates a profile of his or her strengths. Likewise, student applicants who have completed Pymetrics gaming system also have a profile created. Pymetrics compares the students' profiles to the company profiles to determine which firm would likely be a better fit for the candidate. 

"It's only an upside to students because it's a sourcing tool. We are going to recommend you to a bank where we see you will be a good fit. But if you want to apply to another bank independently, they will never know that you weren't a match," Polli told Alley Watch. "It will always feel like a win situation for them."