Blogs as an Extension to Your Resume

When you attempt to sell your offering to the job market, the traditional tool for this has always been a resume. Resumes are the ‘traditional media’ way to advertise your skill set. They are somewhat impersonal, and one dimensional in what they communicate (a list of skills and accomplishments). As with traditional media there was a time when this method was highly effective – when knowing a skill was all that mattered to carrying out a job. Now as we have progressed away from office workers, through knowledge workers and more towards self directed innovators, a resume with a list of skills doesn’t really seem to tell the whole story.

Now, just as blogs are allowing companies to create more authentic relationships and better communication with their customers, so too could it be used to help with personal marketing and fill in where traditional resumes leave off. This is not about taking the contents of your resume and posting it on a blog. (Some marketers in companies made this mistake by trying to advertising products through a blog). A blog can give you an opportunity to show prospective employers/clients how you think. As jobs become less task based (where the tools matter) to more about the optimal application of those tools to solve business problems in innovative ways, a blog can be a mechanism to showcase this.

Also, just as new media won’t replace traditional media in the corporate marketing sense; neither will blogs fully replace the resume. It’s about correct application of the tools to optimize success, and what you want out of your career. If you want to be an office worker – use a resume. If you want to be a self directed innovator, try using a blog.