Yahoo Finance Cool job alert: What it's like to be a 13-year-old 'chief play officer'
Imagine landing the job of your dreams at 11 years old, travelling the country, and retiring with a house full of new toys and a long list of provinces visited under your belt. That dream became a reality when Alex Thorne put together an audition tape in 2013 and earned the coveted title of “Canada’s Chief Play Officer” for Toys “R” Us Canada. His video and enthusiasm caught the attention of the right people, giving him CPO status and big responsibility. Testing new toys and games, conducting reviews, and travelling across the country as a Toys “R” Us spokesperson are all in a days’ work for Alex Thorne, CPO.
“I would test the toys and then go on different interviews and go talk about the toys,” Thorne says of the position. “I just explain what’s really awesome about them, because most of them are pretty awesome. I’ve never encountered a toy that I didn’t like.”
Thorne says that while all toys and games are great, he certainly has a few stand-out favourites, like Skylanders Trap Team, a video game that he reviewed as hands down his “favourite game of all time.” He added the game to the top of his collection of games and toys that were sent to his house throughout his time as CPO.
“I get to keep every single toy that Toys “R” Us sends me, it’s pretty awesome,” he says. “A lot of the toys aren’t necessarily for me, so I gave some of the toys to my friends, but I donated a large majority of them.”
Ever the toy-enthusiast, Thorne’s reviews may have come off more complimentary than critical.
“When it comes to toys, I’m not very picky. When it comes to food, I can’t say the same thing at all.”
While trying out mountains of toys and games may seem like the best part of the gig, Thorne insists that while that part was obviously cool, his favourite assigned task was the travel.
“I’d like to say the toys because they were really awesome, but that’s not actually true,” Thorne says. “I really liked the travelling portion because I got to travel all over Canada. I got to sightsee in places like Vancouver and Montreal that I’ve never been before so it’s a really great experience.”
Thorne will be retiring at the end of the year at the age of 14, and the next person to take on the role has some big shoes to fill.
“It’s sad but I can live with it,” he says. “I’ll let someone else have a turn with a really awesome job.”
Awesome it is: the next Chief Play Officer will be inducted into the position in December, just in time for the holiday rush. Kids aged 11-13 from across Canada are encouraged to try out by submitting their own videos highlighting their favourite toys and games to try to take over the spot. Applicants are encouraged to be creative and comfortable in front of a camera.
“My video was like ‘a day in the life’ sort of thing,” Thorne says of his audition tape. “I was doing some toy related things and I was acting like a business man just as a joke. I was pretending to make important business calls, so that’s what I did.”
Thorne has some sage advice for any kid looking to follow in his footsteps.
“Don’t look online or see other people’s videos and try and take aspects of those,” he says. “Try and come up with your own video and submit it to Toysrus.ca/cposearch and then hope that you get picked for an interview and if you do, your video must have been awesome. If you don’t, the video might be awesome, but there were awesome-er videos.”
So what’s next for Alex Thorne, normal kid? He’s starting high school and looking toward future goals once he hangs up his CPO hat.
“I think I’m going to go down my math and science path because I really like math and science.”
While ‘astronaut,’ ‘superhero’ and ‘tiger tamer’ may seem like a kids’ dream job, ‘toy and game tester’ is a pretty close second, and one that is much more likely to become a reality. Applications can be submitted until October 4 at toysrus.ca/cposearch for kids interested in becoming the next “Chief Play Officer.”
