I have read "Chronicle Careers - Bloggers need not apply" two or three times now trying to figure out if it is sarcasm or serious advice. If the article is serious, then the condemnation of bloggers as job candidates is a shocker...albeit justfiable in this case, particularly if the anecdotal stories are true. If the blogs described in the article were all that bad, then the search committee should be thankful for a resource (bad blogs) to weed out candidates that aren't a good match, reveal details of an individual's lack of integrity, or indicate character flaws that cannot be legally addressed in an interview.
"More often that not, however, the blog was a negative, and job seekers need to eliminate as many negatives as possible.We all have quirks. In a traditional interview process, we try our best to stifle them, or keep them below the threshold of annoyance and distraction. The search committee is composed of humans, who know that the applicants are humans, too, who have those things to hide. It's in your interest, as an applicant, for them to stay hidden, not laid out in exquisite detail for all the world to read. (my emphasis) If you stick your foot in your mouth during an interview, no one will interrupt to prevent you from doing further damage. So why risk doing it many times over by blabbing away (my emphasis) in a blog?"
Ivan Tribble (pseudonym)
I do more than my share of blabbing away (whatever that means) here on CTDT...but I try to be open minded about issues and opinions that don't match with my world view. So, to Ivan Tribble, "humanities professor at a small liberal-arts college in the Midwest", how do you feel about writers who choose anonymity to stereotype a segment of the population as negatively as you did in this article, with only a token acknowledgement that good bloggers might actually make better candidates than those who do not have the discipline, energy, and creativity to "blab away" in a public arena...thus revealing their true voice, warts and all? There is something condescending in the tone of this article that says to me that Quaint Old College would rather I put up a good front in an interview and wield only a traditional, reliable, print resume... My advice to the search committee at Quaint Old College: search out the great academic blogger candidates on the blogosphere first...then, match those candidates with the treeware versions. And, be thankful that the bad candidates blogged their way out of your sights. Personally, I would be asking the really great job candidates, "Why don't you have a blog?"
OK, scratch off one more college that I need not consider for employment...*sigh*
Late Update 24 July: Additional insight from Weblogs in Higher Education - Good manners at home and ablog, "If your blog is associated with your name, write as if those people (employers, friends, significant others, and/or children - my emphasis) might very well read it. Because they might very well read it...Unless there are some changes that need to be made in society that require teachers, say, to stand up and talk rudely in public, then we shouldn't do it at home, at work, or on our blogs." Well said.