A blog in place of a résumé
Why have a blog of your own? A technical blog, I should add. Every so often
someone I’ve never met contacts me about a job, offers to put me in touch with someone,
or proposes working together. Most start by saying they found my site. They mean Dagblog, of course.
Thinking about it, a technical blog seems like a good source of references. It makes me wonder
whether it might, in a way, take the place of a résumé. Here are a few things
you can read between the lines about the author.
- their field (developer, analyst, web designer, and so on)
- their focus and interests (markup languages, client-side scripting, marketing, server technology, and so on)
- the range of their knowledge and experience
- their views on the subjects they cover
A technical blog brings together all sorts of ingredients to build up a picture of a person. A well-established
blog is a solid record of what you know, and worth having.
Sure, a structured résumé has its place as a piece of paper that sums things up,
but it often tells you next to nothing about what a person can actually do. So someone worked
at company XYZ in role A or B. What does that tell us? Add the fact that
we all tend to talk ourselves up in our résumés, and a bit of boasting comes
with the territory. In the end, it’s just a pass you need to get in the door.
Recruiters may bite through their pencils at my contempt for résumés, but I think
it pays to make your name through a blog. That record of what you know is worth much more than a plain
résumé. My parting advice is to write and publish. It can only help your career.