NevOn: Blogs as part of job search strategies

A number of media articles and blog posts in recent weeks have been discussing the role blogs can play in the job search process, both from the recruiter's and seeker's points of view.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an article on how blogs are catching on for recruiters and job seekers (see my post). The latest such article is in today's New York Times.

The NYT's article quotes Michael Gartenberg, a vice president and research director at JupiterResearch who covers blogs, as saying there's no conclusive data on the spread of blogs to the job market, but based on anecdotal information, people are using blogs on both sides of the job search process. Gartenberg says it's a trend on the rise, especially for employers, who get a much better sense of a person this way. "Résumés and interviews are a very scripted process," he says, "Read someone's weblog and you get a good sense of that person's thinking and perspectives."

Sound advice.

Key points from the NYT article:

Job seekers use blogs to establish a strong online presence, display their skills and advertise their availability.
Corporate recruiters use blogs to draw in qualified candidates, and they search for potential hires by reading bloggers who write about topics relevant to a particular industry.
A good example is Heather Hamilton, a senior marketing recruiter at Microsoft: "I have great candidates in process that have resulted from blogging. Personally, I think blogging is going to change the way companies recruit." Heather writes about recruiting and careers at Microsoft in her Heather's Marketing at Microsoft blog.
A driving factor behind job market blogging is the search engine Google. If you are thinking of interviewing someone, it's almost standard now to Google them online and see what you find. If that person has a blog, it's usually the first thing that comes up.

On that last point, I'd add that if you are a job seeker looking at a potential opportunity in a company, you should also Google them to see what you can find out more than you'd already know about them as part of your job search due diligence.

The last word from Roy Singham, CEO at ThoughtWorks, quoted in the article as saying his company's employee blogs have attracted some job applicants: "We're looking for needles in haystacks, and the blog is like a massive magnet."

New York Times | Before Applying, Check Out the Blogs (registration required)