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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Design a more fulfilling, resilient career for the new world of work
In The Career Game Loop: Learn to Earn in the New Economy, veteran gaming, education, and social impact executive, Jessica Lindl, delivers an exciting playbook for navigating today’s dynamic career landscape inspired by an unlikely source - gaming. Drawing parallels between gaming and career advancement, you’ll explore why learning, earning, and advancing are continuous, interwoven, and life-long processes, and how you can navigate a fulfilling career in the 21st century economy.
Lindl dives deep into the data of modern job hunting, training, networking, recruitment, and more as she tells the stories of real people who have overcome daunting obstacles to find the career they’ve always dreamed of. She also explains the mindsets, behaviors, and practice tips drawn from gaming you can implement immediately to create resilient, future-proof careers in a world where adaptability is the ultimate power-up.
You’ll also find:
- Discussions of the Silicon Valley talent development model that helps make careers more resilient
- Cost-effective alternatives to the cost-prohibitive four-year degree model
- Resources you can access immediately to move quickly into more fulfilling, high-paying work
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Seitenzahl: 433
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Big Bad Uncertainty
Everyone's a Witcher
Chaos Is a Ladder
Reinventing the Wheel
Game Loops
The Core Career Loop
This Book Is for You
Game On
Notes
Part I: Choose Quest
1 How Gamers Learned to Choose
1.1 No Choice
1.2 Jumpman
1.3 Nintendo's Favorite Plumber
1.4 Branching Out
1.5 Detective Stone
1.6 The First Choice Makers
1.7 RPGs Go Global
1.8 Mario's Opposite
1.9 The Legend of Zelda
1.10 The Free Roamers
1.11 The Trail Ahead
Notes
2 Five Tactics for Expanding Horizons
2.1 Seeking Influence
2.2 Horizon Expanders
2.3 The Five Tactics
2.4 The Choice Ahead
Notes
3 Professional Pathfinder and Job Feel
3.1 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
3.2 Factor 1: Passion
3.3 Factor 2: Skill
3.4 Factor 3: Mission
3.5 Factor 4: Sustainability
3.6 Job Feel
3.7 The Paradox
Note
4 Gravitational Pull and Expecting the Unexpected
4.1 The Future
4.2 Thrown for a Loop
4.3 Unity at Last
4.4 The Controller's Disconnected
4.5 Dream Jobs
4.6 Inside the Chaos
4.7 The Chaos Within
4.8 Embracing Gravitational Pull
4.9 Agency and Surrender
4.10 Fun, Not Fear
Notes
5 This Game Is Beatable
5.1 Calling an Audible
5.2 The Three Fears
5.3 The First Fear
5.4 The Second Fear
5.5 The Third Fear
Notes
6 Community Loop: Mentors
6.1 The Community Loop
6.2 Weak Ties
6.3 Ready Player 1—and 2 and 3 and 4
6.4 Career Clans
6.5 Peer-to-Peer Networks
6.6 Meeting the Mentor
6.7 Onboarding the Mentor
6.8 Is the Mentor on Board?
6.9 Making the Most of a Mentor
6.10 Building Structure
6.11 From Padawan to Master
Notes
Part II: Level Up
7 How Gamers Learned to Learn
7.1 Choose Death
7.2 The Drop-Out
7.3 Nothin' But Net
7.4 How Gamers Started Training
7.5 The Difficulty Curve
7.6 The Shake-Up
7.7 Celebrating Failure
7.8 What Demons Teach Us
7.9 From Games to Life
Notes
8 Fundamentals, Platforms, and Mindsets
8.1 Lock and Load
8.2 Suit Up
8.3 Preparing for Launch
8.4 The Fundamentals
8.5 Pick Your Platform
8.6 Mind Games
8.7 Starting with Curiosity
8.8 Curiosity Killed the Bug
8.9 Getting Over It
8.10 One Way Up
Notes
9 Build Your Own Tutorial
9.1 Do-It-Yourself Tutorials
9.2 Wired for Little Quests
9.3 Feedback
Notes
10 Mastering Durable Skills
10.1 Speaking of Skills …
10.2 Leveling Up Durably
10.3 Building Durable Skills
10.4 Emotional Intelligence
10.5 Adaptability
10.6 Resilience
10.7 Moving Forward
Notes
11 Community Loop: Coaches
11.1 No Dead Mentors
11.2 Our Peers
11.3 Sharing Online
11.4 Coaches
Part III: Job Hunt
12 How Gamers Learned to Hack the Grind
12.1 Groundwork for Grinding
12.2 Grinding to Meet the Boss
12.3 Grind, Incorporated
12.4 Optimal Play
12.5 Ultima Optimized
12.6 Hack the Grind
12.7 Ingenuity and Community
Notes
13 Free Your Mindset
13.1 Opportunity and Despair
13.2 Embracing Rejection
13.3 From Qualified to Connected
13.4 From Grind to Gig
14 Tell Your Story
14.1 Story Games
14.2 Story 101
14.3 Prewriting
14.4 Make Stanislavski Proud
14.5 Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse
Notes
15 Ask, Then Negotiate
15.1 How Gamers Choose (Again)
