from Scott Allen:
Heather Hamilton, a senior recruiter for marketing talent at Microsoft, just did one of the most unusual recruiting ideas we’ve ever seen. Heather has asked her readers to link to this post from their blog resumes, and she’ll check out the resumes by reviewing her referrals.
The implication of this? If you don’t understand how to do what she’s asking you to do, you’re probably not (as) qualified to work in the marketing department at Microsoft.
We spoke with Heather for our chapter on job search in The Virtual Handshake for her take on how blogs are changing how people find jobs:
“Blogging is a great opportunity in the staffing industry, both for the recruiter and the job seeker (or future job seeker). Blogs represent conversations and provide more info to a recruiter than a resume can.
Through a blog, a recruiter can understand not just the experience of the candidate, but how they work, their passion, the quality of their relationships with co-workers, their opinions. This creates a more dimensional snapshot of a candidate than a résumé.
It is not unusual for a recruiter to do a web search of a known candidate to identify their online presence. By creating a professional blog, the job seeker can brand themselves beyond what is represented in a typical résumé format.
Blogs have the potential to dramatically change the way companies recruit, because of the relationship building opportunity.
Where job boards provide a very transactional environment (active candidates search jobs and submit resumes, recruiters search resumes and contact candidates) for active job seekers, blogs allow for more of a long term approach for managing one’s career and for recruiting talent.
As a professional, the best time to build a relationship with a recruiter is before you start looking for your next position.
In an environment where large corporations can receive thousands of résumés a day, establishing a relationship through blogging (through your blog or the recruiter’s blog) can greatly benefit the seeker because blogs establish a dialog, which can create an advantage over the thousands of other applicants vying for the recruiter’s attention.
For the recruiter, who likely specializes in recruiting a specific type of talent (marketing talent, in my case), the opportunity to identify like candidates via blogging is huge.
By engaging with a community of marketing professionals (through my blog or the blogs of marketing pros), I am able to interact directly with talent in my area of focus.
I’m able to let the active seekers know whether I have something for them and I am able to market our hot new jobs to active and non-active leads and candidates. Blogging truly creates a win/win opportunity for the professional and the recruiter.
In short, if you’re looking for work, and you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on one of your best vehicles for exposure and credibility.
