Can Blogs = Jobs?
Posted by Mike Bijon April 19, 2006
The Boston Globe article “Blogs ‘essential’ to a good career“ makes some excellent points about why spending time writing web “articles” and “commentary” is worth far more than some small amount of income from running AdSense advertising. Nonetheless, I have to disagree with their main points, as already summarized by Tom Raferty’s “‘Gis a job!”:
- Blogging creates a network
- Blogs set you up as an expert in your field
- Blogs give you a leg up when you meet someone new
These primary points are accurate, but take little account of: a) most job-seekers don’t promote themselves well/professionally in their resumes (…won’t “personal” blogs end up even less professional?); and b) most employers aren’t actively seeking candidates on the “open” web. Nonetheless, Tom Raferty appears to be both bright and relatively professional based on my readings of his blog - but he’s still not getting any job offers from that exposure. To tell the truth, he would have been a great candidate for a position as a director of IT that I was just working with a client to help fill. If not for the fact that Tom lives in Ireland and the position is in Los Angeles, I still probably wouldn’t have contacted him because I neither had his feed on my reading list nor did I know he was looking for a job. Truth be told, my client and I didn’t put in enough time to search to blogosphere well.
Most jobs are filled with willing employees and aren’t worth spending that job’s entire annual salary just to find and entice “one” perfect candidate. Where should we have started anyway? Most good bloggers are intelligent and discuss a variety of topics, mkaing it even harder to narrow down the search to “the one”. The blogosphere is a big, messy community and even blogger profiles on Technorati (the first place I would have looked) are poor replacements for a resume sent in by an interested candidate. Had I even considered seeking bloggers for that recent employee search, cold-emailing bloggers to see if they’re interested in a certain job - without an accurate measure of the bloggers’ employment desires or location/relocation plans - would just be a waste of time for any job not paying in the top 2%. And, if a job is paying in the top 2% of all jobs out there - then it stands to reason that there are just two or three A-list bloggers who are worth making egregious offers to.
(Blogger/skill directory anyone?)
Update, 4/20/2006: It looks like someone is already working on a system that could be as extensible enough to provide a skills directory, and more, at ClaimID (found via Cloudalicious, from a search on tagging statistics). ClaimID is the first resource I’ve seen for aggregating and annotating information about someone (although without a way to verify the identities on ClaimID there’s still a question as to the authenticity of the data there). ClaimID should prove useful if people actually adopt it. Personally I think ClaimID and sites like it will just lead to “web tool” overload and prefer the idea of an open protocol for sending/receiving identity or trust info - so that everything can be integrated into whatever tools (Outlook, GMail, Wordpress, etc.) or web sites that I do choose to use.
Mike Bijon: I work as senior technology manager and technologist for 
Mike - to an extent you are correct - most employers have never heard of Technorati or Google’s Blog Search so they won’t use those tools. The point I took from the Boston Globe article was that by virtue of the fact that you have a blog, you are far more visible in a normal Google search.
So, if I apply for a job (along with 20 others) and the employer Googles all 21 applicants, the employer will find far more info about me on the web and hopefully this will increase my chances of getting the job.
I just decided to take it a step further on my blog and see if anyone knew of anything going. Many people who know me or read my blog probably do, but presume I am not looking, so I decided the blog was a good way to get the message out there.
I agree Tom, and you’re right on both points.
Despite my admitted lack of using blogs for that recent job search I did use Google once I had everything narrowed down to 6-8 good candidates. The resumes associated with a web presence were a lot easier to trust (…and, incidentally, to contact via either email or phone).
As for advertising that you’re looking for a job on your blog - that’s a great thing, because you never know who is reading your blog. It’s also a bad thing if your current employer won’t take kindly to you seeking other offers (common here in CA, US and with narrow-minded employers/HR departments). However, since a current employer already knows your name - they’re more likely to be reading your blog than any “single” employer you could pikc out of a hat. So, I think the net result of advertising that you’re available is good if your current employer allows it - and VERY bad if not.
Mike, you are absolutely correct - blogging for employment is only a good idea if you are 1) unemployed, 2) working for yourself 3) after handing in your notice or 4) employed by some very understanding employer!