Forget poker’s bad reputation! The popular U.S. card game is taking off in France, where it has morphed into a recruiting tool.
Since 2008, poker has spawned imitators in France. Online games are multiplying and clubs are flourishing. This trend has not gone unnoticed by recruiters, who are now starting to surf the wave. Computer services firm Datavance was the first to exploit this niche in 2008, when it organized a poker tournament for its first recruiting evening in order to appeal to engineers working in the finance, telecom and infrastructure fields. Christened the Datavance Poker Tour 2008, the event was attended by 50 engineering professionals who liked the originality of the concept.
This year, two new players have chosen to bet on poker. In mid-September, GFI, another computer company, hosted a Speed Recruiting Poker evening in Nantes, featuring an initiation to the game as well as a tournament, in order to recruit some 100 engineers in western France. GFI, which plans to hire 1,000 new engineers this year, chose poker for its play value and because it quickly provides a glimpse of the players’ personalities.
The former was what made Agence H, a subsidiary of the Havas group, jump on the bandwagon. The advertising agency has organized a poker tournament on November 26 to recruit its future interns. The agency believes that the analytical skills, ability to anticipate, resistance to stress, strategy and negotiating skills mastered by poker players are also useful in advertising.