Is a blog an essential addition to your resume?
A great article caught my attention this morning over at Innovation Zen. He asks the question, “Are Blogs The New Resumes”? Its a great question and really makes us think about how our blogging experience can be a great way to show our reliability and general knowledge for a subject or topic. For example, Im sure there are plenty of internet marketers out there that have their eye on bloggers that write about the subject.
And with the addition of a resume, it can really be the icing on the cake to pass to a possible employer. I would agree with the article’s assesment that blogs are not the new resumes, but are becoming an important addition to your resume, especially if you are after an internet related position. Innovation Creators got a new job thanks to his blogging efforts, he writes about it here. I really like the quote from his article pasted below.
“Imagine you are a prospective employer, and you can compare two identical candidates. The first candidate has simply handed you a 2 page resume + 1 page cover letter. The second candidate has done the same, but they have also included a link to their blog. Now, further imagine that although the blog gives a more detailed picture, it does not change your opinion of the second candidate. Which candidate would you choose? My guess is that you would choose the blogger simply because they are a known quantity.”
Even more reasons to begin blogging. Have something you are passionate about? Want to write about it? Drop me a line at jlong@contentquake.com and Id love to explore it with you.
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March 6th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Very interesting. I’ve also heard that some employers are asking for applicants MySpace addresses on applications!
March 16th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Blogs supplement, not replace resumes. They are kind of like a cover letter, but are read after the resume itself. A lot of employers would at least perform a Google search for candidate names, so if you don’t rank well for your own name, better make it a more controlled research and add your link explicitly.
@Jessie - it’s a trick question. You’re supposed to answer: “I use Facebook”
March 17th, 2007 at 6:02 am
Agreed Tony, a supplement is the best way to describe how a blog contributes to the process. Makes it more difficult to air out issue on a weblog though, that can be messy at times.
March 17th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Indeed. There were numerous cases of people getting in trouble (even fired from jobs) over postings on MySpace, Facebook, and blogs.
Though if the ability to air out the issues will be… an issue. There’s always an option of running a second, personal, blog under an alias and/or passworded entries.
March 20th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Tony, in my opinon, airing out personal stuff is best suited for a actual diary, not an online blog. However, that is not what many are doing, and I can see the negatives.