Seth Godin wrote a blog post this week about the fact that people hiring for jobs should realize that past performance is the best predictor of future performance and not be swayed by the way a person dresses or how they can spin a tale. As a psychologist, I know this to be the ultimate truth as much as sometimes, wish it were not, "If only she'd.... show up for work...not drink so much... get along with the team ... complete what she starts....she'd be great".
How does this relate to getting a job? A lot. The most important thing in getting hired for a job or obtaining new work, is what have you actually done and how you did it. Now, we can tell people what we've done. We can have ( and still need) a well-crafted resume that lists jobs held with accomplishments duly accounted for. But these days, resumes all start to all look alike. We know they are tuned and buffed and often written by someone else to fluff over that horrible experience or cover that couple of years when you were off your game.
According to Seth, people who want to hire a person to get a job done, should look at the person's ability to get work done in the past. Seth says what you have "shipped" in the past matters most. How do you show people what you have "shipped"?
If you are serious about standing out from the crowd, a blog is essential. Blogs are the new resumes. I am talking about a website where you are writing about your ideas and experiences; where you are sharing insights gained from projects that went well or even more importantly on those that failed miserably. When I am helping someone to create their online presence I tell them to "show" their readers who they are and what they are capable of rather than just "telling" them.
Your blog can be more important and more inclusive than a resume. In fact, with a good website, the resume becomes almost an after thought. Chris Brogan has written a free e-book , Using the Social Web to Find Work. He says people find him to do work for them from his blog, ... people can see examples, almost daily of what I think, what I know and what I have accomplished in my life and career." He says, " blogging like this is like writing out a resume line for line but not as boring!"
Okay, so you have to have the resume, but once you have a blog you can link to it from the resume. There they will see you speaking, read testimonials, read about your philosophy about work, how you manage a team remotely, or even better, the problems you have dealt with managing a team remotely . This is the real deal. This is show rather than tell. This will have you stand out above the crowd. Are you game?
A couple of weeks ago, I had an LA film producer contact me about doing the website for a film he was working on. I asked how he got my name. He told me Seth Godin recommended me. I said, What!!!???!!! He said, "Yeah, I typed into Google 'Seth Godin, Webdesigners' and you came up." I immediatley went and looked and what he actually saw in the search results was a blog post I wrote a couple of years ago about Seth Godin, he did not see Seth Godin writing about me. But hey, he found me because of a post I wrote and liked what he saw. I showed up and stood out and had a chance to impress him. He did not ask to see my resume.