The Clever Little Secret of Blogging
Something just
occured to me while I was
in the bathroom, much in the way that the flux
capacitor came to Doc Brown, although I was spared the head injury and was allowed by
the
fates to substitue a massive bowel movement instead.
Bathroom humor aside, many times, blogs seem counter-intuitive to the the best interests of the blogger. Sure, they're fun to read for friends and family, and can sometimes build communities around them, but in general, employers frown upon the practice (especially if done during work hours), and they can be very personal yet are very much out in the open.
This is especially true when vying for employment. I can't think of any blogger I know that would willingly give out the address of their online journal to their potential boss. There's just too much real life in them - they aren't exactly putting your best foot forward. Imagine a conservative, critical hiring manager reading your recent hotheaded rant about the future of AI or going off on why you can't get any. It seems that anyone who HAS the jobs isn't going to be too keen about learning that type of information about a potential hire.
This is where the twist comes in.
I AM a blogger, and, suddenly it seems, I have a pletora of jobs. My previous boss is looking for web-work to get done that I can't find time to do. He needs a per-contract guy who could make some serious cash if done right. We're hiring up at CG and looking for someone to fill the pc/networking assistant role. Also, there's contract work here in the city that is, more and more, finding its way to me, yet I don't have the time or money drive to follow through.
So here I am, brainstorming about who to recommend for these jobs, especially up in Albany, and something comes to me. Remy is going moving up there, looking for employment, and just about fits the bill. This isn't someone who I've known a long time or even met face to face. He's simply a friend of a friend who's blog I read. The thing is, I've connected to him through his blog. He and I think the same way about a lot of stuff, if in differing extremes. He's got the same sort of "I can do anything if you give me a week and a manual" attitude that has served me so well, espeically when working with Stu. More importantly, maybe, I've come trust that he is, although a zany, real person, a pretty reliable, nice guy.
I can certainly see myself making a few calls, and hooking him up with Stu at least on a trial basis. It'd be good for both of them, and I feel safe in saying that he can at least take a good crack at any of the work Stu has to throw at him. They may not hit it off in the business sense, but if Remy can talk the same game that he writes, they'll be fine.
Cory covers a bit of this in Eastern Standard Tribe. The novel centers around the concept of networking with people, helping them out and getting helped out when needed, but his idea focus on tribes based on time-zone and location.For me, I feel like the tribes are beginning to grow up much more around the little nodes and bubbles of the blogosphere, and they're becoming rapidly more important as us early-twenties bloggers own real sphere of influence grows in the meatspace.
10 years from now, I can see not being part of the community be a really detrimental thing for a job hunter.
