PureBlogging

Someone just sent me a link to an article in The Wall Street Journal about how blogging can lead to a job in the real world. According to the article, corporate recruiters are surfing blogs looking for potential employees… especially in the tech and media industries.

Ryan Loken, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recruitment manager, says he spends one to two hours a week searching through blogs for new talent or additional information about the candidates he has interviewed. “Blogs are a tool in the tool kit,” he says. Since he joined the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant three years ago, Mr. Logen estimates that Web journals have helped him fill 125 corporate jobs. Most of the recruits were referred to him by bloggers and blog contributors, and some were the writers themselves.

In addition to blogs that focus on their industry or field of interest, recruiters say they check candidates’ blogs about noncareer-related topics for evidence of writing skills and clues to how well rounded they are.

Most blog-related recruits are professionals in technology and media because jobs in these fields often require knowledge of the blogosphere, says Kirsten Dixson, a founding partner at Brandego LLC, a career-management firm in Exeter, N.H., that specializes in personal branding.

In June, Brian Balfour’s blog, SocialDegree.com, inspired an unsolicited offer for a product-manager job from an executive at Zoom Information Inc. “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 company. 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.

That also means you have to be careful what you say when you blog.

Indiscrete bloggers can derail job opportunities. A candidate for an entry-level sales job at Zoom was knocked out of the running in December after Mr. Glass read his blog. “My jaw dropped,” he says. “The person started to make disparaging remarks about the people he interviewed with.”

Mr. Glass was also put off by instances of foul language and comments about getting drunk. “This was a character problem,” he says. “Whether you’re writing about people you interviewed with or you’re making a public statement that can be construed as immoral, these are the types of things an employer is going to look at and consider in their assessment of you as a candidate.”

Sounds like a win-win situation for both parties. Employers get an opportunity to assess the skill level of a potential employee while the blogger gets a chance to showcase his writing skills and level of expertise in his chosen industry.

So there you have it. If you write well enough and avoid the negatives, you too could get a real job. But why would you want one?

Popularity: 13% [?]