Professional lubricant
Jeremy Zawodny wrote a really interesting post the other day about how blogs may help smart folks get jobs. I think he’s right on the money, but I also think he overlooks the dark side.
Here’s an analogy. I recently sold a riding lawnmower online for a friend. I made a dorky little website with pictures and information and then posted it on the Portland Craigslist and on pdxforsale. It sold in under 12 hours. It wasn’t exactly a rock-bottom price, either. I know it would have sold with just a plain text ad on those same sites, but the pictures and extra explanation really fleshed out the context for potential buyers. They had fewer questions and as a result, my friend only got calls from really serious buyers.
Scenario 1
Consider two resumes that roll across your desk. Both tout equally impressive qualifications, but one has a reference to a blog in the "Contact" section. You go read the blog and get a lot more context about how that person thinks and responds to various situations. When you interview both people, you’ll have a lot less "getting to know you" time with the blog person. All good for the blog person, considering the blog is worthwhile.
Scenario 2
Now consider two other resumes that roll across your desk. Both have blog references in the "Contact" section. So you go read both. One is a blog with intelligent writing and thoughtful insights. The other is an incomprehesible LiveJournal-type site, with lots of odd commenters and weird Mood Ring/Weather Pixie dealios hanging off the margins. I don’t know about you, but as a hiring manager, I’d really be disinclined to invite the LiveJournal person for an interview. That’s a shame because, aside from the blogs, the two candidates may be equally suited for interviews.
Scenario 3
This is the really chilling scenario. Since the election is so fresh in our minds, let’s pull political leanings into our equation. Consider yet another two resumes rolling across your desk. Again, both reference blogs, and both blogs are equally thoughtful. Politically speaking, one leans left and the other leans right. Now, well-intentioned hiring managers like you and I would never factor such information into a hiring decision, right? But are all managers as high-minded as we are?
So, I guess my point is that Jeremy is right. Blogs can help smart people get jobs. They can also prevent smart people from getting jobs. I know that Jeremy’s post was really talking about the networking aspects of blogs and job hunting, and I’ve got no quarrel with that. Blogs can definitely equate to wider exposure for the writer. But it seems like it can be a double-edged sword. Use with caution. Makes me wonder when we’ll see some hiring discrimination lawsuits focused around blog content.
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POSTED IN: best of, management, reading, weblogs
10 opinions for Professional lubricant
Diana
Nov 24, 2004 at 10:55 pm
Or, how about getting fired because of your blog? That’s what happened to me. It was a good blog too. There was nothing pornographic or political or politically incorrect. My boss found out about it, took exception to it and fired me on the spot.
Try explaining that to Unemployment.
Try explaining that on an application under the reason you got fired. Thank goodness my new boss, a month later decided to take a “risk” on me (remember I did nothing wrong but am now a risk).
The blog, unfortunately is gone. That is what really bites, because, remember, I did nothing wrong.
Brethil
Nov 25, 2004 at 10:50 am
Why don’t you like LiveJournal users? Just a small part of all journals are uninteresting and silly.
Do you know that in russia LiveJournal became the most influential and the largest virtual Russian-speaking community, uniting Russians from all over the world? Almoust all well-known russian journalists, some writers and politicians have their own journals.
“The Russian segment of LJ differs significantly from LJ as a whole, although now, three year after it was “established”, not as strikingly as it was in the beginning. The overwhelming majority of journals in LiveJournal are very personal and devoted mainly to the events in the writer’s private life, a description of their everyday activity and communication with people know in real life such as relatives, friends and classmates and college fellows. In Russian LJ, there were few such journals in the beginning; most journals were used by their authors for discussions on cultural, political and professional topics with a lot of people, including those whom they didn’t know. This characteristic aspect has been much obliterated during these three years; now Russian LJ has a lot of journals, which are as personal as their American analogues. The main difference, however, has remained intact; there is a very high level of connectedness and communicativeness of Russian LJ in comparison with American LJ.” (by A. Vorobey)
If you want to know more about russian-speaking community in LJ, read this - http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/russ-cyb/library/texts/en/gorny_rlj.htm :)
Bren
Nov 25, 2004 at 11:24 am
Thanks for the note, Brethil. I should’ve been more clear. I’ve got nothing against LiveJournal–it provides a valuable service.
My comments were probably over-broad, since I was using LJ as a placeholder for a certain type of personal blog. The bigger point that I was trying to make is one of professionalism. I’ve seen a lot of LJ sites that are fun and interesting to look at, but don’t provide a particularly good sense of competency or professionalism in a given domain. So, I wrote about LiveJournal because that’s been my experience. Yours may differ, but I hope we can agree on the competency/professionalism argument.
And thanks again for the comment and link. I had no idea of the impact of LJ in the Russian commmunity.
Bren
Nov 25, 2004 at 11:34 am
Diana, what an awful story! That’s definitely a deeper look at the “dark side.” Seems like that’s happening more often. I recall reading something similar about a woman who’d been fired from Friendster for blogging. And then there’s a more recent story about the flight attendant who got in trouble for blogging and posting some pics of herself in uniform.
And why are all these examples of women? Anybody have any examples of similar things happening to men?
randomthoughts
Nov 26, 2004 at 3:45 pm
Professional lube
Blogging can you get you jobs, what else can it get you?
Joe Grossberg
Nov 29, 2004 at 2:10 pm
“Professional Lubricant”
Their words, not mine. Jeremy Zawodny says that blogging is a valuable forum for professional networking: Blogs significantly reduce the…
Paul
Dec 1, 2004 at 12:33 pm
Actually, this very scenario happened to someone we were considering. We received their resume for a requirements analyst position. Everything looked in order, they had the requisite skills, and it was all good. I performed the phone interview and they were very competent and cordial on the phone.
Now, when I asked this person for some samples of their work, I was directed to a web site where they had examples available. I went to the site and found the examples, along with a link called “Thoughts”. Of course, being the inqusitive manager, clicked on the link.
Let’s just say that I learned more about this person than I cared to admit. I’m not sure if they were trying to be cheeky, but the opinions expressed on this “Thoughts” page were worrisome and caused me to remove them from consideration.
I have other members of my team who use blogs and, quite frankly, I really don’t care. It’s not my business unless they make it mine by inviting me into their site. However, the person should know that if you invite me to your site, I may wander through it.
Bren
Dec 1, 2004 at 12:41 pm
Thanks for the comment, Paul. That’s a great example of what I’m talking about, and it’s interesting to hear that it’s really happening out there.
Naquada
Dec 4, 2004 at 6:32 am
Blogs as Professional Lubricant
There is a good post on Jeremy Zawodny’s blog about how blogging can help smart people get jobs.. People build a reputation by writing for a magazine, trade publication, or even books, meaning people began to see them as thought…
David St Lawrence
Jan 24, 2005 at 3:03 pm
I think someone with a high profile “rant blog” might have trouble landing a job in a professional situation. The language and theatrical vehemence make a great read to the casual visitor, but a hiring manager might think twice.
In this job market, we don’t need any obstacles to getting a job interview.
Blogging anonimity is hard to maintain. You should always take care to write material that you don’t have to apologize for.
I have a great deal of admiration for corporate bloggers who can walk the fine line between turning off readers and alienating their management.