Want a New Job? Try Fighting a Virtual Fire Before Putting on the Heavy Suit - and You Won't Get Burned

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 23, 2008 -- Have you ever wanted to fight a fire, though you weren't so sure how you'd do with the 70 pounds of protective gear, oxygen mask and fire axe? Is your dream to help cure disease, but perhaps you're not so comfortable with beakers and lab coats? Via a new innovate program from interactive ad firm TheSLAgency, Second Life users can now practice a handful of public service jobs - including role-playing as a firefighter, civil engineer, medical technician, and more - all virtually, before donning the heavy suit or hard hat.

The interactive career experience, built to showcase the range of jobs available in Canada's provincial Ontario Public Service, allows users to fight virtual fires, to analyze traffic patterns using live video feeds from throughout Ontario, and to virtually test water samples for pathogens and other nasty things. The goal? To create a better awareness for the breadth of jobs in one of Canada's most exciting provinces.

The attraction is open 24/7 in the virtual world, and allows users to self-select the tasks they'd like to do. Once users have experienced the range of experiences available to them in Second Life, they can choose to be contacted in the real world to obtain more information about a job or to arrange for an interview. Second Life, an online, 3D social network, is home to the experience, and all users need do is sign up for a free account, and teleport themselves to the OPS Careers Island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/OPS%20Careers/122/129/27/?img=http%3A//modernepromotions.com/OPS/DiscoverOPSad512d.jpg&title=Teleport%20to%20OPS%20Careers), a part of the Activ8 Island Complex owned and operated by TheSLAgency.

The interactive shop organized the virtual experience in Second Life as a part of their strategy to bring other government and public service clients into the virtual world. Managing Partner Joe Mastrocovi notes: "No longer do job seekers have to be bored by static websites explaining what jobs they could have; the virtual world offers us the opportunity to create virtual experiences for people so they know instantly whether this type of job is suitable for them."

In the coming weeks and months, the Second Life marketing (http://www.theslagency.com) firm plans on launching other public service, government and non-profit client experiences as part of its new Business-to-Business Second Life strategy.

While Second Life has received some unenthusiastic press recently for lukewarm brand marketing successes in the virtual space, these innovative recruitment programs, and other TheSLAgency B2B programs produce positive, tangible results. Mastrocovi notes that the Second Life presence is expected to produce hundreds of inquiries to the public service careers portal, and that many inquiries will lead to the public learning more about the diverse array of public service career opportunities available to them. "Frankly, for the amount of time, energy and money it takes to produce a Second Life experience like this one to recruit and hire people, there is no more cost effective way to find and recruit - and secure - skilled candidates online."

Please click here to visit the Ontario Public Service Careers Island (http://slurl.com/secondlife/OPS%20Careers/122/129/27/?img=http%3A//modernepromotions.com/OPS/DiscoverOPSad512d.jpg&title=Teleport%20to%20OPS%20Careers) in Second Life.

For more information on TheSLAgency, please visit www.TheSLAgency.com (http://www.theslagency.com)

About TheSLAgency -- Backed by Moderne Promotions, the nation's most effective nightlife and event marketing firm (http://www.modernepromotions.com), TheSLAgency is an interactive marketing agency that creates unique integrated marketing experiences in virtual worlds and in the real world. TheSLAgency builds real relationships between consumers and brands, by combining real world events with virtual world experiences. These fully integrated brand experiences are the key to creating lasting impressions and relationships with discerning consumers of the 21st century.

###