There has been quite a bit of discussion in the blogosphere over the last fortnight about the blog as the new CV. It was started by a post by Adam Darowski, The Blog is the New Resume and subsequently picked up by Joshua Porter, who expanded upon the idea.
These posts are both well worth reading, as are the comments (and the follow up post from Adam) because they spell out a number of the issues that are relevant to communicators in this social media age – and because it might just help you land a better job.
I agree with pretty much everything Adam and Joshua have to say on the matter. I think that your online presence is an integral part of your professional reputation, and you had better treat it as such, ie., with discretion. But I am not necessarily convinced that your blog, or your social media profile in general, is ever going to replace your CV. Not in the public sector, and not in the next short while anyway.
Why not? I can think of a couple of reasons. One, unless you follow Rohit Bhargava’s lead and include a social media bio on your blog, there simply won’t be enough supporting information there. Your blog will enhance your CV, but it won’t replace it (unless your CV is online, but I tried that with a couple of senior managers across the public service, and they were either perplexed or dismissive of the concept — all of them wanted a hard copy).
Senior managers could also regard a potential employee’s blog as a risk to manage, rather than an example of their initiative. They may be worried that the blogger will (inadvertently) drop their organization in it, or that the blog is a time sink that will divert their attention from what they are hired to do.
These, particularly the latter, are valid concerns.
So how do you balance your increasing presence on the ‘net with the traditional demands of recruitment, all in the age of Google? First up, if you have a blog that intersects with your professional life (even tangentially), tell your prospective employer. If it is about your cat, don’t bother them, but if there is a remote possibility that you may post about something that could be perceived as being related to your job, then you should disclose this.
If you have a Myspace page, make sure it is not the first thing that comes up when you google your name: that would just be embarrassing. You are much better off setting up a LinkedIn profile or a Facebook page if you want to appear professional.
Having said that, I provide links to this blog and the other I have contributed to, as well as to my del.icio.us page because I think that this stuff is integral to what I want to do.
Photo: N!(K
8 Comments
actually, that darowski article goes to a conversation we were having on object dart the other day.
i think is what i was trying to drive at. if it could be structured correctly, blogs could contribute to the thinking and reputation of public servants.
if only we could get past the policy/political divide.
Thanks Che: you mean this bit:
The answer to that has to be yes. After all, a blog is just a content management tool - it is what you do with the tool that makes it ’social.’
The other thing about tools is that it really helps all involved if you use them skilfully and with a specific purpose in mind - otherwise you are just whittling…
yes, it’s the neutrality angle that is so problematic. social media is supposed to be just that, social, and the policy process is only socialised within the boundaries of the public service.
plus, blogs create a ‘community of interest’ around the content. how would you balance the community of interest within the public sector with the community of interest in the broader public?
i’m thinking you can’t. consequently, public servants can’t really use this medium to construct a cv.
but, what they could do is maintain a cv demonstrating clear thinking and the like on subjects not within their sphere of responsibility.
Agreed. Blogging is a discipline and (like most others) could be assessed as contributing to a person’s professional profile, capability and talents.
I don’t have a problem with the community of interest: I think that it is quite possible to have a blog about a subject that is primarily intended for public servants.
It’s like having a conversation on a bus - it can be intelligent/interesting even if it is not directed at a broader public. If you are worried about ‘dropping your agency in it,’ then perhaps you shouldn’t be blogging/chatting on the bus about that stuff…
indeed. no one worth their salt would talk about privileged or private information in a highly public setting. and that’s pretty much all a blog is.
As this conversation was taking off i was actually updating my CV with some social media elements- taking a que from the Social Media Press Release- i figured i would save a future employer or recuiter some clicks, ensure that whatever ‘paper’ version they keep on file was dynamic and constantly updated and of course shaping a little of what i want my social media persona to be. More here:
http://danielabarbosa.blogspot.....esume.html
Thanks Daniela,
Great mashup: the CV and the SMR.
I would only add that my experience with the online version is that you need to upload a tidy .pdf for the old-school recruiters to download and print. But that will change over time…
Then you just have to save the whole thing to del.icio.us and you are done.
PS. Have you thought about using hResume?
no i hadn’t looked at hResume so thanks for pointing me there.
Yes. i work with both recruiting firms and HR groups- old time PDF and Word documents will be around for a long time hence why i thought adding social media links to the pdf version might work.
my webserver is acting funky so i have a sample here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?7oo5oxwwicn
2 Trackbacks
[...] “Social Media and Your CV“, Jason Ryan offers something not brought up yet: Senior managers could also regard a [...]
[...] heat among British public sector bloggers. What is obvious is that Jason Ryan’s recent post on ‘your blog as a resume’ is all too pertinent. The things we write in jest or haste have never been more accessible or [...]