In the midst of interviewing for MBA Internships, I was just pointed to an interesting new way to use Second Life…as a way to recruit employees.

You have to think that Second Life, the popular virtual world would attract a certain type of recruit but according to the UK’s Guardian, it’s working. Over 2,000 people reportedly showed up for a UK-centric virtual job fair where applicants enjoyed the ability to interview via text chat without regard to race, ethnicity or appearance.

Keep in mind this is the same virtual world where you find new users flying around completely sans-clothing.

Still though, I like this idea for first interviews. Many occur over the phone, anyway, so what better way to pre-screen for skills and comprehension than with an avatar that may or may not look nothing like the applicant?

The challenge I find with this is that ultimately appearance does play a huge role in communicating whether or not you are qualified for the job. Recruiters that are interested in using this have to decide if its a novelty or if the cost savings of conducting interviews this way will outweigh the time they will spend weeding out applicants that…let’s just say may not fit the culture of your company.

Let’s settle this with a BRANDstorming poll:

Technorati Tags: BRANDstorming, Marketing Diner, Second Life, Second Life Recruiting