Ok, I admit it. I am using this post just as a way to be able to put in cool pictures of futuristic cars and shapely avatars in thigh high boots. But it’s relevant I would insist vainly.

The issue in question is Second Life, and for those who have spent the last 5 years on Planet X, this is an online world that your kids or younger siblings have adopted as, well, their second or virtual life. The site allows you to travel around and meet people, perform financial transactions with Linden Dollars, give lectures, attend concerts, exchange money and even get intimate. It’s 3D and as immersive as a Playstation II game.

It already being used effectively for training and development by IBM, but now second life allows you to get a job in the real world. The jobs are still connected to the virtual world of course but the first step has been taken. Now all it needs is some bright thing to take it further.

For some reason this has reminded me of the story about how the very first cars had to be preceded by a man with a flag in case they ’scared the horses’. Second life is further along than that for recruiting but you can see there is a long way to go, and great possibilities. Sourcing candidates in Second Life is an obvious next step, when the current base of users extends beyond the creative and techie crowd.

When the connectivity is better in China we should see high rates of adoption for Second Life, similar to those of World of Warcraft which boasts over 600,000 users in the China.

Soon we could be looking at a virtual interview room for your company on Second Life. The recruiter would be always there and would have the ability to call in a virtual line manager as needed. Scheduling might be an issue if the hiring is country to country but people operating in a virtual world are just as good at managing their time as they are in the real world. So this should not be an actual barrier to implementation.

Given enough time and you might see a situation where people, and companies, would insist on doing virtual candidate interviews before doing the face to face version. The cost and convenience implications are huge.

If you are going to waste time on unsuitable candidates, why not do it from the comfort of your PC?.

CNN has more details…..