Job Hunters: Blogging Can Help or Hurt

From The Wall Street Journal

Like to blog or comment on blogs? The online pastime may lead to a new job — or derail your chances of getting one you want.

Many corporate recruiters now search blogs, or Web journals, to vet candidates and check for digital dirt. They say blogs offer insights that can’t be gained from resumes or interviews, such as the ability to think critically.

Last year, Brian Balfour’s blog, SocialDegree.com, inspired an unsolicited offer for a product-manager job from an executive at Zoom Information. “I was impressed by the points Brian was making and the way he was making them,” says Russell Glass, vice president of products and marketing at the Waltham, Mass., technology firm.

The blog also offered details about Mr. Balfour’s work history and education. “It was a no-brainer to give him a call and see if he’d be interested,” Mr. Glass says.

Mr. Balfour was intrigued. “I was just coming off selling a business and looking for where I would head next,” he says. Three months later, the 24-year-old got the job.

Some job seekers call recruiters’ attention to their blogs as a way to boost their candidacy.

In an interview for a public-relations job in late 2004, Kevin Dugan told recruiters at Cincinnati-based FRCH Design Worldwide that he had been writing a blog for two years. “Blogging was a way for me to build credibility,” he says. “It was a way to show my writing skills pretty easily, as well as my knowledge of blogging and the public-relations industry.”
Wall Street Journal