15.2 Asking for Help
15.3 Negotiate
Notes
16 Community Loop: Sponsors
16.1 The Referral Button
16.2 Weak Ties (Again)
16.3 Informational Interviews
16.4 Getting Informational
16.5 Getting Personal
16.6 Giving Good Vibes
16.7 Make the Ask
Notes
Part IV: Job Craft
17 How Gamers Learned to Reinvent
17.1 Death by Turret
17.2 The Job Crafter
17.3 The Birth of Video Games
17.4 Emergence
17.5 Three Kind of Emergence
17.6 A Post-Smurf World
17.7 Dota 2
17.8 Lifelong Metagamers
Notes
18 Why Gamers Job Craft
18.1 Growing on the Job
18.2 What Is Job Crafting?
18.3 Motivation 1: Thriving Through Chaos
18.4 Motivation 2: Getting Past the Gatekeepers
18.5 Motivation 3: Searching Our Hearts
18.6 The Four Types of Job Crafting
18.7 When to Job Craft
Notes
19 How Gamers Job Craft
19.1 Don't Bring Rum to Work
19.2 Step 1: Choosing a Professional Path
19.3 Step 2: Leveling Up
19.4 Step 3: Telling Our Stories
20 Community Loop: Bosses
20.1 Everything Old Is New (Again)
20.2 No Dead Mentors (Again)
20.3 Now, Bosses
20.4 Great Bosses
Part V: Beyond the Loop: Hiring, Managing, and Promoting
21 How Managers Learned to Lead
21.1 Taylor, the Man of Steel
21.2 The Loser
21.3 Relating as Humans
21.4 From Humans to People
21.5 Managing Career Loopers
Notes
22 Hiring Career Loopers
22.1 In Good Company
22.2 Problem 1: Looking in the Wrong Place
22.3 Problem 2: Looking for the Wrong Things
22.4 Five Tactics for Better Hires
22.5 Recruiting Loopers
Notes
23 Managing Career Loopers
23.1 Taylor's Ghost
23.2 A Few Problems with Taylorism
23.3 Change 1: Be A Coach, Not a Boss
23.4 Change 2: Motivate Employees
23.5 Change 3: Track Emotional Wellness
23.6 Change 4: Democratize Insight
23.7 Change 5: Lead Toward Growth
24 Promoting Career Loopers
24.1 Promotion
24.2 Whom to Promote
24.3 Candidate Sponsorship
24.4 External Considerations
24.5 Alternatives to Promotion
24.6 Beyond This Loop
Conclusion
Learn, Earn, Advance
From Player to Creator
Dear Leaders
Looping Back to Community
Press X to Jump
Note
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Figure I.1 Linear Career
Figure I.2 Looping Career (learn-earn-advance loop)
Figure I.3 Learn-Earn-Advance Graph
Figure I.4 Core Career Loop
Figure I.5 The Community Loop
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 The Professional Pathfinder
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 The Core Career Loop
Figure 6.2 The Quest-Selection Loop
Figure 6.3 Community Loop
Figure 6.4 Peer Network
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Difficulty Curve
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 The Community Loop
Chapter 16
Figure 16.1 Core Career Loop
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 Core Loop with Arrow
Chapter 19
Figure 19.1 Professional Pathfinder with Highlights
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 Community Loop
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Introduction
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Conclusion
Index
End User License Agreement
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THE CAREER GAME LOOP
LEARN TO EARN IN THE NEW ECONOMY
JESSICA LINDL
Copyright © 2025 by Jessica Lindl. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available:
ISBN 9781394217663 (Cloth)ISBN 9781394217670 (ePub)ISBN 9781394217687 (ePDF)
COVER DESIGN: PAUL MCCARTHYCOVER ART: © GETTY IMAGES | KLAUS VEDFELT
About the Author
Jessica Lindl is the vice president of Ecosystem Growth at Unity Technologies, where she leads initiatives that empower millions of learners worldwide to succeed in the new economy. With over two decades of experience at the intersection of technology, education, and workforce development, Lindl has been a pioneer in leveraging game skills to unlock new career pathways for learners of all ages. She frequently speaks at global conferences and advocates for inclusive, accessible pathways to success in the tech industry.
In addition to her work at Unity Technologies, Lindl shapes public education practice as a Pahara-Aspen Institute Fellow. She influences education technology investments as an advisory board member for GSV Ventures, and she advocates for equitable career opportunities nationwide with the Corporate Council at Jobs for the Future.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to the entire Unity Community for embracing me as a lifelong apprentice of your brilliance, and to my close partners in this book—Aaron, Anuja, Aurore, Ellen, Joy, Kayla, Kevin, Lucy, Neal, and Rachel.
