Are Blogs the New Resumes?

Blogs are certainly redefining the online landscape. There are 55 million of them and counting, with some studies confirming that more than 100,000 blogs are created everyday! Blogs are invading corporate websites, online newspapers and content portals. Could blogs also replace resumes, though?

Maybe not completely, but bloggers certainly have an edge over job seekers that do not publish one. Rod Boothby, the author of Innovation Creators, wrote an interesting article outlining how his blog helped to bring his career to the next level. In his own words:

“Let’s look at it from the other side. Imagine you are a prospective employer, and you can compare two identical candidates. The first candidate has simply handed you a 2 page resume + 1 page cover letter. The second candidate has done the same, but they have also included a link to their blog. Now, further imagine that although the blog gives a more detailed picture, it does not change your opinion of the second candidate.

Which candidate would you choose? My guess is that you would choose the blogger simply because they are a known quantity. When you hire someone, you do not know exactly how they are going to work out. There is a quality distribution. The resume, cover letter and interview give you some information. Based on that information, you can guess on average how the candidate is going to work out. You might guess the exact same quality level for the blogger candidate, but because you have more information from all the blog posts, all the links, searching on their site for instances of how they have handled angry comments, you get a much better idea of how that candidate is going to perform.

Thus, hiring a blogger is a lower risk proposition because you have more information and a better idea of how they are going to perform.”

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