One of my pet peeves with technologies today is that the generations that came after mine will buy anything if its "cool", even if in fact its almost totally useless. For example, one of my staff recently bubbled over showing the gang how he had just gotten a new app for his iPhone. Its a compass. As the guys gathered around his cubicle to see a demonstration, I walked by and then asked "Do you actually need a compass?"... Silent pause... "I mean are you planning to trek into the wilderness?"... Longer pause... And sure enough, it became pretty clear that this group of guys was excited about something they had no particular use for. Sure, its cool to see a compass on a phone - but whats the point? Coolness? Pretty silly if you ask me.
Now I dont know how every other company in the world screens applicants, but I know in our case I have about 30 seconds with each resume that comes across my desk. Yes, digitally, but in our last two hiring incidents we got a vast amount of responses and I just dont have time to visit web sites and blogs. I look at a resume, keying on skills we need, checking how well (or not) the resume is written and assembled, and from there I am narrowing down who we will move to the second phase.
When we have a few candidates we want to see, I DO NOT want to read web pages - I want to meet the person, IN PERSON. I dont hire web pages, blogs, or for that matter resumes - I hire people. And I dont know one single collegue who has ever hired a web page or blog, or for that matter resume.
Your editorial seems to suggest that people have vast amounts of time to wade through web pages and blogs. It further suggests that somehow, someone is going to build a "brand" and some hiring person like me is going to go "Oh WOW!!! I must hire this person!!!" - Nope, nada, zilch - has NEVER happened. And with respect, I dont know and have never heard a single time anything close has happened either from collegues or simply hearing about such a thing.
Again with respect, if you want to get hired here and most places I have worked and know of in my career, you have ONE goal - get a face to face interview and then in that, do all your dazzle and impress-me stuff. THAT is where I would be happy to see your web page, or hear about your blog. But I dont have the time to wade through that stuff when doing intial screening.
Like it or not, with all the wonderful and sometimes totally useless technology - one thing has not changed....
People hire people. They dont hire web pages. They dont hire resumes. Get the face to face interview - thats where your "brand" matters and will make or break you.