Contemplating a foray into a 3-D virtual w...

Contemplating a foray into a 3-D virtual world such as Second Life? Don't miss tomorrow's 11 a.m. keynote presentation, "Want to Learn Online? Get a Second Life," given by Claudia L'Amoreaux of Second Life creator Linden Lab. Second Life is changing the way people learn in universities, businesses, and their homes. It's also changing the way people look for jobs.

Organized by New York-based recruitment advertisement agency TMP Worldwide, two virtual job fairs were held this year—one in May and one in August—in Second Life for the first time. For both events, potential job candidates went to a screening job site to register, request interviews with listed employers, and submit their resumes. The first event drew 150 candidates. Each candidate registered in Second Life, created his or her own avatar, and attended the job fair at the virtual complex built by TMP specifically for the fair.

At that complex, candidate avatars met for interviews with recruiters from the participating companies. "It makes the interview process more fun and relaxed," says Louis Vong, vice president of interactive strategy for TMP, and helps companies avoid the costs of renting a physical booth or paying for space in a hotel or convention center (although there are one-time development costs for creating the company's space in-world). Plus, companies are not limited to the geographical region of a physical fair. Vong points out that one participating company, Microsoft, gets 30,000 resumes every month—and yet in the May fair, some candidates the company ended up hiring were not in Microsoft's database. For more information on Second Life and other virtual worlds, check out "Virtual Vision" on www.trainingmag.com.