Sunday, March 30, 2008

Get the Job by Blogging

I found it funny that my assigned class reading for this week's blog entry had to do with employment. The one thing I have become concerned about for these upcoming months. Graduation is approaching and so is the question: what do you plan to do now with your life?

My responses have become a list of ideas or plans that have not yet become determined as my course of action. I am starting to feel like I should come up with some generic response like, “I plan to fly a kite.” It’s short and sweet.

I like that response but it doesn’t address the point I plan to make. In the search for that job or THE job, we discover we need to find a way to differentiate ourselves from our fellow competitors. One might think canceling or deleting their social networking site pages would help, but would it? Does it matter? Are they going to be able to get past my privacy settings? OR Do I need to set-up a blog resume?

Joshua Porter believes it is a good idea and says, “Your blog . . . represents you, is serious business, is an archive, isn’t the only mirror of your life and is your unedited version of yourself.” He makes some very good points but, I cannot fully agree with him. I question the belief that a blog is a pure representation of oneself. With people creating alternative lives online in social networks, then what’s stopping them from creating a fake blog? I know, fake blogging is a bit of a stretch but my point is people could be blog posers. An example of a blogger that made it big but could have been set for disaster is Glenn Kelman.

To be honest, the way to succeed in getting hired comes down to the company, occupation, market and the person hiring the employees. It depends on whether they are tech savvy or more conservative in their approach to technology. In time, people may find blogging a way to get hired or the thing to give them an edge on the competition.

For all those looking for jobs, this video interview gives some good insight into what I have talked about:

3 comments:

Kendra said...

I agree that it may not be the best representation of yourself. It also depends why you are blogging. If you just blog about your life and thoughts, you could easily have a bad day and say something that isn't like you. I also don't think that your beliefs should represent how you would do at your job 100%. If a company is going to look at your blog as a representation, use it as one of many, including your resume, your personality, etc... One isn't more important than the other, its the culmination of them all together. You're more likely to get a representation of a person by looking at multiple levels.

Deepak Shahani said...

I think you have to be careful about the kind of blog you write. There can be very personal blogs, that are purely social and talk about your interests, thoughts, and how your day went: basically your life. And then there are blogs which are focused on a topic such as an environmental issue, technology, your job etc.

I think if you have a reputation to maintain, and you have a senior position in a company or organization, you might be more careful of what you put on your blog because you have a lot of responsibility to your stakeholders. For example, if you are a manager or CEO, you have a responsibility to your customers, employees, business partners, and the community. Therefore you would be very careful of the kind of image you are sending out.

Timur Khalif said...

The whole issue of your blog representing you scares me too. I completely agree that your blog is not the best representation of you because it all depends on the reason for your blogging. Since I am just blogging for a class, I don't intend anything I say to be an actual representation of me and that is why I was shocked to find out that my blog can be a presentation of who I am. The main message is to be careful with what you write because in the long run it can come back and bite you in the behind.