Seth's Blog: Why bother having a resume?

Sometimes I am asked why I blog. This has happened more than once when I ask a job candidate if they have a blog. Here is Seth Godin writing along the same lines, asking why have a resume when you can have so much more. I have to say I tend to agree. I always find a resume to be a like a book's table of contents, but without any book! I think the only time I read the table of contents thoroughly is if I happen to be in the market for a text or reference book, and even then it is hardly exciting, and only as good as the writing that follows! And I'm not in that market that frequently or enthusiastically...
Some would say that's why one has the phone interview. Good. I like the phone interview. I think it is essential. But why stop there?

What is better? Blog or resume? Well like so many "either or" questions the real answer lies in both. Maybe the resume is useful to people who want a checklist, and I suppose that's useful if one has to check out actual educational references and suchlike. But how dull! It used to be in the 1990s that people wanted to see elaborate Web sites, but these days are different. For me, the blog is likely to reveal more meaning, with significantly less humdrum evening engineering. Hopefully it will be a useful habitual exercise in forming meaningful thought into clear communication. Sometimes it might be useful to me as a record of things I find interesting. At the very least it will be a brief record of what I thought at a certain time, or maybe reveal a way of thinking, and a way of writing.

Anyway, once again Seth provides perspective, and another reason for you to blog :)

Seth's Blog: Why bother having a resume?