My Job Search as a Board Game

I’m bored and unemployed. I have an over-active imagination and like to make things complicated by over-planning. All of this is a dangerous combination.

All of this is why I’d like to start a new trend: treating the mundane job search like a board game. You can also choose Life, Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippos, or anything that brings out your competitive streak. My game is Risk.

Here’s how I’m going to play: I’ll start at the bottom of South America and work my way around the board depending on what jobs I apply to. The goal is to get Australia. (Sweet, innocent Australia.) Each continent represents a type of company. For others playing the game, each might represent a city, a pay amount, or a title. Depending on where I apply, I may drift over to Africa or head into North America. My over-planning gave me such a headache with this, but it worked out.

I’m not sure yet what if I’ll do anything with the lines in the bottom left corner. Something victorious, I’ll bet.(image source: boardgamegeek.com) 

Because I suck at physically applying for these jobs, I’m going to treat each application like a battle. My battles will be listed in their respective territories. For each interview I receive, I’ll “win” that territory. If I get a job out of this, well, then we’re all winners.

I know this isn’t how real Risk is played. Some things have to be changed for the job hunt. Because getting an interview in itself feels like a victory among the many unanswered applications I send out, I’m excited to find out how many territories I’ll win by the end of this.

Here’s my success so far (click to enlarge):

I have won one territory out of three battles.
Job titles are blurred for the companies’ protection.

In the above picture, you see I’ve applied to jobs with a strategy in mind. Knowing I had more interest in Africa than North America, I made it a priority to apply to the Brazilian territory of South America right after I applied to Argentina. This way, I can move on to Africa before South America is filled completely. After I go into Africa, I can choose to fill it before moving on to Europe or Asia. What I decide to do depends on how things in Africa are going. At the very least, once I’ve applied to “North Africa” I can decide to move into Europe, if I so desire.

Are there bugs? Of course. I have no idea yet what Australia will be. Maybe it will be a “fuckitall” round, the antithesis of a planned job search. By the time I reach Australia, I hope to have waged battles in as much of the other continents as possible.

Also, I’m trying to figure out if I should do anything with additional troop numbers. Maybe use them as rewards when I fill up the continents? I don’t even know.

If your job search were a board game, what would it look like? What would be your plan of attack?

Posted by befferkins in Adventures in Unemployment Tags: board games, risk