Yearly Archives: 2005

In contrast to a previous entry, which discussed a column by “Ivan Tribble” in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “Bloggers Need Not Apply,” Debbie Weil takes the complete opposite position in her article “Seven Tips for Blogging Your Way to a New Job,” in which she states: “If ever … Continue reading →

In my last entry, I cited a case in which blogging had been at least tangentially helpful to aiding a blogger in getting a new job.

Others have noted the benefits of blogging for career success, as in this piece by Tim Bray:

You have to get noticed to get promoted.

You have to get noticed to get hired.

It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”

No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.

Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.

Knowing more also means you’re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.

Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.

If you’re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.

If you’re in marketing, you’ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.

It’s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

Now, along comes a screed by the pseudonymous Ivan Tribble in the Chronicle of Higher Education questioning the concept of blogging for those in academia who are in the search or plan to seek tenure-track teaching positions. Tribble’s words are a bit worrisome to me since I will soon be in the academic job market. Continue reading →

Christian Crumlish posted a blog entry in April 2005 about needing a job. While the initial post was aimed at some networking and broadcasting the need for the job, the total of three posts (here’s the one in the middle) became a mini-narrative of searching for the job, culminating with his blog entry on his attainment of the new job in June.

He seemed to realize along the way that it was wise to keep a little quiet about the search. I asked him to what extent he feels posting on his blog helped him obtain his new job.

His response:

It helped, I think, although it did not directly lead to the job I ended up taking. That came from a craigslist ad I responded to. I do think that my blog presence and my visibility (googlability) was a factor in gettting my new job, as my firm is looking to get its name out among the web savvy audience and they feel I can help with that. I’m very happy I put my job search into the public, because I think it strengthened my network. A lot of people gave me advice or passed along leads or sent my resume to their recruiters/HR people.

I kind of critiqued his initial post as I would a resume — since that’s what I do to make a living. Continue reading →