Résu-blog

Blog substituting as my résumé? or supplementing it?

Man, oh man, time to eliminate all the childish, snide and random remarks I've ever made on my public blog entries. Pictures too. Gotta fix those grammar errors as well.

While I tend to try and make my blogs as accurate a representation of myself as I can, without cheating my readers with an online persona, the phenomenon that's blurring of the line between personal and work, contributed in parts to blogs used as résumé, is a bit jarring. The part about playing, in the saying: "work hard and play hard" is now becoming a penalty.

The blog I linked to higher in the post was by Adam Darowski. In it he's says how blogs can fill in the blanks where a regular résumé can't. Sure I agree with that. Résumés really don't contain anything substantial, especially for people looking for their first job. I don't even see the reason for a résumé aside for screening purposes. Especially when I hear stories where people getting jobs with fake credentials on their résumés.

However, unless employees volunteers a blog for the employers to see, I really don't think employers should be allowed to use what they find online to penalize someone from getting a job without some kind of explanation.

Tom Kyte from Oracle came to my class a week or so back and commented about how he googles potential hires before interviews to get a better feel of an individual. Maybe its just me, but I find that to be unsettling. Sure if I'm working for a company, I'm representing that company where ever I am. It still doesn't make me feel any better that I'm being searched.

Now I understand where Tom Kyte is coming from. In his position at Oracle, anyone he's hiring is going to be taking on a pretty high ranking position within Oracle. It's understandable that he don't want to find his next head of database management to be dancing on a Las Vegas craps table drunk out of his/her mind on Flickr.com. But how about students like me?

Here's my problem with using blogs as a résumé:
- Will something I wrote 2 years ago be used against me?
- Will employers take into considerations that its written 2 years ago?
- Will employers tell me they searched for me online?
- Will they tell me the reason they won't hire me is due to something I have online? (of course not)

Solution?

In addition to a résumé, employers can ask for a detailed package of past projects, case studies, documented experience and other information they would want from a potential hire. If that's in the form of a blog, awesome. Sure they can still use the résumé as a screening device, but when they're actually hiring someone, ask for the things they're looking for. I'm tire of companies being ambiguous about the kind of people they're trying to hire. For example, I have tons of friends losing job opportunities but not knowing why. Employers should give feedbacks. Its not the potential employees that needs a blog, its the employers. Hiring practices should not be secretive. Here's an example of a recruiting blog.

Seriously, are the money spend by HR in hiring someone really used to its full extent? Searching online to know about someone, imho, is the lazy way out.

On the other hand, I will be submitting my blog as part of my résumé. Why? It IS a great way to share a part of who I am to potential employers . However I'm doing so voluntarily. If a company wants to search me online, I feel I should be asked.

If searching online about potential hires ever become a common practice in HR departments worldwide, I can guarantee that the permission to use those information will become a legal issue.

On other news...

Redskin beats Jets in OT. Thank goodness, I was pretty much crying and cursing during the half. Hope the Patriots vs Colts game will be an epic. =]