Hi guys. So, I'm job searching and met with a recruiter today. I mentioned my personal poetry blog when she asked what was going on, and she wanted me to include it at the top of my resume to show I am creative. I was hesitant and wondered if that would be appropriate. She asked me if there was anything racy on it and I said no, it was mostly nature and haiku poems. I promised to send her an updated resume with the blog. But looking closer at my blog, a lot of it is emotional/personal. Some poems deal with things like anxiety and sadness. Should I e-mail her thanking her for the interview and telling her I do not wish to include my blog? Is she simply fishing for more information? I could not furnish a reference on my last job because I was working for a private individual who did not wish to be contacted and that covered a few years. I gave her references for two other employers though. Any advice is appreciated, especially if anyone works in the recruiting field or something related.
I would be very cautious about referring to my journals or blogs on a resume. I'm not sure how that could help with finding a job, to be honest. Maybe just adding a short note about your creativity? If that's what she feels like is important? There are all kinds of blogs these days. Everyone has one, right? Maybe she doesn't realize how personal yours is. I use journals (& blogs) as an outlet. That's about it. All they reveal about me is how emotional I am.
double post!! sorry! I'm not in the recruiting field at all, btw. But I love to write poetry. Just thought I'd throw in my two cents.
Thanks! I emailed and told her I changed my mind. I linked to an archived post of one of my published works instead. It's three years old, a short three-line haiku, and doesn't showcase the work/commitment I put in a blog. Still, it's the best I can do at this point.
For later, maybe you could create a second blog, specifically for this sort of purpose--include the works that you're comfortable sharing, and leave out the ones you're not.
If that links back to your blog or to a copy of something on your blog (even a thread of text) a savvy googler will be able to unearth you.
This is one of the reasons that I don't have much in the way of social media anymore. Companies are looking at people's personal lives because we live in the public domain. I don't like it one bit. Even though I don't have Facebook, I'm sure that anyone with half of a brain cell could dig up information about me. Scary really.
Heck, everyone who knows my name will find me on google immediately! But there is a difference what I put out on the internet with regard to personal information about hobbies and whatsnot, and private information I'd not be willing for everyone to see. My writing definitely falls under the category 'personal' and that's the main reason I use a pseudonym. I am not willing to talk about my private life at work, or have someone who is not a friend talk to me about this. At least not at this stage - if I ever should publish that's then a different kettle of fish entirely
What was the job? This seems unusual in the extreme unless you're applying for creative writing jobs.
If you've found someone in the field of unemployment who wants you to promote your creativity, then you're a very lucky person. In my experience anything in the field of 'creativity' is not a serious or realistic job goal. Feel free to dream your silly dreams, but while you're at it we want you down that factory packing airline meals!
That's a curious request. Sounds like you did the right thing in the end. The creativity/hobbies section of my CV only details stuff like "I read books", but if you're applying for a job that requires writing skills, suppose it then makes sense to link to your projects... Unless you want to keep them anonymous. After an opinion piece of mine was published in the most widely circulated daily newspaper in the metropolitan area (it's not an accomplishment as such, if you can put sentences together and don't fuck up the spelling of compound words too badly, you'll get your voice there), suddenly I started getting alerts of people clicking onto my very very rarely used profile on Academia, telling me "Someone just searched for you on Google and found your page on Academia.edu." It was actually kinda scary and made me paranoid for a while about the things I put online. That opinion piece was very much in line with my employer's code of ethics (I was preaching for tolerance and patience), so I wasn't worried of getting reprimanded, but still, just the fact that so many people searched me, maybe in hopes of dropping a nasty comment in the same vein as in the comment section of the newspapers' website where the piece was also published (oh they were lovely comments, just lovely, better not link that to mommy), was unnerving.
Hi all. I was looking for admin work, so I also found it weird that the Recruiter wanted me to put my blog in my resume. The work is archived on the publication's social media. I linked her to that item. I have never published this work before and I never told the Recruiter the name of my blog, so nothing (hopefully) will link back to me. I gave her the item so she could see I was being truthful when I mentioned I do creative writing. From my perspective, she's written me off as a potential employee and is probably just curious.
Me, personally, I wouldn't give out this information. It has nothing to do with an employer, unless you were going to work for the secret service or something, but administration, which is what I do, I would say, no, do one, Missy. I'm quite private like that, too. If I want someone to know something about me, then I'll add it to my resume. This worlds gone a bit crazy. Big Brothers watching. I don't even have facebook because people I barely know come out of the wood work and I'm like, bugger off! You did the right thing.
I think it all depends on how good the poetry is. I would hire someone for just about any job if they were a great poet. Honest. I think it says a lot about someone who has that kind of talent. But if it was bad poetry, I could see that hurting an applicant.
speaking as a manager/team leader I can't think of any benefits of linking a personal blog, i'f i'm hiring you i want to know you can do xyz on the job description, don't care if you wrote "haikus are easy, but sometimes they don't make sense, refrigerator" or whatever (unless i'm hiring someone to write haikus of course). If i want a creative i'll cover that at interview, or require some written copy with the application But there is a fairly extensive downside if your blog links through to personal social media of if you'vve made refference to anything an employer might find undesirable. my advice , shitcan the recriuiter and find one that knows wat he/she/it is talking about
My LinkedIn is all sparkly with writing credits, and also the blog pops up if, when you google my many titles. So applying for new jobs - there's a preparation stage where you, I [must] delete like a month's worth of blogposts, only leave the best/and most intelligent entries. Compositions such as 'I pissed myself, clothed in bed, due to alcoholic binge episode midweek' are to be redacted. Our problem remains that a fair number of employers are morons, bound to feel uncomfortable in the presence of our great minds. Ultimately, decision is your shitcan.