Foreword
When I was first asked to write this foreword, I couldn't help but feel a bit excited—and also a little reflective—about my own journey in the world of gaming and careers. You see, my career, much like yours probably has been (or will be), wasn't always a straight path. It's been more like an epic quest with unexpected twists, some challenging boss battles, and, let's be real, more than a few respawns along the way. And that's why The Career Game Loop feels so important right now. It captures how we can navigate today's fast-changing, unpredictable job market by tapping into something many of us are already familiar with: the mindset of a gamer.
For those of you who might not know me, I've spent over 35-years in the entertainment industry, from my early days in radio to my two decades at Xbox, where I connected with millions of gamers and developers through podcasts, live shows, and events. Along the way, I've had the incredible opportunity to witness firsthand how gaming can change lives—not just through entertainment but also through the valuable skills we develop by playing. What I love about this book is that it taps directly into that idea: the notion that the skills we build in gaming aren't just for fun; they're actually tools that can help us thrive in our careers and in life.
Let me give you a little story to start things off—one that speaks to how gaming has shaped my own career in ways I couldn't have imagined. When I first started out, I had no idea that my path would eventually lead me to Microsoft, much less to a long career helping build the Xbox brand. Back then, I was just a guy who loved radio and video games, figuring out how to turn my passions into something meaningful. It wasn't like I had this grand career plan all laid out—far from it! But here's the thing: gaming taught me the value of perseverance, problem-solving, and strategic thinking.
I remember one day when I was working in radio, I got a call from a friend who was at Microsoft. He told me they were working on this exciting new project in music streaming (this was the year 2000). I jumped at it! A few years later I heard about this other project called “Xbox,” and next thing I knew, I was helping shape what would become one of the biggest platforms in gaming. I didn't land that opportunity by knowing exactly where I was headed. Instead, I got there by being flexible, learning new things, and approaching challenges with the kind of mindset I'd developed through years of gaming—curious, adaptive, and unafraid to take risks.
That's exactly what The Career Game Loop is about. It's not just a book for gamers (though if you are one, you're going to love how it connects those dots). It's for anyone who's trying to navigate the ups and downs of today's job market—a world where industries are changing rapidly, technology is disrupting everything, and the old rules of career progression don't seem to apply anymore. Whether you're just starting out, trying to make a career pivot, or leveling up in your current role, this book offers you a road map. And what's brilliant about it is that it breaks down career building in a way that will feel familiar to anyone who's ever played a video game.
Jessica has done something special here by taking the concept of the “game loop” and using it as a framework for career growth. Now, if you're not familiar with game loops, let me explain quickly. A game loop is the repetitive process that defines the core of what you do in a game. Think about the games you love—whether it's Call of Duty, Minecraft, or The Witcher. In each one, you have this loop of tasks: you pick a quest or a goal, you gather resources or skills, you fight your battles, and then you reap your rewards before heading out on the next adventure. You keep leveling up, learning new strategies, and unlocking new achievements. It's a process of constant growth and improvement.
And here's the thing: your career works the exact same way.
In this book, Jessica lays out what she calls The Career Game Loop. It's a career framework that breaks down into four main phases: first, you choose your quest—that's deciding what kind of work you want to pursue or what problem you want to solve. Next, you level up by learning new skills, acquiring knowledge, and growing in your role. Then, you go into the job hunt—seeking out new opportunities, whether it's a promotion, a new company, or even a career pivot. And finally, you get to job craft—this is where you customize your role, adapt to new challenges, and continue to grow within your field. Once you've completed the loop, you start over, stronger and wiser from the experience.
It's such a brilliant analogy because it shows how careers, like games, are not linear. The days of having a single career path that you follow from college until retirement are over for most people. Today's world requires us to be adaptable, to expect change, and to continually evolve our skills. That might sound daunting, but gamers know that this is part of the fun. We don't shy away from a tough boss fight or a tricky level—we lean into the challenge. And when we fail, we learn from it and try again. That's exactly how we need to approach our careers.
Let's talk for a second about failure. I know it's a word that makes a lot of people uncomfortable, but it really shouldn't. One of the most valuable things gaming has taught me is that failure isn't the end—it's part of the process. Whether you've been crushed in a multiplayer match or wiped out in a raid, you know that feeling of wanting to throw the controller across the room. But you also know that you can always respawn, rethink your strategy, and try again. And when you finally succeed? Man, that victory feels so much sweeter because of the struggle. That's how it works in careers, too. You're going to face setbacks. You're going to take wrong turns. You might even fail spectacularly. But if you view those failures as opportunities to learn and grow, you'll come out of it stronger and more resilient.
Jessica captures this perfectly in her book. She doesn't sugarcoat the challenges of today's job market, but she offers a way forward that feels empowering. She reminds us that, like in gaming, careers are about learning, experimenting, and adapting. The key is to stay flexible, embrace the process, and see each challenge as an opportunity to level up.
