The Blog is the New Resume

I agree that if an individual can have their own Web site then it is definitely a plus in comparison to a text resume (best case scenario).

However, having a site up raises a lot more complex issues as far as the user experience goes. If the site delivers a negative experience in any way then perhaps it is better to fall back to a standard text document version. I would imagine that the worst case scenario for a text document is better then the Web version.

Obviously this should be considered on a case by case basis.

While a blog can most certainly help, as long as it is done right, a blog doesn’t contain a lot of information that employers will find relevant. Some of the items:
1. Actual skills.
2. Employment history.

That being said, it can help augment your position & help you get a better position on your name for search engines (many employers/recruiters are googling potential candidates these days). In addition, a well-written blog can most certainly help with personal branding that sets you apart from the rest of the field.

@Damon:

While a blog can most certainly help, as long as it is done right, a blog doesn’t contain a lot of information that employers will find relevant.

I have to DISAGREE with this.

In addition, a well-written blog can most certainly help with personal branding that sets you apart from the rest of the field.

I have to AGREE with this.

The skills a tech professional lists on a resume read something like: “Skills: Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, Windows and Mac”. That tells me nothing. What I want to know is how you used those tools to accomplish a SPECIFIC task. Give me case studies. How do you THINK when you open Photoshop? How do you transition to the backend?

A blog can tell me this. Blogs aren’t just “I ate oatmeal for breakfast.” They are extensions of the resume/porfolio.

I completely agree with you. 100% of my clients state they currently read my blog, and every one of them read it for background info on me prior to beginning work. Key for me is that my writing tends to reflect my personality and my thought process, both of which are important for the work I do…

I’m with Adam Darowski on this. A blog represents you and is seious business. Yourself are your own business and your own CEO.

A well studied web presence and a strong according strategy is vital in the information age; expose yourself and your skills, do show what you do and what you did in the past.

Build your very own network by cross-linking to your LinkedIn profile, your Flickr gallery, your Facebook pages or your Twitter posts.

Expose yourself to the world, ‘cos outhere is where your next boss, or client, or business partner are.

The See-Through CEO on WIRED (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_ceo.html) is worth reading. Somewhat relevant to this.

Hi Adam,

Disagreeing is fine. I do, however, work in the employment space & know that a blog alone isn’t always going to convey everything that an employer wants to know (there’s also the issue of fact-checking). Most people are probably not going to give case studies on their blog about how they used a specific skill.

Note: It may be a little different for you as a web developer (all of the items you mentioned can be displayed visually). I am just trying to state that it isn’t going to display skill levels properly for many folks.

I think the right thing is to view it as an extension of your resume, much as how many employers now use LinkedIn profiles as well to look at candidates. I also think it is a powerful personal branding tool.

Trolling for work via your blog means more than showcasing your resume or work history explicitly. Frankly, doing either of those in a weblog would seem counter-productive to me. That doesn’t mean that a weblog isn’t an excellent tool to create or embellish reputation, though.

Consider the insights readers take away when they encounter a weblog: What can I conclude about the writer’s critical faculties? Are his judgment or perspective distinctive or valuable to me? Does he wield influence? What does his use of language or other cultural tools say about him? How does he handle spontaneity?

If these aren’t the most important observations a prospective employer or client makes during a personal interview, it’s more likely that they aren’t listening than that they found something deficient in your Pizza Hut experience.

Weblogs are, ultimately, Bully Pulpits for the rest of us.

And I should clarify something…

I TOTALLY agree that a blog can help you land an interview. Getting an interview, even if you have an awesome blog, isn’t going to guarantee employment because you still have to go through the interview & vetting process (not a culture fit, etc.)

I also find that blogging is a great networking tool. I’ve *met* a lot of people in my occupation solely via blogging & commenting on their blogs.

It’s all good, Damon—and yes, it does tailor more towards those who can display their work more visually.

LinkedIn seems to provide the same issues as listing skills. You are “linked” to a bunch of people. But how? If there aren’t any recommendations, you really have no idea how peopl are linked. And beyond that… it’s kind of a hyperlinked resume, no?

Most people are probably not going to give case studies on their blog about how they used a specific skill.

I know most aren’t, but I’m recommending that they should. And I think the ones who do are going to have the edge.

I think blogs are the new business cards as well.

