Ryan Smiths Blog Sucks (but its getting better)

Ryan Smiths Blog Sucks (but its getting better) Disclaimer: I found Ryan Smiths blog via a Google Alert. I checked out his first (and only post, at the time) and right away thought Man, I gotta share this with my readers! This is the first of three posts, today is the introduction, tomorrow is what I dont like about his blog, and Thursday is what I recommend for his blog strategy. Weve exchanged a number of e-mails, he is okay with me writing about this, and he has already incorporated some ideas. Hes a self-confessed newbie and I really respect that he jumped in head first. I just think it could have been done differently. Note: if you know of any opportunities in Michigan for a dependable guy with a degree in Marketing/Management, please let him know (the best way is to go to his blog, find the My Resume box on the left, click on Web, and then click on the Contact tab. Or just click here). Meet Ryan Smith. Hes about my age (Gen X). He lives in Michigan and has had his degree since 1999. He is looking for work and decided to start a blog: Ryans first blog post was kind of a hey world! Im here! Come see me and know that Im in a job search! I liked the tenacity. But everything I saw and read was contrary to what my You Get It award winners are doing! In fact, over the last 15 months Ive seen a few of these types of blogs. There has only been one example that I actually liked, all of the rest I found to be the wrong solution (with potentially bad long-term results): I came across Clint James through a buddy. I LOVED his job search blog as he was chronicling his experience in a very thoughtful, mature way. Clint was not blogging as a me against the employers, rather I could read his ability to think critically and apply lessons and principles to the task at hand. I have not found another job seeker blog like this. Heres the bonus: he has continued to blog about his job and in a way that would make me proud, if I were his boss. I wish this was the best example out there, but Im sad to say its the ONLY example out there) (of what Id recommend). Ryans style is much more common, especially amongst the GenY crowd. And I wanted to see if he would be open to constructive criticism. Not only was he open, he was cool about me blogging about it. Good for you Ryan and please take all of this in the same spirit that I offer it. To get started, here are the questions that I posed to him in our first e-mail: Do you foresee any issues with employers that might have a problem with your transparency during this search? Do you have some kind of guideline or unwritten policy that you use to ensure you dont mention anything confidential, or something like that? Have you looked at Emurse? This is something that you could/should do, and then either put a widget on your blog or at least link back to it – the formatting is much better than your introductory post. Are you doing any blog marketing? Leaving comments on other peoples blogs, leaving your blog addy? Aside from asking for Digg votes, are you doing any other promotional stuff (stumbleupon, etc.)? Have you looked at other templates? Tell me about your total online presence strategy – LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, etc. More tomorrow. What do you think? Is Ryan on the right track (remember, when we communicated he only had one post up)? See anything right off the bat that you would change or recommend? Id love to have this be a group project with other people chiming in Ryan Smiths Blog Sucks (but its getting better) Disclaimer: I found Ryan Smiths blog via a Google Alert. I checked out his first (and only post, at the time) and right away thought Man, I gotta share this with my readers! This is the first of three posts, today is the introduction, tomorrow is what I dont like about his blog, and Thursday is what I recommend for his blog strategy. Weve exchanged a number of e-mails, he is okay with me writing about this, and he has already incorporated some ideas. Hes a self-confessed newbie and I really respect that he jumped in head first. I just think it could have been done differently. Note: if you know of any opportunities in Michigan for a dependable guy with a degree in Marketing/Management, please let him know (the best way is to go to his blog, find the My Resume box on the left, click on Web, and then click on the Contact tab. Or just click here). Meet Ryan Smith. Hes about my age (Gen X). He lives in Michigan and has had his degree since 1999. He is looking for work and decided to start a blog: Ryans first blog post was kind of a hey world! Im here! Come see me and know that Im in a job search! I liked the tenacity. But everything I saw and read was contrary to what my You Get It award winners are doing! In fact, over the last 15 months Ive seen a few of these types of blogs. There has only been one example that I actually liked, all of the rest I found to be the wrong solution (with potentially bad long-term results): I came across Clint James through a buddy. I LOVED his job search blog as he was chronicling his experience in a very thoughtful, mature way. Clint was not blogging as a me against the employers, rather I could read his ability to