Blogging Is Mainstream | No BS Job Search Advice
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
When I started blogging in August, 2001, it bagging it was a pretty new idea, Blogger had just been bought by Google and was about to go mainstream.
Blogging as a recruiting tool has arrived with a bang with search professionals and corporate clients use Google and other search tools to locate blogs where the author might represent a possible fit for a job, as they try to get a sense of the person beyond the resume or find a reason to disqualify someone.
So what do you need to know about blogging that will help you with your search?
1. Firms look for confirmation that someone has good writing skills and good oral communication capabilities. Your blog needs to model those qualities, too. If you
hastily write about something and show sloppiness, it may come back to haunt you . . . and you may never know it because you may never receive the phone call to interview you.
The web, as we all know, has changed how available information is about someone.
2. Where possible, demonstrate that you are a “go to” person, a subject matter expert, or just plain knowledgeable on a subject.
You may have started the blog to talk about life, the universe and everything but, heck, your work is part of the equation, too. If you have just had a technical or professional triumph, reveal it and go into details (without revealing anything that would violate confidentiality). They read what you’ve written as an outsider would. Would they find this interesting? Ordinary? A triumph?
3. Please don’t talk politics.
Blogs are no longer private things and you’re blogging to share a part of yourself with the universe. All that can happen as a result of your political rant is that you may offend someone who may not call you.
Recently, while doing a search for a client, I found a blog written by a contender for a role that was homophobic, to say the least (it was him–pictures don’t lie). Suffice it to say, I withdrew the person, politely telling the client that I had no question about their professional capability but that I found something of a “personal nature” that caused me to recommend withdrawing the candidate.
After a few seconds that seemed like 10 minutes, they accepted the recommendation.
You may disagree with what I did and that is your prerogative. From my vantage point, that person could have acted in damaging ways that might create a risk to his new firm, a colleague, or a subordinate where the bias could have exploded.
No, thank you.
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2007, 2014, 2021, 2022
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
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