Mark

I generally agree with this. On the other hand, I wrote about this awhile ago, but went beyond my blog to include the top search results in Google for one’s name. If you’re not in the top results, you might want to start working on that…

Otherwise, I agree that a blog can be really useful for background and discovery… as well as getting a sense of what’s important or relevant to someone. It doesn’t say much (typically) about training, but is certainly invaluable when it comes to hiring.

This is something I’m still wrapping my head around as well. Until recently I never thought about how *not* having your name come up in search results could hurt your job hunt.

Check out this article on reputation management that was featured on the ClaimID blog:
http://engtech.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/an-introduction-to-reputation-management/

(not spam, I legitimately think it goes well with what you’re getting at in your post)

Your blog is also your new business card.

http://tinyurl.com/35d5d5

Hi … I agree that your blog is now /part/ of your resume — and a very big part it — but I can think of other things that are probably as important (which you hinted at), such as all your participation in open communities and the public list/forum/blog/mail that results from those interactions (which can be very similar to a blog), your professional (and social and personal) networks (many of which are based on face-to-face not Internet interactions), the results from specific projects that affect both public and private networks of people, etc. Most of that stuff is probably published in your blog somewhere, but not all of it in most cases. And most blogs are too long and complex for people to easily dig out the history if they are not directly involved. So, that’s the point of the resume. Perhaps your resume, which is generally a private document, now becomes the index to organize all of the public activities online? It’s a portal. It provides links to the documentation of most of what you’ve done, but it also provides a simple organizing mechanism. I think a resume can still be a powerful tool.

No question about it. Recently blogged about the fact that soon we’ll have presidential candidates with 20 years of blog, social network, etc. digital history…history that started long before they had oval office aspirations…much more interesting then campaign engineered youtube videos.

It works best if you’re one-dimensional online and off–you like to write about your work even when you’re not working on your work. Got a life?

Also, it helps to have an unusual name that won’t get mixed up with other people. This is why I go by “PJ” when I say anything important

Not necessarily, PJ. Many employers want to know what your interests are outside of work. This is a good place to showcase these. For example, while I’m into social media and web development, I’m also a huge baseball fan. I’ll write about ballplayers like Curt Schilling, Pat Neshek, and C.J. Nitkowski and how they are using social media. Then of course there is the “one man’s hall of fame ballot” which could show off some analytical thinking.

I’ve been saying for 3 years that blogs are the resume for the 21st century. Done correctly they can give employers insight into your value to them by delving deeper into your skills and experience. They also act as “career SEO” by letting you be found online. There are already a number of examples of people who blog for jobs.

I aggre

My blog does more for me than my resume ever has, both in terms of creating opportunities and connections and helping communicate who I am, what I do, my experience, personality etc. I agree with Chris that your Google results are also very important if you’re working in the web space.

I interview a lot for web developers and UI designers, and it shocks me how many of them submit resumes without any kind of portfolio site, blog, etc. It doesn’t have to be a blog, it doesn’t have to be fancy, but if you are in this business at any level, you should have something out there that represents what you can do.

I agree with you here.

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I entirely agree that a blog can help you land an interview. Getting an interview, even if you have an awesome blog, isn’t going to guarantee employment because you still have to go through the interview & vetting process.

yeah our blog is represent us

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Bokardoan Adam Darowski suggests that the blog is the new resume. I think he’s absolutely right…whenever anyone wants to know anything about me I send them here.

Absolutely agree. I’m a laptop repair technician and my blogs tell about my experience much more then any resume.

First I think to complete the idea of yours, showcasing your skills through your blog : a homepage is a requisite. By this I mean that when you land on the blog, you’re not directly confronted to the latest content but with an introduction of where to find things and what the blog has about you. Something like what Steve Pavlina has.

Secondly, I don’t think that because blogs work, everybody should get into the bandwagon. Blogs require an extreme amount of time, both to produce content and keep up with it. Comments,commenting on other blogs. See Blog Herald latest coverage on a famous game developer who left blogging recently. He must surely have good reasons.

Furthermore, a blog shouldn’t just be an archive. It should be a living archive. Many times, you have to go back and re-edit information, that’s the power of it. You can change things to make them better. Re-editing your writing or your style as you learn along the way. That said before showing your blog to your client lol

Thanks for the great read.

hi

Your blog is also your new business card.I think blogs are the new business cards as well.

http://www.popstarfan.com

I agree that your blog is now part of your resume.

