A friend revealed his reticence to blogging recently by explaining that he didn’t want to create a trail of work and opinions that could limit his future career choices. Fair point, perhaps.
We’ve all heard stories of bloggers who’ve lost jobs as a result of the content of their posts. And if you believe the Forbes story, the blogosphere is filled with teaming hordes intent on ruining established companies and destroying the economy (okay, I exaggerate).
But the Forbes story was found empty after Kurt Opsahl pointed out the criticisms leveled against blogs applied pretty equally to printing presses (or, just about any other media, probably). And most anybody watching political reporting on the cable channels will find examples of bloggers whose careers were made by that trail of work and opinion.
So I countered my doubtful friends fear with this: your successor will be a blogger, and when you re-enter the market, you’ll be competing against bloggers who will be able to point to a history of work and writing as evidence of their fitness for the job. As employers continue to lose faith in the claims made on resumes or by references, those blog posts will grow in value.
He started blogging the next day.