Minds at Play hires its staff by asking them to run a game

The job interview at Minds at Play is a game. Dwayne Fernandes, the organisation’s co founder, told Think Autism Sydney in May 2025 that candidates for its games master roles are asked to run a game, and are judged on how well they do it. For Dungeons and Dragons, he said, the interview is the game. “And if it’s to quality that we can teach you how to fill out paperwork then you have a job”, he said. The other training, in managing a remote group of neurodivergent players, keeping them on camera and engaged, and keeping the session psychologically safe, comes afterwards.

Fernandes set his service against Hotel Etico, the live in training hotel described earlier on the same panel, and called it what would appear to be the opposite model. Minds at Play is entirely online. Its staff work remotely, and its players live across Australia. He said 658 of them were enrolled that term, in learning programs built around Dungeons and Dragons, Minecraft and miniature painting, taught remotely and in their own safe space. He employed key people in Ballarat and Toowoomba and had sometimes met staff in person only after they had worked for him for six months to a year.