One of my favorite sections of the book is where she talks about community. In gaming, we know the value of teaming up with others. Whether you're in a co-op campaign or part of a massive multiplayer guild, you know that the people you play with can make all the difference. The same goes for your career. Having a strong network of mentors, peers, and supporters can be a game changer. In my own career, I've been lucky enough to work with some incredibly talented and generous people—mentors who helped me see opportunities I might have missed, peers who pushed me to be better, and a community that has supported me every step of the way.
Jessica emphasizes that building this community is an essential part of your career game loop. It's not just about what you know, but who you know and how you collaborate. Just like in multiplayer games, we don't get anywhere without a little help from others. Whether it's a mentor offering guidance or a colleague sharing their expertise, the people around us can help us grow in ways we can't do alone.
Another point I love in this book is how it encourages us to think of our careers as dynamic and evolving. Remember when you started a game and thought you were heading in one direction, only to discover halfway through that the real challenge was somewhere else? That happens in real life too. Sometimes we think we know what we want in our careers, but as we explore new opportunities and learn new skills, we realize our true passion lies in a different direction. That's okay! In fact, that's one of the most exciting parts of the career game loop—you get to pivot, try new things, and discover paths you didn't even know existed.
I can tell you from personal experience that the willingness to adapt and try new things is crucial. When I first joined Xbox, the gaming landscape was nothing like it is today. We've seen the rise of digital distribution, cloud gaming, cross-platform play, and so much more. The industry is constantly evolving, and to keep up, we've had to evolve right along with it. That same mindset applies to any career. The world is changing fast, and the skills that were in demand a decade ago might not be as valuable today. But if you're willing to keep learning, keep leveling up, and stay curious, you'll always find new opportunities.
In The Career Game Loop, Jessica gives you the tools to do just that. She breaks down the process into actionable steps, helping you see your career as a series of challenges and opportunities—just like a great game. And whether you're a gamer or not, this approach will resonate with you because it's grounded in real-world experiences and practical advice. She's not just talking theory here. She's giving you a playbook for how to navigate the complexities of today's job market and come out on top.
So, whether you're a gamer looking to turn your hobby into a career advantage, or someone who's trying to figure out how to thrive in this unpredictable world of work, this book has something for you. It's packed with insights, strategies, and most important, a sense of empowerment. You've got what it takes to succeed—you just need the right tools, the right mindset, and a willingness to embrace the loop.
Alright, I think I've said enough. Now it's time for you to dive into the book and start your own career game loop. Choose your quest, level up your skills, and get ready to craft a career that's as dynamic and exciting as any game you've ever played.
Good luck. I know you can do it!
—Larry Hryb, aka “Major Nelson”Director of Community at Unity
Introduction
Think this job market is tough? Try life as a witcher.
If you've played The Witcher, or seen the show, or read the books, you'll know: witching is a scary business. If you've never heard of The Witcher, you'll just have to take my word for it.
On a good day, you'll fight a frothing horde of sludge zombies whose greatest ambition is to claw you to death, pickle you in swamp muck, then consume you bit by tender bit. On a bad day, you might get tangled up with a rotting corpse who's got a bone to pick with the living and an army of plague-infested rats at her command.
The wild thing about witchers—and the gamers who control them—is that they don't just fight one of these horrors and call it a day. They go looking for these fights, one after another, again and again and again.
Werewolf down? Let's get ourselves a vampire. Vampire slain? Let's move on to the demonic, faceless gravedigger and his violent mob of undead spirits.
Players of The Witcher aren't trapped in a revolving door of vicious nightmares. They're making an intentional effort to find these creatures and battle them, repeating an elaborate procedure every time.
I want to break down that procedure for a moment. (Stick with me—I've got a point here.)
First, the player goes looking for a quest. Maybe they pick up a contract to help a struggling town. Maybe they pity someone who's desperately searching for their wife. One way or another, there's a monster out there, and the player volunteers to slay it.
Next comes the prep. The player interrogates locals about the monster, then does some forensic probing at the scene of the crime. They get their potions brewed and their gear packed.
And then they chase down their leads. Find the monster. Fight it. Kill it.
On the other side of victory are rewards. Bags of gold. Shiny new gear. The player levels up their character, improves their gadgets, grabs new equipment, and seeks out their next quest.
Then the cycle begins again.
In the world of game design, this repeating procedure is called a core game loop. And, as far as I'm concerned, it's the key to unlocking career growth in the new economy.
Big Bad Uncertainty
Previous generations entered the working world knowing, from the start, what they would do and how they would do it. Where you grew up, who your parents were, what you looked like, how much money you had, what school you went to—these things determined what kind of career you'd have. And once you had that career, there was usually just one way to do things: the way they've always been done.
Then came the digital revolution and everything changed. Free software. Free information. Digital social networks. Rapid communication breeds rapid innovation, and rapid innovation breeds rapid disruption.
Every time technology steps forward, businesses rise and fall. Jobs disappear. Jobs spring up. Jobs transform. Value shifts. To stay nimble, more employers recruit a disposable contract-based workforce. So you get remote work. The gig economy. Where will I live? What will I be doing a year from now? The more we learn about technology, the more uncertain our own lives become.
