To blog or not to blog, that is the…
I was a presentation in Sydney a few years ago, I told the speaker I was looking for work, he asked me:
Speaker: Do you have a website?
Me: No
Speaker: You are missing a big opportunity
Like the Pulp song ‘Common people‘, I had to start it and I started there.
I took her to a supermarket
I don’t know why but I had to start it somewhere, so it started there.
So I started then and there blogging about testing ideas, the ideas were no problem I was out most nights at presentations and events.
Connecting ideas
Not long after I got a contract and one thing led to another and other opportunities, the first role was at Xerox in Sydney, the manager was looking for someone technical, the recruitment agent was more of a sales guy, if you give recruitment the material to sell you, they always will, and he did.
The recruiter saw my website, people will google you and find all kinds of things. So he told the manager
“He’s got a great website”
The manager said, “Sounds like a technical guy” and I was off. It worked.
Another thing I was reminded of was…
Another deal breaker was I could start the next day, and work over Christmas, by myself in an empty building. It wasn’t the first time i started a project the only person in the building, one of my last projects was the same in Tasmania.
So I have done a bit of blogging over the years, I can see the stats of people checking out my posts, through Linkedin, Social media, facebook, twitter and wordpress, if you want to get technical you can do some interesting analysis, sometimes I get mails from people, what’s very nice is people like to repost my stuff on twitter and on their own sites.
The benefits of blogging are tremendous:
- It’s your resume, only better
- It gives you a positive digital footprint
- It helps you build a network
- It keeps you current — and sharp
- It makes you interesting to employers
Today I got a mail asking me to collaborate, with probably the best Selenium Automation testing site I have seen so far. (See number 3) “It helps you build a network”.
Helping to build an Automation tester network is an opportunity i wasn’t thinking about.
I don’t know why but I had to start it somewhere, so it started …
Meanwhile in a supermarket near you…
Kieran O' Callaghan 