If you think that an employer can easily extract your personality from your perfected resume and cover letter, you are wrong my friend. Though cover letters allow more flexibility for an applicant to illustrate their distinctiveness, they tend to be overly professional, leaving little room for enjoyable content. Today, many employers look for spunky, innovative, and witty prospective employees. Nonetheless, how will a company know that you are a one-of-a-kind individual? By blogging. Yes, it’s really that simple.
Here are a few reasons why you should blog:
Allows you to be yourself: How often does a professor say “Write a paper on anything you want and for as long as you want”? Never, because many of us would write one paragraph about our day. As a blogger, you can write about anything you want, however you want to write about it. Blogging allows you to reflect and be totally open through writing, while reaching an audience.
Illustrates unique capabilities: Writing blogs proves that you can be consistent, engaging, and effectively communicative. Also, blogging typically requires the writer to be familiar with various platforms in order to upload posts. Having experience with content management systems and html is beneficial and a unique skill set that is desired by some employers. Though it may sound difficult, using content management systems is fairly easy. Being able to use multiple media shows your potential company that you are keeping up with 21st century technologies.
Provides a positive Google search: Who doesn’t like to Google their name and find their own published work? Most people Google their full name and the only thing that pops up is their idle, graphic-filled Myspace page. If an employer is trying to find more information about you and they enter your name in a Google search, they want to see more than information about Myspace, unless you’re Tom Anderson. Blogging allows you to keep an online archive of all your posts with links that you can add to your Linkedin profile and offer to future employers!
Now let’s not assume that after writing one blog, all of your dream employers will be knocking down your door. However, with consistent and engaging posts you never know who may stumble across your blog. (Hi Oprah … in case you’re reading this.)
If you are interested in being a regular student blogger, please contact Heather Hoffman via email at Hoffman@uic.edu.