RANDY RAY - Special to the Globe and Mail
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Computer programmer Joey deVilla blogged his way to a job.
Mr. deVilla is among 30,000 Canadians who write on-line diaries known as web logs, or blogs, where they regularly share their thoughts over the Net.
For Mr. deVilla and an increasing number of other bloggers, their pages are becoming more than a soap box for personal views on issues ranging from the U.S. election to music: They're also playing a growing role in helping bloggers land jobs.
Employers are increasingly turning to blogs during their recruitment process to learn more about prospective employees -- and for the growing number of bloggers, their efforts have become an on-line portfolio to showcase their talents, says Jim Elve, publisher of BlogsCanada.ca, a guide to blogs.
"If I am an HR director and I receive an application that says a person has a blog, I am going to take a look at it . . . I am going to see that this person is not hiding himself because he is saying 'go ahead and read my diary.' It gives me a pretty good glimpse into the personality of a person and shows how well he can put words onto paper," Mr. Elve says.
That certainly worked for Mr. deVilla, 37, who found his way to Toronto-based Internet company Tucows Inc. in July, 2003, through a chance encounter with company executives at a meeting of bloggers in Toronto, which he had heard about through his own popular blog, The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.
At the meeting, he chatted with the Tucows' executives; he learned that they were looking for a programmer and they learned he was a blogger ready to be recruited.
The company's human resources staff surfed over to Mr. deVilla's blog, liked what they saw and, after the usual round of interviews and background checks, offered him a job as technical community development co-ordinator.
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