Today, things like race, gender, class, geography, and sexuality continue to influence our futures dramatically, in big and bigoted ways. But most of us have lost the algorithmic certainty that dominated our parents' and grandparents' careers. There are just too many variables. Technology transforms too quickly. News travels too fast. Disruptors upend whole industries overnight. In the new economy, nothing about our careers is certain.
Everyone's a Witcher
I've spent the entirety of my own career chasing this storm of uncertainty. As a college junior, I interned at the FCC, the federal agency that regulates communications. It was 1994, and the FCC had their hands full with radio, phones, cable, and TV. A new form of communication was emerging—the internet—and the question was whether they should regulate that, too. The FCC took this matter so seriously that they assigned it to an intern (me) and locked her in a windowless room to figure it out.
The following years sent me down a winding road through tech, education, and workforce development. Where would the internet take us? How would work evolve? How would education evolve? To me, the answers to these questions all seemed interdependent.
For years, I ping-ponged around the worlds of tech, work, and learning. I became the CEO of an educational gaming company. The COO of a career-training venture. I worked with the White House to promote the use of games for education.
Everywhere I went, I built teams, and those teams surprised me. I found that, as among all my employees, the contributors who grew up gaming seemed most equipped to triumph in the face of 21st-century challenges. They learned new skills quickly, solved unsolvable problems, made fast friends with folks from very different backgrounds, and communicated clearly even when the way forward felt unclear.
Eventually, this discovery led me to Unity.
You might not have heard of Unity, but if you play video games, then you've seen our work. We design one of the world's most popular “game engines,” which is what it sounds like: a super-powered digital machine that makes games go. Like the engine of a car, you won't see the Unity Engine unless you pop open the hood of your game. But whether you see it or not, it's there, whirling the wheels and racing things forward.
At Unity, I lead our efforts in education and workforce development. I'm privileged to work with a team of dedicated designers, educators, creators, and organizers—many of whom helped write this book. Together, we educate people to work in games, and we use games to educate people to work in anything.
In my role, I've interfaced with every kind of professional under the sun—people from every socioeconomic background, in every sort of industry, at every stage of their careers. Ivy league grads. Community college students. Mid-career pivoters. Job seekers from emerging countries. And what I hear everywhere is the same: Worry. Stress. Terror in the face of uncertainty.
In a landscape of short-term contracts, frequent layoffs, and the menacing forward-march of artificial intelligence, we all feel like witchers—scrounging for contracts, surrounded by monsters.
But here's the thing …
There's a reason why people love playing The Witcher.
Chaos Is a Ladder
It's certainly true that the economy is changing, and that our careers are changing with it. But I don't think that's bad news. In fact, I think it's terrific news. There has never been a more exciting time to work.
Previous generations experienced more career certainty precisely because so little was possible. Things were the way they were, they worked the way they worked, and there was nothing you could do to change that.
But today, anything is possible. Our futures are no longer solely determined by whether we got the right degree from the right school or took the right job in the right city with the right title. And the environment around us is constantly shifting.
Today, the average person spends just four years in any given job.1 Experts estimate that 85% of the next decade's jobs haven't been invented yet.2 And of the jobs that do already exist, an estimated 1.1 billion of them will be radically transformed by new tech.3 Bottom line: 40%—nearly half—of the skills that define career success are about to change.4
If all that uncertainty sounds like chaos, that's because it is. But chaos is good for us. Great even. Because, as anyone who's seen Game of Thrones knows, “chaos is a ladder.” If you're open to adapting, it's a clear climb to the top.
That's what we'll need to do if we want to flourish in the new economy: adapt. It used to be that career growth was rigid and linear (see Figure I.1). First you went to school, then you started your career. First you learned, then you earned. But now, and in the decades to come, we will learn and earn continuously, always developing new skills and applying them. Always adapting (see Figure I.2).
Figure I.1 Linear Career
Figure I.2 Looping Career (learn-earn-advance loop)
Learn, earn, advance. Learn, earn, advance. If we can repeat that cycle, we'll thrive.
Reinventing the Wheel
This new, cyclical approach to career crafting is actually quite natural. But it seems strange because it differs from what came before. Our education system was fashioned to prepare us for one lifelong profession. It wasn't built to support continuous upskilling.
When our schools were first developed, they were designed for an industrial economy, not a knowledge economy. They were designed to staff assembly lines, not to incubate disruptive startups. They taught us to follow directions, not to solve unforeseen problems.
You might say that our current system was built to ensure that you would never have to “reinvent the wheel.” But today, the most lucrative, most rewarding work you can find is precisely in reinventing wheels. We're rethinking everything that's taken for granted. We're tossing out our instruction manuals, taking things apart, and building them back better.
If we want to reinvent the world around us, and if we want to thrive in a world that's constantly being reinvented, we need to know how to reinvent ourselves.
