Blogging is a growing area within PR and I must admit I believe much of PR is headed in that direction. Blogging does offer us a new way to reach clients and even non-related consumers making it a valuable tool. I appreciate your advice on what recruiters are looking for and it will weigh heavily on my future postings! As you said, “…nothing is off the record, and there is a record of what you wrote for a long, long time”. With that in mind I am challenged to create a more professional blog that I hope will stand the test of time and recruiter scrutiny!

I can understand why a potential employer would look at blogging experience for recruitment purposes because blogs have become such a powerful tool. Blogs may not show exact AP style writing skills, but it can show a person’s interests and thoughts. My professor keeps telling us to watch what we write on our blogs because now anyone can search my name and find my blog site. As Lindsay said, “We are all judged by what a potential employer can find via Google, and blogs usually come up higher in search results.”

I also have never thought to put my blogging experience on my resume, but I think it can only help show the diversity of skills I have learned. I would hope that my personal blog site would not limit my job opportunities because of the content, but help by showing what I am capable of doing. Blogging has become essential to many PR practitioners so it is nice to know that I have a head start before I have even graduated from college.

I try to keep my blogging topics neutral. Nobody likes to read the negative views of an obviously pessimistic individual. Therefore, I try to express my opinions with a positive perspective. There is nothing wrong with a little constructive criticism. However, it should be kept constructive.

Every once in a while, I will google myself just to see what pops up. This is a good habit to form. This helps with self-reflection and gives a glance at what a potential employer might see. We must always be aware of what we are writing.

Being required to blog four times a week has improved my writing and helped me think before posting something. It’s important to get your thoughts and ideas down in a way that doesn’t make you sound dumb or unprofessional. I didn’t think about how your blogs can be found on Google anytime. It makes me more aware of what I have to say and how I say it. Blogs are personal and can show a lot about you.

I never thought about putting my blogging experience on my resume. It seems that blogging has become such an asset to the PR world, that maybe we should all consider adding it. It’s a great way to show potential employers that you are out there reading, researching and writing about PR. It will be interesting to see if blogging will eventually become a common thing for all PR practitioners and their organizations. If it does become a requirement to get a job, then I am glad we are all one step ahead.

I hope, though, that I will not be penalized for postings on my personal site that do not sit well with potential employers or client; rather, I hope that I will be rewarded for my progress. I believe that researching writing skills, studying analytical styles and gleaning demographical information from blogs is a great way for an employer to know a potential employee, beyond my resume and an interview.

As students, we should realize that organizations in many different career fields are welcoming this communications tool and take advantage of the opportunities given to us. Like Darien, I had not really thought of putting my blog address or my blogging experience on my resume. However, I anticipate that it can only help me in the future.

Some of my readers — some of my clients — my not like knowing I supported Kerry last year, and might not like my going entirely off topic from time to time. I can only shrug… frankly, if a potential client is reluctant to hire me because of what she reads on my blog, she probably shouldn’t be my client. Neither of us would enjoy it.

Amy Gahran, a respected communicator with a professional blog, recently discussed why she outed herself as polyamorous at the BlogHer Conference. As you might imagine, she caught a lot of flack for it. Personally, I would have told critics to shove off, but Amy decided to conduct a poll asking readers how much personal information they would tolerated on a business blog. The results were instructive, and you can see them on Amy’s blog (she reported them over a period of weeks in August, so look there).

My hope is that recruiters and employers will use applicants blogs as a way to better know the “whole” person they are hiring. There’s no doubt that some bloggers’ writing will either overcome a weak cv or undermine a strong one, but we as a profession shouldn’t be afraid of that. There’s no doubt that the information contained in blogs includes a lot of information that interviewers are forbidden to ask at interviews (marital status, age, race, political views, even sexual preference), but we shouldn’t be afraid of that either. It’s who we are.

The down side of blogging would be that it does take up time and some people don’t do it wisely. I’ve found that it’s hard to find enough time to research and post four times a week and just when I think it’s over, an all new week starts. I’ve also read some post that have errors all in them. I know I’m not the greatest speller in the world, but I do check when I’m not sure. I realize that my site is visible to others and I don’t want to look like a fool. So, I think that blogs hurt some people when they’re not careful about how they write.

In the end, I’m thrilled to have had the chance to enter the world of blogging. It has introduced me to so many things I would have never known about.

I find it interesting that people have put blogging experience on their resumes. Since I am taking a class this semester and we are required to blog, I have wondered what benefit this might allow me to make in the future. How do I let professionals know that I have the experience and know how to use blogs and could possibly help them understand blogs? I never thought to put it into a resume though. I guess I would just add it to my “additional skills.”

I don’t know if I agree with people being hired because of their blogging experience though, at least not right now. I think that blogging needs a little more time to be understood completely and the purpose of blogging needs to more known. I agree that blogging will be beneficial to a company. I don’t think right now though that anyone should be hired or not hired based on their blogging experience.