Hi,

Newbies are often advised to blog to get noticed in the profession and demonstrate their writing ability. How helpful are blogs to someone like myself who is just out of school and looking for a job? How long should a blog last? If you write one for, say, a year and then stop, does that brand you as a "quitter"?

There are lots of great blogs out there and many of them are by new librarians...will adding one more to the pile really make a difference? I don't mean to sound negative but I'm concerned about not having anything original to say.

Thanks...

While a blog can help to brand you as a person who's passionate and knowledgeable about the profession, you shouldn't blog just to get a job. Blog because you have something to say, because you're interested in becoming part of a conversation with other librarians, because you want to be a part of a community of bloggers. I started a blog because I had so many thoughts and opinions about our profession and my husband (a non-librarian) was sick of hearing them all. He's the one who suggested the idea. I wrote for the sheer love of writing and processing my own thoughts about things (sometimes my thoughts on things aren't even clear to me until I type them out). I didn't think I'd get an audience, but, over the past three and a half years, I've gotten a huge one. My blog helped me get a job, it helped me get a book deal, it helped me get a column in American Libraries and a teaching gig at San Jose State. But I didn't blog to get those things; I blogged for me, and later for my readers. And I think that's exactly why I got all those things, because I did it for the love of it.

Obviously, a blog can be just as bad for your career as it can be good. If you're overly negative it won't look good to potential employers. If your blog doesn't make you sound passionate about the profession, it won't help.

Infogeek is 100% right about motivations for blogging. Do it because you want to blog. If you're blogging for the sole reason of getting a job, chances are your blog won't be interesting enough to benefit you anyways (there are a lot of blogs out there that just link to other blogs without offering any commentary -- it doesn't give anyone a sense of who the person behind the blog is). If you don't feel compelled to blog, working on an online portfolio is another great way to have something additional to show potential employers. I'm on my second search committee right now, and I'm definitely looking for nice, polished online portfolios from new grads (though the job I'm hiring for is a hybrid public services, webby, 2.0-type job and that may not be what you're looking for).

Good luck to both of you with the job hunt!

Blogging does have a lot of positives: demonstration of some techie skills, writing samples, selling yourself, demonstrating knowledge and passion towards something, building name recognition, hobby for yourself, etc.

It is more important to write for yourself than others. The passion will show.

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Brian C. Gray
Head of Reference & Engineering Librarian
Kelvin Smith Library
Case Western Reserve University
http://blog.case.edu/bcg8
bcg8@case.edu

Hello,

Wow, I'd never have thought to start a blog to get a job, but then again, I've been out of the job market for some time. It seems what others on this post have mentioned really should be first and foremost in your mind if you start a blog. Do you like to write? Do you have lots of opinions? And can you really be positive most of the time? Frankly, I would be a bit leery of starting a blog just as I was beginning a job search. Since the web is so searchable, you really have to watch everything you say, and looking back to the librarian I was when I first left library school and who I am now, I have some different views on subjects in the profession.

Now, of course, I want to check out some of these blogs....

Good luck with your job search in any case.

I totally agree with this, which is why my blog is semi-anonymous (I'm okay with publishing my first name, but definitely not my last right now, and location info is limited to country only). I imagine that once I get more established in the field I'll "come out" so to speak and may attach my blog to my full name, but as I'm just starting to try out this blogging thing I thought it would be safer not to completely tie together my real life and online presence.

edited to add: Meredith, I'd love to hear more about online portfolios for librarians! What exactly would be involved in that?

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infogeek.org- life after library school

For those looking for information on portfolios, there are two different threads in other parts of the forum that address the question:

http://lisjobs.com/forum/yaf_postst158_Portfolios-at-interviews.aspx

and

http://lisjobs.com/forum/yaf_postst113_What-the-heck-is-portfolio-and-what-goes-in-it.aspx

Katie

You might consider using something like ClaimID for a portfolio: http://claimid.org/

You can use it to manage your online presence with a pre-set, simple design, so if you're not an HTML or design wiz, it's a good option. Plus it'll rank higher than most other results when someone googles your name.

It's free and it was created by two IS doctoral students at the library school at UNC-Chapel Hill, so I think that means you get librarian karma points for using it. And you show you off your web savvy.

Thanks for all the input....it gave me a lot to think (and blog?) over.

How many prospective employers really have time to read through an applicant's blog? It seems like blogs should be more about personal fulfillment and familiarity with technology and not for job-hunting purposes. And since posts have a tendency to get removed/archived back it seems rather pointless - some of your best writing might ot even appear on the front page when someone logs in to view the page. I opted for a myspace page instead - just a simple page with a slideshow of some displays and projects I've done at work, and it requires less time to maintain.

How many prospective employers really have time to read through an applicant's blog?

If the prospective employee has a blog, I'll want to read it. I want professional employees who can write, especially with a quick turn-around. I know I'd prefer a few spritely blog posts over a well written (but likely soporific) student paper.