Which raises the question—who's going to teach us how?
Spending my career at the intersection of technology, work, and education, I've seen technology reinvented. I've seen work reinvented. And through it all, I've seen education stay almost entirely the same. This despite the fact that the numbers are clear: our education system isn't working.
More than one-third of undergrads don't complete a degree within eight years.5 When evaluated about five years after launch, one-third of new higher-ed degree programs graduate 0 students, and two-thirds graduate fewer than 10.6
Then, even when students do graduate with four-year degrees, more than half find themselves underemployed a year after they graduate—trapped in jobs that didn't require four-year degrees to begin with. Nearly half of all grads will remain underemployed for another decade after that.7
So if our education system isn't prepared to support us, and our elders don't know how to navigate this new economy any better than we do, where can we go for help?
After a few decades of working on this question, I discovered an unlikely answer: video games.
Game Loops
Just a moment ago, I talked about the cyclical nature of contemporary work. We learn, earn, advance; learn, earn, advance. To old-timers, this learning-earning cycle seems daunting. They expect linearity. First you go to school, then you have a career. Learn, then earn, then retire, then die. For these folks, returning to the start of that cycle can feel like failure—like you had to give up and start again.
But gamers see things differently. To gamers, learning-earning cycles aren't demoralizing, and they aren't scary. Just the contrary: they're wild, addictive fun. In fact, learning-earning cycles are the whole point. You couldn't have video games without them! At every level, we're introduced to a new challenge, a new puzzle, a new enemy. We learn to overcome it. We earn our reward. We advance. Learn, earn, advance. Learn, earn, advance—continuously accumulating more and more skill every time.
Of course, this progression isn't always smooth. Sometimes we face an unusually tough challenge or struggle with a particularly tricky mechanic. We take two steps forward, one step back. But gamers know that even these learning curves are all just part of the fun, making play more riveting and victory more rewarding. This too is a natural dimension of learning-earning cycles (see Figure I.3).
Game designers have a term for cycles like this. They call them core game loops.
We saw one of those loops at the beginning of this Introduction. In The Witcher 3, you choose a monster-hunting quest, prepare for it, find the monster, slay it, collect your reward, and then begin the loop again with a new quest.
There are all kinds of game loops out there. The term describes any repeating sequence of action that you might perform in a game. But the “core” loop is the one that defines the game. Without it, the game wouldn't be.
So in a side-scrolling platformer, you might run, jump, collect a coin, then repeat. Similar deal in a first-person shooter: aim, shoot, advance, repeat. And this isn't just true of video games.
Monopoly:
Roll dice. Move piece. Buy/build/rent. Repeat.
Hide-and-go-seek:
Count, seek, find. Then hide, be found. Repeat.
Tag:
Run, tag. Then run, be tagged. Repeat.
If you're a gamer, then you're a master of game loops. The learning-earning cycle of contemporary careers is just another one of those loops, and you'll master this one in exactly the same way you've mastered all the others.
Figure I.3 Learn-Earn-Advance Graph
If you take nothing else away from this book, take away this: skills learned gaming are relevant. Careers are changing, yes. But for gamers, that change isn't something to fear. It's something to celebrate. More is possible than ever before. More is within reach. And the skills you need to win in this new world are the same skills you've been building your whole life.
The Core Career Loop
To prove that point, this book will lay out the four phases of what I call the Core Career Loop.
Phase 1:
You choose a profession to pursue.
Phase 2:
You learn the skills necessary to work in that profession.
Phase 3:
You hunt down a job in that profession.
Phase 4:
You use that job as a springboard toward further growth, beginning the cycle again.
Or, put more briefly (see Figure I.4):
Choose Quest
Level Up
Figure I.4 Core Career Loop
Job Hunt
Job Craft (repeat)
At the heart of this book are four parts, one for each phase. In each phase, we'll take a closer look at the challenges ahead of you and the strategies you can use to win.
Along the way, we'll discover that building a strong career also requires building a strong community. And we'll see that community building follows its own four-phase cycle. So, after discussing each phase of the Core Career Loop, we'll look at a parallel phase in the Community Loop. Those four Community Loop phases will be as follows (see Figure I.5)
Mentors
Coaches
Sponsors
Bosses (repeat)
Finally, before closing out the book, we'll take a one-part look “Beyond the Loop,” exploring how hiring, managing, and promoting practices must evolve with contemporary careers. This final part will, of course, speak to managers. And it will also speak to career loopers, revealing what employers look for during hiring, what makes a good boss, and what kinds of help you should be asking for.
Figure I.5 The Community Loop
This Book Is for You
This book will explore how the Core Career Loop works, how to master it, and why gamers are uniquely adept at navigating it. Ultimately, we'll learn to love the chaos of the contemporary economy, enjoying extraordinary growth and unparalleled possibility.
