Blogging Can Help Your Resume

Part of me would die inside if it turned out that the real reason most students are in college is simply to get a good job when they graduate, but better employment prospects are certainly one benefit of a liberal arts education. And while simply knowing how to blog won't get you very far in life, if you can show an employer that you can write intelligently and keep a reader's interest on a wide variety of topics, that may help your application stand out. Other than computer geeks, journalists are probably the most informed about the value of good blogging. Here is a recent news article describing how some new hires have used their blogs to gain experience to get noticed.

Chicago Tribune | An unlikely new source of writing talent: Blogs

"When I started out, one of my fears was that I'd be laughed out of town. Here I was, a college junior, and who cares what I think?" Yglesias says. The rise of his blog -- thanks to generous attention from more famous bloggers, such as the "InstaPundit," Glenn Reynolds -- "speaks well of the people involved, rather than just the software involved," he adds.

Back in the Dark Ages, starting out in journalism used to mean late nights covering school board meetings or writing features about the circus coming to town. But that kind of old-fashioned resume-building doesn't matter much to Denton when he's hiring for Gawker or his other for-profit site, the gadget-centric Gizmodo.com.