Your site is perfect!

I agree that your blog is now part of your resume.

I have been fortunate enough to have got a job because of my blog. A couple of years back, someone contacted me for assisting them on an issue they were facing with sendmail, after having a look at my blog (they reached my blog after googling for that issue), http://www.megalinux.net. I was planning to move from the company I was then, and though I did not tell them I was planning to move, they wanted to know if I would be interested in one of their client’s company. I got the job, even without a tech interview

No, I am afraid your blog is not your resume. When we hire, if someone sent me a link to their blog rather than a resume they wouldn’t get hired. Their blog probably wouldn’t even get looked at. This is because when we hire we say “send us your resume”, not “send us a link to your blog”. If an applicant can’t even get that right their application will go no further.

Time for a reality check. A resume should be readable in under two minutes. That is all the time I will spend looking at a resume before deciding whether to interview an applicant. How many blogs are readable in under two minutes?

@Foo Bar: don’t be so 1947. that is such a buffoon-like statement. have you ever stopped to think that maybe your ridiculous approach does not net you the best people?

if you are looking for cookie-cutter resumes that can be read in the alloted time of two minutes, then you are doing your company a disservice. i suggest you look around yourself and cry for a while. those ways are so ignorant.

a blog can be either a detriment or an advantage, depends on if it’s any good of course.

carry on, i just took exception to the categorically stupid remark by foo bar, i’m done now.

You all seem to have put aside any critical thinking in your enthusiasm for blogs as a résumé. They aren’t replacements for that, nor should they be. In addition, you don’t seem to have considered there are many people who simply want to stay out of the search engines for any number of valid reasons, including privacy.

Having a blog and using it as one tool in getting a job is fine for those who want it, but it’s certainly not a guarantee of anything, and it’s not going to replace your résumé.

That’s true I have experience it !!

tre,

You’re mad. We get good people because good people want to work for us. As such, we are the “buyer” and it’s a buyer’s market. There are very, very, very few people who are the “best”. We would know about them already, not from their blog. Very few people read other people’s blogs. That is a fact. So, enough of your ill-informed comments. For other readers, if you want a good job prepare a good resume. Don’t waste your time blogging because it won’t be read.

I’m living proof of your article. My blog had been up about 2 months (with a blurb about looking for a new job on my about page) when an employer e-mailed me about a job.

The “interview” consisted essentially in a description of the job and asking if I wanted it. Now granted, it’s a writing job, so what else are they going to base my performance except my writing (blog)? But I can guarantee there would have been no job offer without the blog.

I am just starting to do this too - have a blog that ’sells’ me. It will have my resume on there (biography section), but mainly it contains blog posts about my passion - internet marketing. That way prospective employees can read and see what I love and am doing.
http://www.rich-page.com

I think blogs are the new business cards as well.

Mark

Mostly people are utilizing the blogs as business cards. But i think its a wonderful experience to run a blog. Blog really give insight of you.

Thanks for sharing this. As you said, blogs can be a very persuasive tool used to influence many and this what myself and many others have seen first hand.

I defintely agree with the 5 bullet points about blogging.

But blogs just like any other webpage can have a down side and play a negative role and allow job seekers to be discriminated on based on what they blog about.

If employers begin to request blogs then it would allow all job seekers a fair chance vs. those who do not blog.

I see it from both sides and I don’t see it being a bad idea, but the reality is everyone will not jump on the bandwagon therfore it would not be fair to other qualified job seekers.

Tiffany
https://www.extremeresume.com

yeah I really agree with “3.You blog is an archive.” and 5 “Your blog is your unedited version of yourself.”

Blogs are unedited archives of human knowledge.

And I should clarify something…

I TOTALLY agree that a blog can help you land an interview. Getting an interview, even if you have an awesome blog, isn’t going to guarantee employment because you still have to go through the interview & vetting process (not a culture fit, etc.)

I also find that blogging is a great networking tool. I’ve *met* a lot of people in my occupation solely via blogging & commenting on their blogs.

Great article! I hope you don’t mind my posting the entire piece on my blog.

Thanks…

sera james
http://article.ezedir.com

thank you .