I’ve often wished that my gaming skills would land me a swanky job (they kind of have, being that I write here), as I’m guessing a lot of gamers have. The British government wants to grant that wish, and it’s using Xbox Live to do a little recruiting. According the UK’s Guardian, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) will be running ads in Call of Duty (presumably MW2), Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin’s Creed II to try to attract “quick-thinking 18- to 34-year-olds to its ranks.”

Not only will the agency be running ads, it will be using the games to monitor a players teamwork, problem-solving skills, and mental acuity. To be honest, I think the old GCHQ could use a mental acuity test. This thing sounds great from the inside, but for the people who have to monitor the candidates of this job hunt, it will probably be a nightmare. Imagine all of the dreck you’d have to swim through just to find a decent, motivated candidate. No offense, gamers, but we come from all walks of life, and my guess is that the pool of players has a similar thoughtless-blob-to-productive-genius ratio to the rest of the world.

The GCHQ sees it differently, though. “…the fact remains that many potential candidates remain unaware of GCHQ and what we do. Using video on Xbox LIVE helps carry our message to the right people in a creative and innovative manner.” Whatever you say, spokeswoman. Just don’t put me on the search committee.

Source: Guardian

A couple of interesting job postings went up for Microsoft this week, including positions for both Project Natal and Halo development. Don’t worry, fanboys, those are separate positions. No one’s diluting your competitive gameplay just yet.

The Halo listings are for designers, AI developers, animators, and a multiplayer game design lead. The Natal listings didn’t specifically mention a game or IP for the position, but at least one mentions “a large franchise.” That could mean, well, anything. Another of the Natal positions is for “an excellent next-generation” type thing, which again could be anything, just probably not something we would have seen or heard anything about.

Joystiq got in touch with Major Nelson to confirm that the posts are real. They are. That’s all he would say.