From Counterstrike to Valorant, one of the most well-known video game genres for gamers of all ages is First-person Shooters (FPS).
What are FPS games? As its name implies, FPS games involve shooting or meleeing targets and are played from the character’s perspective. It can be played as a single-player or with multi-players; and in various modes like deathmatches, bomb, team deathmatch, and base assault.
Besides being fun and exciting, there are also plenty of benefits to playing first-person games. It enhances your reflexes, hones your problem-solving skills, and develops attention to detail.
Another much more surprising benefit that FPS games provide is career lessons. And no, unfortunately, this doesn’t include blasting annoying bosses and co-workers.
What are these career lessons you can learn from FPS games? Here are some of them.
Always Strive to Be a Teamplayer.
When you’re playing multiplayer FPS games, playing alone and going Rambo is a great way to get eliminated.
Yes, you probably have the reflexes and aim to beat the enemy team, but if they gang up on you, you won’t stand a chance.
In addition, there are some game modes, such as Bomb or Capture the Flag, that require more than just eliminating the opposing team.
Similarly, in the remote workspace, you can’t do everything alone. No matter how talented you are, there will be times when you will need to collaborate with others.
That’s why you should strive to establish good rapport with your co-workers. Doing so improves your team’s productivity by smoothing the working relationship between you and your co-workers.
Focus on Your Objectives.
One common pitfall for many gamers playing FPS games is tunnel vision. For many of these gamers, they fixate on racking up kills and getting to the top of the leaderboard.
Additionally, when you play the old FPS games, you either achieve your objectives or remain stuck at that level. Thus, another of the career lessons you can learn from FPS games is to keep your eyes on the prize, so to speak.
Regularly reflect on why you work so hard. Is it because you need more money? Are you doing it to support your family? To get closer to your future career goals?
Focusing on your objectives will motivate you to work harder and to stay on track in spite of distractions.
Cheaters Never Prosper.
When I was a kid, one of the reasons why FPS games were so popular was because many of them were free. And there was this one free online game I played for a long time which allowed you to keep all the guns you purchased permanently.
But no matter how fun the game was, what made us quit this game were the cheaters. These cheaters made the game so boring and frustrating to play that many other players also ended up leaving the game.
So sure, cheaters may win in the short run. But over time, as the player base dwindled, the only people they got to play with were their fellow cheaters.
Though you may not encounter co-workers with wall-hacks or aimbots, you will definitely come across those who will be toxic for your career advancement. Colleagues like these will use underhanded tricks to get ahead of others.
Yes, they may succeed for some time, at least. But in the long run, their behavior will catch up with them, and their co-workers will come to avoid interacting or collaborating with them.
So, no matter how tempted you get, never emulate these co-workers. There are many ways to advance your career without underhanded tricks.
Utilize Your Resources Well.
In any FPS, you are given a fixed amount of ammo, grenades, health, or time at the beginning with which to finish your mission or win the round.
Of course, there are also games where you can replenish your resources or gain new ones from fallen enemies. However, there are games where this isn’t possible, and you have to make do with what you were given.
In these games, whoever can best utilize their limited resources and have better positioning and aim wins. You use your resources to gain control of the map and force the enemy team to play at a disadvantage.
And just like in these games, there will be days when you will have to achieve more with fewer resources at work. This could be finishing a vital report within the day- or seeing a project through with a limited budget.
Thus, you must know how to make the most of your limited resources. This involves reducing waste and knowing what to prioritize.
Don’t Let Others Drag You Down With Their Words.
When playing FPS games, especially the older ones, trash-talking can occur. These range from insults regarding one’s skill, parentage, etc., to accusations of cheating or hacking. It could go from harmless teasing among friends to fights erupting, especially if the person trash-talking is next to you at the computer shop.
Besides mocking you, another reason people trash-talk is to distract you. And when you lose your focus, you might end up making novice mistakes.
Although your boss and co-workers won’t insult you at work (at least not to your face), you may encounter criticism from them.
When this happens, try not to get demoralized. Instead, assess why your boss or co-worker criticized you and determine if it’s constructive. This way, you’ll be able to work on your shortcomings and also learn how to take such remarks in stride.
Learn the Pace Best-suited for You.
Depending on what FPS game you’re playing and your teammates, you may need to adjust your pace to win.
Some games, like Doom or Wolfenstein, require you to play aggressively, where you’re mostly running and gunning. Others require a more careful approach, where you scan the map and locate the best possible route, such as in Rainbow Six: Siege. Of course, you can also run and gun in these games with the right teammates.
So how does this relate to your career? Remember that one of the best ways to avoid burning yourself out from work is learning how to properly pace yourself. Finding your own pace enables you to achieve more tasks with less stress.
Alright, Let’s Go!
Moving your career forward is a long and challenging process that requires constant self-reflection and practice. Fortunately, there are many media that you can use to help things along. These range from books, podcasts, videos, and… video games?
Yep, that’s right. From the points above, you can clearly see that you can also learn career lessons from playing FPS games. So the next time someone chides you for playing too much CSGO or Valorant, just tell them you’re trying to learn new ways to improve your career.
If you’re still looking for online jobs to test what you’ve learned, Remote Staff is here to help. Our jobs list has a wide range of available positions for you to choose from, so you’ll never run out of options. GLHF!
