I’m a big Penelop Trunk fan and reading her post Blogging Essential For a Good Career again made me think about the web design work I’m doing — i.e. custom WordPress themes — and how, as she pointed out in that post, blogging can be leveraged to “get a job.”
Speaking from experience, I personally know blogging can be a great way to build your “personal brand” and get some exposure in your field.
Here are some reasons I think blogs can be a great high-tech resume ..
1. It allows you to become an expert in your field — Just having an opinion and putting it out there is light years ahead of a lot of your peers, trust me. The blogosphere, like the Internet, is still very young in the grand scheme of history. Even if you’re not the expert, just having a well-formed, articulate way of presenting your own ideas multiplies your impact and influence and exposure.
2. When your blog gets out there, you become known — This is kind of strange … but yes, in some small way, in your field or industry, depending on its size, people will eventually come to know you if you blog consistently for very long. The first time this happened to me I was at a conference, talking with someone in my field for the first time … after a couple of minutes, like a lightbulb went off, he said, “You’re that blogger!” (We’re now really good friends and I helped him launch his own blog.)
3. Your influence goes in places that you never imagined — Think about this … through my blog stats, I know people in Korea, the Philippines, Australia, most of Europe, Canada, and, of course, the United States are reading me. In many industries, this is also called a “platform.” Blogging has put me “on the map” for a lot of people who most likely never would have known me or my name or my work.
4. Who cares about getting a job! It’s just a whole lot of fun and sometimes you get free lunches, free books, and free coffee — One of my favorite blogging experiences happened when on a post I happened to mentioned I was traveling to Kansas City from my home in Oklahoma City. One of my regular readers realized I would be traveling through his hometown and emailed saying he’d buy me a coffee. We ended up having that coffee and making a great friendship. That’s all kinds of fun! Plus, I just happen to love free stuff … even if it’s junk. But through blogging, I’ve gotten free books, materials, etc. And to me … that’s fun and rocks!
5. For less than $50, you can have one SLICK high-tech resume — Seriously, through places like GoDaddy, you can get your domain name and a year of hosting for around $50. Doesn’t that beat the funky, ornate, or grey sandstone resume paper at Kinko’s? I’d much rather have a nice looking website that I can email to prospective employers. And I’ve said this numerous times to people and on my blog: blogging platforms like WordPress lower the bar for what it takes to create and manage websites. If you know how to operate Microsoft Word, then you can blog.
OK … so that’s my thoughts on how blogs and blogging can be your very own high-tech resume for that prospective employer!
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