The virtual world of recruiting

It is becoming increasingly common to use virtual world technology as a recruitment tool, but is this really going to be the recruitment platform of tomorrow? Heidi Innes explains.

The use of virtual worlds as a recruitment tool has been much hyped of late – TMP hosted the UK's first ever 'virtual world' careers fair last year; Kelly Services launched its own island in Second Life; and GCHQ, the government intelligence organisation, has been advertising in online gaming to tempt web-savvy graduates to become spies.

But how is it possible and what does it mean to use virtual worlds as a recruitment tool? Is this wave of technology really going to dwarf social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace? Is it merely an over-hyped media gimmick or the next evolution of the web?