Why Your Next Worker Should Be a Blogger

A major theme of this blog has been getting “Hired with Excel.” This was motivated by my own experience as a liberal arts grad, seeing the importance of Excel for my employment prospects. Knowing one of the best ways to learn is to teach, the blog began.

Not to go too “meta,” but I’d like to focus on getting “Hired with Hired with Excel” from the employer’s point of view; that is, why bloggers make good workers. I started this blog to strengthen my data chops and to help others avoid some of my early mistakes. I didn’t know it would become one of my proudest achievements and most valuable assets.

Employers, here’s why your next worker should be a blogger:

They share before you ask.  A new trend in recruitment is the “job audition” where candidates are asked to work on a project to demonstrate their abilities. Similar to test driving a car, this method is meant to protect the hiring manager from a “lemon.”

The problem with the job audition is that, well, the candidate is likened to a used car which must be given a “test drive” to protect the hiring manager from a “lemon.”  It sets a bad precedent, one of asking to perform pro bono driven by skepticism of the candidate’s abilities. Isn’t there a better way? 

“Perhaps the internet has returned us to a world a bit like the Stone Age,” Matt Ridley writes in The Rational Optimist, “in which there is no place for a fraudster to hide.”

The internet provides a near-infinite platform for candidates to share what they know. Why ask for a “job audition” when a candidate already has a portfolio of project and contents and their website? The internet is the best mechanism ever conceived for filtering the solid candidates from the lemons.

Bloggers share what they know willingly, so they don’t have to be taken for a “test ride.” And isn’t the candidate who shares knowledge clearly and openly the candidate you want?

Their resources run deep.  Valuable organizations are built on networks and the best networks start with employees’ networks.

Good bloggers are inherently good networkers. There is an innately open and collaborative nature of blogging.

While building my blog, I used to consult books and podcasts when I had a question. Now that I have established myself, I can set up a Skype call directly with my mentors, many of them household names in the data world.

Whether it’s a technical or business question, bloggers bring a wealth of resources and connections to their job.

They are multiversatile.  Job titles are becoming obsolete as workers rapidly move across functions, companies and industries. The best employees are multiversatile, focused on an outcome rather than a discipline.

From writing SEO-friendly content, to video editing, to social media marketing bloggers know a lot of stuff. To be a successful blogger means running in multiple circles, from web design to small business to domain expertise.

To be successful, a project might take one of many media such that it is communicated well to its audience. Bloggers instinctively understand this process. “I’m not trained for that’ or “that is not my job” will never be a successful blogger’s attitude.

They give a damn. To build on the above themes of self-reliance and versatility… In an age where most employees are demotivated and bored at work, what could be more refreshing than an intrinsically-motivated employee?

The world’s most successful individuals concur that you must spend at least five hours a week learning to stay sharp. And what better way to learn than to teach?

Through blogging, employees sharpen their skills, build their networks and show they care. The majority of bloggers reap little upfront reward other than an innate sense of purpose and a growing mastery over their domain.

Nevertheless, they persist and the rewards come. This is grit we’ve all been hearing about.

Bloggers are good workers.  Unfortunately too many employers see personal blogs as sidetracked pastimes at best and narcissistic vanity projects at worst. Too bad, because the meta-skills honed by bloggers are the same that organizations need their employees to have to be successful.