Job Search: Preliminary Results

A few weeks ago (or perhaps a few months ago - I'm not so sure now), I wrote a post about my intentions of using this blog to establish a network of colleagues in order to find a job in the library / information management field. It was an experiment, of sorts, to test the power of the blog.

I gave a brief description of my background, and I also uploaded my resume to give people a chance to view my skills, knowledge and work experience.

While the experiment is still on-going, I have decided to examine some of the preliminary results:

One person, so far, has responded directly to my resume. This particular person, it should be noted, shares an interest in digitization and digital projects. I thank her for taking the time to respond and for providing me with further information.

This is worth reflecting on for a minute, for it demonstrates how a blog should be used in order to effectively network. Here are my thoughts:

1. Don't give up; keep blogging; have a topic in mind

Like our solar system, populated with its nine distinct planets, a blog can be filled with several different topics. But it is always a good idea to have one topic--one sun, if you will--around which everything else revolves.

Topic-specific or project-specific blogs (as this one, The DIGITAL Archive, used to be and still yearns to be) garner a fair share of attention because they focus on topics that are, professionally-speaking, of interest to people in the same field, in the same area of research. If one can use one's blog to contribute to the larger blogosphere discourse on a particular topic, chances are that blog networking opportunities will arise.

2. Building a blog network takes time.

Rome was not built in a day, nor will a blog's audience. It requires time and effort as well as patience.

3. Mention and cite blogosphere colleagues.

Frequently we come across a blog post that resonates with us. We consider and even savour the post's contents. Why not simply mention the post and the blogger's name the next time we make our own post? Let them know we read their post, and in turn they will know we are out there.

I think we all, from time to time, do a bit of "egosearching" (the act of searching for references to one's blog, as Gary McGath aptly put it), and in doing so we do indeed find more people with similar interests who have cited us in their blog. Our blog network grows.

4. Blogs are for sharing and communicating information.

This is worth repeating: Blogs are for sharing and communicating information. We are social creatures always seeking new ways to express ourselves. Blogs are a new and highly interconnected way of doing so.

Stick with the basics - blog about what stirs your enthusiasm - and amazing things will happen!