think critically and apply lessons and principles to the task at hand. I have not found another job seeker blog like this. Heres the bonus: he has continued to blog about his job and in a way that would make me proud, if I were his boss. I wish this was the best example out there, but Im sad to say its the ONLY example out there) (of what Id recommend). Ryans style is much more common, especially amongst the GenY crowd. And I wanted to see if he would be open to constructive criticism. Not only was he open, he was cool about me blogging about it. Good for you Ryan and please take all of this in the same spirit that I offer it. To get started, here are the questions that I posed to him in our first e-mail: Do you foresee any issues with employers that might have a problem with your transparency during this search? Do you have some kind of guideline or unwritten policy that you use to ensure you dont mention anything confidential, or something like that? Have you looked at Emurse? This is something that you could/should do, and then either put a widget on your blog or at least link back to it – the formatting is much better than your introductory post. Are you doing any blog marketing? Leaving comments on other peoples blogs, leaving your blog addy? Aside from asking for Digg votes, are you doing any other promotional stuff (stumbleupon, etc.)? Have you looked at other templates? Tell me about your total online presence strategy – LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, etc. More tomorrow. What do you think? Is Ryan on the right track (remember, when we communicated he only had one post up)? See anything right off the bat that you would change or recommend? Id love to have this be a group project with other people chiming in Ryan Smiths Blog Sucks (but its getting better) Disclaimer: I found Ryan Smiths blog via a Google Alert. I checked out his first (and only post, at the time) and right away thought Man, I gotta share this with my readers! This is the first of three posts, today is the introduction, tomorrow is what I dont like about his blog, and Thursday is what I recommend for his blog strategy. Weve exchanged a number of e-mails, he is okay with me writing about this, and he has already incorporated some ideas. Hes a self-confessed newbie and I really respect that he jumped in head first. I just think it could have been done differently. Note: if you know of any opportunities in Michigan for a dependable guy with a degree in Marketing/Management, please let him know (the best way is to go to his blog, find the My Resume box on the left, click on Web, and then click on the Contact tab. Or just click here). Meet Ryan Smith. Hes about my age (Gen X). He lives in Michigan and has had his degree since 1999. He is looking for work and decided to start a blog: Ryans first blog post was kind of a hey world! Im here! Come see me and know that Im in a job search! I liked the tenacity. But everything I saw and read was contrary to what my You Get It award winners are doing! In fact, over the last 15 months Ive seen a few of these types of blogs. There has only been one example that I actually liked, all of the rest I found to be the wrong solution (with potentially bad long-term results): I came across Clint James through a buddy. I LOVED his job search blog as he was chronicling his experience in a very thoughtful, mature way. Clint was not blogging as a me against the employers, rather I could read his ability to think critically and apply lessons and principles to the task at hand. I have not found another job seeker blog like this. Heres the bonus: he has continued to blog about his job and in a way that would make me proud, if I were his boss. I wish this was the best example out there, but Im sad to say its the ONLY example out there) (of what Id recommend). Ryans style is much more common, especially amongst the GenY crowd. And I wanted to see if he would be open to constructive criticism. Not only was he open, he was cool about me blogging about it. Good for you Ryan and please take all of this in the same spirit that I offer it. To get started, here are the questions that I posed to him in our first e-mail: Do you foresee any issues with employers that might have a problem with your transparency during this search? Do you have some kind of guideline or unwritten policy that you use to ensure you dont mention anything confidential, or something like that? Have you looked at Emurse? This is something that you could/should do, and then either put a widget on your blog or at least link back to it – the formatting is much better than your introductory post. Are you doing any blog marketing? Leaving comments on other peoples blogs, leaving your blog addy? Aside from asking for Digg votes, are you doing any other promotional stuff (stumbleupon, etc.)? Have you looked at other templates? Tell me about your total online presence strategy – LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, etc. More tomorrow. What do you think? Is Ryan on the right track (remember, when we communicated he only had one post up)? See anything right off the bat that you would change or recommend? Id love to have this be a group project with other people chiming in