Peter Weddle's Rules for Blogging

The latest edition of Weddle's newsletter has some thoughts on how to blog correctly.

Rules for Success

If you decide to write a blog, follow these rules to ensure that it actually helps your career:

1. Don't rant. A career blog is not the place to vent your spleen about the cost of prescription drugs or how unfair your speeding ticket was. It is a platform for showcasing your skills and knowledge in your field of work, so confine yourself to topics that will do that.

2. Communicate like a professional. It may be all yours and it may be personal, but if you want to impress a recruiter, make sure you edit your entries and proofread them carefully. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so take the time to be at your best.

3. Say something worthwhile. A blog is not a place to rehash your resume. Recruiters are looking for distinctive performers, so use your commentary to excel in your field, to offer your ideas about how best to address a particular challenge or to accomplish a task that is often done poorly.

Shakespeare said 'all the world's a stage,' and he was right in his time and in ours. Thanks to the Internet, we can now offer performances that recruiters in our hometown and around the world can see. Done well, they can be the opening act for what's next in our career.