I just finished reading that article Bloggers Need Not Apply. It is an interesting writing of an employer’s view vis-à-vis blogging.
The reading leads me to ask myself a question: is blogging harmful to me when will come the time to seek for a job?
The question I have to ask is: why do I blog and what do I blog about?
I use my blog as a knowledge management tool. I mostly talk about my profession’s related subjects: computer sciences. The goals of this blog are simple:
- The first goal of that blog, one year ago, was to increase my English skills. Then it evolved to:
- To have a place to communicate some ideas I have about subjects in relation to my domain of interests, and to start discussions about them.
- To have a place where I can find discussions and ideas I had on particular subjects.
- To have a place to meet new people that shares the same ideas.
- To have a place where I can stimulate my creativity. The stimulation of my creativity will be done by writing and discussing with my peers.
It is a professional and social tool. In the past, people were communicating and developing social networks in person or by phone or mail. Now, it is possible to do it by the Internet via forums, emails and blogs.
Ivan said in his article:
“The pertinent question for bloggers is simply, Why? What is the purpose of broadcasting one’s unfiltered thoughts to the whole wired world? It’s not hard to imagine legitimate, constructive applications for such a forum. But it’s also not hard to find examples of the worst kinds of uses.”
This is a really personal question. I mean, some writers will write about their tormented minds and other will write about new ideas and observations they have. Blogging or not, the result will be the same. It is not a question of blogging, it is a question about what you are talking about, and how you talk about it.
This blog is composed of snippets of my knowledge and view of things. An employer cannot extrapolate from this knowledge to know who I am, as a human, and all the things I know. However, he could take a look at my abilities to communicate my ideas, to discuss with people I do not know, and how I work. He can see how I can connect with people and how I handle the different opinions of my readers.
If I take the IT industry, what is the most important and hardest thing to handle in project development?
Communication includes many things:
- The communication between the developers
- The communication between the developers and the other people of the company
- The communication of the advancement of their work
- The communication of their work (by writing comments in their code, by writing documents about the module they are developing, etc, etc, etc.)
- The communication with the external environment of the company. It includes suppliers, subcontractors, Medias, other division of the company, etc
- Etc.
And what is blogging? It is communicating. How can I become good at communicating? By practicing.
The problems that face most of the IT development projects are not technical, no, they are human.
It is how I see my blogging experience. Is my blogging experience harmful for my future? Personally, I do not think so, considering what I wrote above. Even if the employer does not agree, I think that they can easily see the difference between the worker and the person. It is really personal and I do not think that anyone can have the real answer to that question: could blogging can be harmful to your employment? It depends. After all Ivan finish his article by writing:
“And in truth, we did not disqualify any applicants based purely on their blogs. If the blog was a negative factor, it was one of many that killed a candidate’s chances.”
He could not be wrong by writing this article. This is his point of view of the situation, as an employer. Only he knows which candidate he needs for the job he has to do. However, I do not think that it is applicable for every employer.
Personally I love mans of opinions, ideas and creativity.
I have the same conclusion as Professor Daniel Lemire: Myself? I live dangerously.
You, what is your answer to that question: do you think that blogging will be harmful to you when will come the time to seek for a job?
PS: At the opposite, enterprises could even use the blogging philosophy and systems to manage their tacit knowledge.
Note: I found that article via Daniel Lemire’s blog.
Update: I just read my RSS and found that Scobles blogged about it. Also read the comments of his readers. If you need even more opinions, perform a search on Technorati.
Technorati: blogs | blogging | employment | career | communication | socialization | knowledge | future |
Sudar
July 11, 2005 — 2:18 am
Hi Fred,
Personally I feel that blogs, really help you to be more productive at work and also make you more sociable.
First, it keeps your technical knowledge up to date
Second, as you have said it makes you to communicate better. When you can communicate well with some one whom you haven’t seen in your life, then surely you will communicate well with the people whom you work with
So far I haven’t got any problems at work because of my blog, but I am not able to decide how I will react when any problem arises. Mostly I will try to figure out the cause of the problem and try to convince my employer about the advantages but if he still insists then ….. (Let me decide it when it happens to me..)
Fortrel
July 11, 2005 — 10:48 am
I was shocked at the attitude of the author of this article! He starts by saying that he did a few Google searches for the people he was about to interview, and then he says bloggers should leave their personal life out of the interview process… Come on! If you’re doing a Google search and end-up on somebody’s personal web site or blog, you’re putting this person’s personal life in the interview process.
Blog should be taken for what they are. If somebody’s blog talk about his cat or his dog, so be it. You know at the first glance than this is a personal blog, without much pertinent information for the interview process, other than knowing that the person has a life and a few hobbies. If someone uses his blog to liberate frustrations or to achieve balance in some way, I think it’s ok too. But just be mature enough not to consider the information in the job process.
Another point that the author of this article missed completly: Some people write blogs from another point of view. Some create a blogging persona and really aren’t the same person when they blog about this or that. I read a few of these blogs. They’re really funny.
He also mentions that you wouldn’t hire somebody who owns a blog because he may start to rant about your company on his blog. I think this is a really wrong assumption. Even if you hire somebody that doesn’t have a blog, nothing will prevent him from starting one after he starts to work for you. The fact that he does have a blog or not when you hire him doesn’t give you any insurance that he won’t rant about your company online.
Fred
July 11, 2005 — 4:18 pm
Hello Sudar and Fortrel,
Sudar : Exactly, the best thing to do when there are conflict between humans is discussion, and it is not different when the subject is blogging. However, there is a main problem: blogging is emerging and people have some problems to figure out what it is all about. By explaining to you employer what blogging is, and how it could help him in is business, then he will understand what he can earn by letting you blogging, and he will let you blog in peace.
What is the relation between you blogging and you boss’s business? A happy employee is a more productive one. If you search for things (technologies or whatever), on your own time, and discuss about them with other peoples, you will probably come up with something new for the company your work for, because you had trained your creativity. Tell him what it can brings to him, and he will like the idea and even encourage you to blog 🙂
Fortrel: really good points. And I would add something to this assertion:
“He also mentions that you wouldn’t hire somebody who owns a blog because he may start to rant about your company on his blog.”
There are two things with that. You are right to say that it is a really wrong assumption. I am sure that 90% of people would talk in good about the company they work for. If so, it is a beautiful free publicity, isn’t it? If the employee is really angry again his employer, is that not a good tool, to check out what is happening with him, trying to figure out what is wrong in the company?
Everything depends on how you see the thing. However, companies could also create internal politics vis-a-vis blogging. Not one that restrict it, but one that frame it.
Salutations,
Fred