When people's avatars enter Second Life to interview for real world jobs, the traditional job interview dress rules no longer apply.

"They certainly dress differently," said Kathleen Battle (Delaney Kayo in Second Life), Director or Professional and Technical Staffing for US Cellular, a national wireless company that participated in the second "Network in World" Job Fair on Second Life hosted by TMP Worldwide, an independent recruitment advertising agency. "I have seen no suits, but I also think there is an understanding that creativity and style is more important than conservative dress."

US Cellular carved out space on TMP Island along with EMC Corporation, GE Money and Accenture to hold interviews for jobs ranging from financial services, information technology, telecommunications and sales to management applications development, business development, business analysis, and customer service. The major corporations set up flashy office buildings manned with avatars of their key human resources personnel to conduct three days of job interviews in-world.

"Second Life adds a new medium to EMC's powerful recruitment tool set," said Polly Pearson (Fabulous Lane in SL), VP of Employment Brand and Strategy Engagement for EMC Corporation, an information management and storage company. "It is an immediate way to connect with a progressive, innovative, and technology-savvy audience without regard to geographic boundaries."

The first Job Fair on Second Life took place in May 2007 with Microsoft, Sodexho, Verizon, T-Mobile, eBay and HP seeking suitable candidates through in-world interviews. At the first job fair, 91 percent of the more 36,000 visitors to the Network in World (NiW) site were from the United States, according to TMP. Of those, 872 were registered job seekers,750 requested interviews and 144 of the job seekers were interviewed.

"We are still in the early adoption phase, but we feel that as the technology improves and access becomes more mainstream, SL and virtual worlds like it can be a great additional tool for employers to meet with job seekers," said Louis Vong (Mason Tesio in SL), VP of Interactive Strategy for TMP Worldwide. "It's not going to replace the face-to-face recruiting, but it's a great way to initiate first contact." Vong added that job seekers seem to enjoy the flexibility of interviewing in a virtual world.

To source candidates for the in-world interviews, job seekers were directed to a microsite (www.networkinworld.jobs) where they could opt to participate in the job fair as part of an overall employment application process.

"Once they arrived at the Web site, they could learn about the event and what to expect as well as view the open jobs of each employer participating,"  Vong said. "They then signed up for an interview and uploaded their resume.