To be clear, this is not a book about gamifying careers. It's a book about crafting careers while using the transferable skills that you've built up over years of gaming. So if you're a gamer, this book's for you. It can help you find your first job, pivot to a new profession, reenter the working world, or imagine your work for the first time.
One exception: this book will not address professions that require extensive licensing. Think law and medicine. But if you're from one of those fields, I encourage you to stick with us anyway. Technology touches every industry. Disruption happens everywhere. Many of this book's fundamental principles will still apply.
This book is also for managers and institutional leaders who want to understand what contemporary careers will look like, and how their own institutions must change to match them. Managers will learn to evolve their hiring, managing, and promoting processes. And it's my hope that institutional leaders will adapt and transform their organizations in response to this new landscape.
There are far-reaching implications here for global employers, as well as nonprofits in education access and workforce development. The same goes for educational institutions of all kinds—from primary school to higher ed, from bootcamps to certification programs, and beyond.
Game On
There's another word for uncertainty: opportunity. We have never been so free to choose our own paths, so at liberty to pivot, or so empowered to adapt. The same internet that unleashes unparalleled chaos also unleashes unparalleled possibilities. With that internet's help, we can knock on more doors, learn about more industries, join more communities, and self-teach nearly any skill.
This book will show that gamers are uniquely well-equipped to seize these opportunities and meet the challenges of this moment.
We don't need special social or economic privileges, and we don't need inherited family networks to thrive. Like the witchers who came before us, all we need are the right tools, a good map, and a keen sense of adventure.
Let the hunt begin.
Notes
1
. “Employee Tenure in 2022.” Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 22, 2022.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf
.
2
. “Realizing 2030: A Divided Vision of the Future.” Dell Technologies, June 8, 2023.
https://www.delltechnologies.com/content/dam/delltechnologies/assets/perspectives/2030/pdf/Realizing-2030-A-Divided-Vision-of-the-Future-Summary.pdf
.
3
. Cann, Oliver. “The Reskilling Revolution: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Education for a Billion People by 2030.” World Economic Forum, January 22, 2020.
https://www.weforum.org/press/2020/01/the-reskilling-revolution-better-skills-better-jobs-better-education-for-a-billion-people-by-2030/
.
4
. “Reskilling Revolution: Preparing 1 Billion People for Tomorrow’s Economy.”
World Economic Forum
, January 9, 2023.
https://www.weforum.org/impact/reskilling-revolution/
.
5
. Hanson, Melanie. “College Dropout Rates”
EducationData.org
, August 16, 2024.
https://educationdata.org/college-dropout-rates
6
. McKenzie, Lindsay. “Newly Launched Degree Programs Struggle to Produce Graduates at Scale.”
Inside Higher Ed
, December 8, 2020.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/08/newly-launched-degree-programs-struggle-produce-graduates-scale
.
7
. Weissman, Sara. “More Than Half of Recent Four-year College Grads Underemployed.”
Inside Higher Ed
, February 22, 2024.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2024/02/22/more-half-recent-four-year-college-grads-underemployed
.
Part IChoose Quest
For the last 100 years, there was little choice at the start of our careers, and even less choice once they began. Career decisions were made early—and often were made for us. Once begun, most professional paths were linear and predictable.
Today, options abound. We can learn about more professions, access more professions, and change professions more often than ever before. That explosion of opportunity is exciting, but it can also be daunting.
How do you choose the right professional path?
1How Gamers Learned to Choose
1.1 No Choice
Today, video games train us to make challenging career choices. But it wasn't always that way. It's taken a long journey for the video game to become a medium of choice making. Long enough, in fact, that nobody can quite agree when that journey began. Pull out a calendar and pick any year you like, from the 1960s to the 1970s to the 1980s, and there's probably a case to be made. Me? I choose 1983, at the Westown Cinema.
If you wanted to paint a portrait of my childhood in Waukesha, Wisconsin, you'd only need one color: gray. Winter began around November and lasted all year long. When I wasn't at home, bundled up from the cold, I was at school, bundled up from the nuns. With an hour a day of bland bible recitation and a dress code that made Mother Theresa look like a flapper, life indoors was just as gray as life outdoors.
And then, in 1983, the Westown Cinema arrived and lit my life with color.
Looking back today, I suppose the cinema's arcade was dark and dingy and unimpressive, with soda-stained carpet and only six or so games. But, to us tweens, that arcade was a neon heaven, blinking and beeping and blaring with fun.
At its glorious center was Donkey Kong.
Released in 1981, many cite Donkey Kong as the first “platformer” game. In it, you became “Jumpman,” a heroic carpenter who jumped over barrels and ran past gaps, climbed ladders, and smashed obstacles, in an effort to rescue his girlfriend, Pauline, from her captor—a giant, sinister gorilla.
Donkey Kong impressed the heck out of us. We didn't know to want anything more. Of course, we do now.
In Donkey Kong, the goal was to defeat all your enemies and then progress to the next level, where you'd do the same thing again. When you failed, the game would reset, and you'd have to repeat the process. The idea was to get so good that you could reproduce the same successful outcome every time. You'd memorize each level, tune yourself to its rhythms, and nail down the best possible route for victory.
