Leadership Experience Question

[VeggieTrex]

This might be a little silly, but I was wondering if running a Dungeons and Dragons game counts as leadership experience. For a little bit of context, I have been running a D&D campaign for a few months now and my duties include wrangling my players into (mostly) weekly sessions, writing and executing the story, answering questions, and keeping the flow of the game going. I don't want to overstate how much work I put in, but it is 3-4 hours a week including game time. It's definitely something that I've already learned a lot from, and I definitely feel like it's good experience. Would this be good to put on an application, or does it look 'unprofessional' because it's D&D?

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[supershorty]

I would not consider that as leadership experience, personally.

Will be curious to see what others say.

 

[VeggieTrex]

I would not consider that as leadership experience, personally.

Will be curious to see what others say.

I'm also leaning towards no, but I think there are interesting arguments on both sides.

 

[genny]

This might be a little silly, but I was wondering if running a Dungeons and Dragons game counts as leadership experience. For a little bit of context, I have been running a D&D campaign for a few months now and my duties include wrangling my players into (mostly) weekly sessions, writing and executing the story, answering questions, and keeping the flow of the game going. I don't want to overstate how much work I put in, but it is 3-4 hours a week including game time. It's definitely something that I've already learned a lot from, and I definitely feel like it's good experience. Would this be good to put on an application, or does it look 'unprofessional' because it's D&D?

I don’t know that I’d put it as leadership experience since it’s pretty low-stakes in terms of whether anyone actually follows your lead. But I think it’s good to include as a hobby, and can be mentioned in terms of keeping a good work-life balance.

 

[supershorty]

I don’t know that I’d put it as leadership experience since it’s pretty low-stakes in terms of whether anyone actually follows your lead. But I think it’s good to include as a hobby, and can be mentioned in terms of keeping a good work-life balance.

Yeah, agreed with genny.

Could be an interesting thing to talk about in interviews, too.

 

[Trilt]

I also would not put as leadership experience. But I personally put several hobbies in on VMCAS and would definitely consider it there, with a short statement that highlights the coordination and planning components.

 

[VeggieTrex]

So to ask an obvious follow up, what does count as leadership experience?

 

[katiemcat]

So to ask an obvious follow up, what does count as leadership experience?

Positions of leadership in sports, student organizations/clubs, volunteering, or work experience where you are appointed/elected to lead, oversee, and guide others because of your leadership skills.

 

[VeggieTrex]

To pose one more question, if I were to run for local office but lost the election where would that end up? It is something I'm heavily considering doing and am curious where the line is with a situation like that.

Obviously ending up in an elected position is leadership experience, but do I have to like make it to the general to count? Is just running enough?

 

[supershorty]

To pose one more question, if I were to run for local office but lost the election where would that end up?

You wouldn't have held a leadership position in this scenario, so while it's admirable and something that I think you could incorporate into your essays/interviews with what you learned from it, I wouldn't count it as leadership experience.

From my perspective, when I want to know about an applicant's leadership experience, I want to see how they handle making decisions that are going to affect other people, how they work with a team, do they delegate or are they more of a hero-syndrome "I do everything" type, and what positive change they can bring to whatever organization they're leading.

Does that help clarify things a bit?

 

[VeggieTrex]

To offer a tiny amount of push back, I do think working closely with campaign staff, managing them, deciding what direction to take, how to campaign, which groups to target, ect is fairly involved and it would still be a team I'm leading, ya know?

I don't disagree necessarily, I just think running a campaign and all the things that come with it are a little more involved than where we started this thread. Like if I were a dedicated campaign manager that would fit the definition above, but the person running takes on an additional level of responsibility with everything.

I do think this particular scenario is a bit odd, and hopefully if I do run I win and won't need to split hairs on if being a candidate is leadership in any form or not.

 

[ejblue]

To offer a tiny amount of push back, I do think working closely with campaign staff, managing them, deciding what direction to take, how to campaign, which groups to target, ect is fairly involved and it would still be a team I'm leading, ya know?

I don't disagree necessarily, I just think running a campaign and all the things that come with it are a little more involved than where we started this thread. Like if I were a dedicated campaign manager that would fit the definition above, but the person running takes on an additional level of responsibility with everything.

I do think this particular scenario is a bit odd, and hopefully if I do run I win and won't need to split hairs on if being a candidate is leadership in any form or not.

At the end of the day, you can put whatever you want on your application. We’re just advising based on our own experiences lol

 

[genny]

To pose one more question, if I were to run for local office but lost the election where would that end up? It is something I'm heavily considering doing and am curious where the line is with a situation like that.

Obviously ending up in an elected position is leadership experience, but do I have to like make it to the general to count? Is just running enough?

Well running for office isn’t a super high bar in terms of effort, you just need to jump through the hoops to get on the ballot. Whether you actually go further and campaign, and organize a group of people to campaign for you, that’s different. But are these people paid? Or just friends and friends of friends who are helping you out? I don’t think I’d be bragging about leadership skills in the latter scenario.

I do think it can be documented under community service/involvement, particularly if you have other similar things that show you’re interested in local action. Like my city has an arts committee, library committee, etc. and university students interested in government often contribute to these.

Not everyone starts vet school with a bunch of leadership skills already honed and ready to go. I think it’s better to emphasize your strengths than to overembellish. But if you’re really running a local campaign with media coverage and debates and the whole nine yards, then sure, put that as leadership skills regardless of the outcome.

 

[VeggieTrex]

This has been a really informative thread! I still think the lines may be a little blurry. I don't intend on overexaggerating any experience but it's helpful to keep in mind as I'm thinking back on experiences I've had.

I probably won't bring up running for any specific office this forum because I don't want to dox myself, but I'm definitely planning on it. It's good experience regardless of the outcome, and I want to help out my community in any way I can. Plus I get to meet new people!