This was the norm for games in the early 1980s. They were all repetitive or linear or both. In the unlikely event that a game had a story, that story would be predetermined. Fixed. “On rails,” as the saying goes, referring to a train that can only go where the tracks lead it. There was no deviating. No choosing.
This was especially true of early coin-operated (coin-op) games. From the manufacturer's perspective, the point of the game was to separate people from their quarters. The game had to be short, delivering a game over quickly. And that short game had to be rewarding enough to keep you feeding the machine.
Given these objectives, little story was required. And there was certainly no time for choice or consequence. Instead, games would focus on simple, addictive mechanics, ratcheting up difficulty with every level.
Donkey Kong was just such a game. And, for that reason, it's not at all the sort of game that prepares players for decision-making in today's job market. But in 1983, Donkey Kong's hero, Jumpman, was preparing for a career change, and the industry was going to change with him. There wouldn't be a choice. Shigeru Miyamoto would see to that.
1.2 Jumpman
Donkey Kong was Shigeru Miyamoto's first major success. It had been his brain child, and it catapulted him into a legendary game design career. But when Miyamoto first entered the workforce, he didn't want to make video games at all.
Growing up in a rural Japanese village during the 1950s and 1960s, Miyamoto spent his childhood exploring forests and mountains and caves. When he wasn't out adventuring, he was building his own toys from wood and string. Slingshots. Puppets.1 So when he grew up and got a degree, he got one in industrial design. His plan: to become a toy maker.2
Nintendo was a natural first stop. By the 1970s, Nintendo had been making playthings for about a hundred years. They were Japan's leading manufacturer of playing cards, and, in the last few decades, had begun branching out to other kinds of games and gizmos. It was the perfect place for a budding toy maker.3
But by the time Miyamoto joined in 1976, Nintendo had begun down a new path—one that would lead them away from toys. They'd begun creating video games. Three years after Miyamoto joined up, Nintendo launched their first dedicated coin-op division.4 And a year after that, they ran into a crisis.
One of Nintendo's first arcade games, Radar Scope, had flopped in the United States. The game was supposed to capitalize on the success of a popular shooter by another publisher. But by the time Nintendo shipped Radar Scope to America, nobody was interested in shooters anymore. Maze games had become all the rage. Pac-Man had upended the market.5
Now Nintendo of America was sitting on two thousand arcade cabinets that it couldn't sell. These were six-foot units that, together, accounted for most of Nintendo America's budget. Plus, these cabinets were racking up a fortune in storage fees.
Nintendo's CEO turned to his team for help, and Miyamoto offered up an idea: Nintendo could retool the existing cabinets with new art and a new game. He suggested that this new game could feature three characters—Jumpman, Pauline, and a felonious gorilla.
1.3 Nintendo's Favorite Plumber
By 1983, Donkey Kong was already a hit with me and my friends and the rest of the planet. Now Nintendo was releasing Miyamoto's sequel, Mario Bros. In this new game, “Jumpman” was redubbed “Mario.” He changed careers, from carpenter to plumber, and moved to the sewers under New York City. Here, he and his brother Luigi began a new rescue mission. And it was a smash hit.
In fact, it was such a big hit that Nintendo ported the arcade game straight over to their brand-new home console. That journey from arcade to home would start Nintendo on a path toward a new kind of play experience—one that would forever alter games and the skills they teach us.
By this time, home consoles had been on the market for more than a decade, and they were seriously challenging the value proposition of coin-ops. From a business perspective, home consoles eliminated the intermediaries between publishers and players. Now publishers could pocket more money on every transaction. And from my perspective, it was a lot easier to play games at home than to brave the Wisconsin winter, trudging out to the Westown Cinema arcade.
But more important than either of those considerations was the simple fact that console games promised to be better. Initially, publishers tried to duplicate and port arcade games, but the most successful console games took the medium somewhere new.
Because players could return to their home consoles as often as their parents allowed, these games could introduce more depth. Games might still be “on rails,” telling one fixed story without any deviations from playthrough to playthrough, but now in-game events could accumulate to deliver a more sophisticated experience.
Nintendo's leadership understood that they couldn't rely on ported arcade games forever. If a game was moving to the home console, it needed to offer something more. So, in fall 1984, a little less than one year after the Westown Cinema opened, they directed Shigeru Miyamoto to begin production on a sequel to Mario Bros. This new game would introduce larger levels and more complex mechanics. It would take advantage of the home console format to level up the game, from Mario Bros. to Super Mario Bros.
As if the pressure to create one stellar, super-seller, all-time classic wasn't enough, Nintendo approached Miyamoto with a second ask during that same year. Nintendo planned to release a hardware add-on for their console that would enable players to save progress at a much larger scale. The executives wondered: while working on Super Mario, could Miyamoto simultaneously create an entirely new game that would demonstrate the value of this second device?
