Would you hire a Web person without a Web site?

I’m still half reporter, but my paper only knew about my interest in online. I do have a bunch of blogs, but I’m highly doubtful that my editors have looked at them.

I don’t have a personal site, although it’s on my list of to-dos

@Kim,

I think a blog would count as a personal site. Now, the real question is whether or not you want your coworkers seeing your blogs.

But I’d personally count you having blogs in this case. I would still encourage you to make a personal site that serves as a digital resume and life feed.

Pat,

I agree completely. Showcasing a number of talents will happen when someone creates a personal site/blog. This initiative would help someone become an enthusiastic adopter, or digital native, so that knowledge of what works online becomes second nature.

Currently I’m working on creating a personal Web site, something that I (unfortunately) have little knowledge about. However, I am willing and eager to learn and I believe that the initiative of wanting to learn a practical skill like Web design will help me better understand what it is like to work as a Web person.

The new attitude for the Web shouldn’t be “show me you use the Web” rather it should be “show me what you are doing/planning to get done on the Web.”

I believe that a new attitude would hit on your ideas of initiative, inquisitiveness and the entrepreneurial spirit.

-J. Silfies

Not necessarily so. Online students have loads of hours and spare time to develop their own sites.

Me, I’d rather focus on developing great sites at work.

I do have a ‘resume’ site though. But, honestly, after hours of sitting in front of the box at work, I think I’d rather go home and play with the kids, thanks.

@annette,

Fair enough.

But, how do you showcase your Web skills to people? Do you have a list of projects you have worked on and what did you did for them with links?

From what I can gather about you, however, is that you are an established person who is in a management position. What about something who isn’t either of those? I think for them, it might make sense to have a personal Web site — AKA a personal marketing tool.

I do realize that there are talented Web people without personal sites. I know several of them.

I’m in Jared’s position personally. I’m trying to work on a personal Web site, but I’m also having to learn it all from scratch.

Annette, you have a resume site already, which I would assume shows what you can already do. Honestly, though, if online students have hours and hours of spare time to develop, then those of us already in the industry can either play catchup or fall by the wayside.

Those of us trying to catchup have the advantage of working in the system while being able to display how in tune to the Web we are, which just might give us a leg up.

If an applicant didn’t at least have a blog, Facebook profile, yourspace or similar wouldn’t you wonder why they wanted to work online?
Would you employ a TV presenter who didn’t own a telly. I think not – how would they know what made good viewing. Same argument applies to the web. If you’re not on, you’re not in.

I agree that it makes sense to hire someone who already has a Web presence. That said, I totally snagged my job at WNCN without any direct Web experience. I guess I did a good job of convincing my employers that I had the writing thing down and that I believed in their vision. So I’ve been tutoring the tech guys at the station on writing/journalism, etc. and they’ve been helping me understand the ways of the Internets. So far, so good.

I think its easier to expect someone to have a personal site than to have a blog.

Every writer or designer should strive to build their name as a “brand,” and having a personal website is a great way to begin. It could be as easy as using a “WYSIWYG” editor to post a professional bio and resume, listing some simple, noninvasive contact info (like a secondary e-mail address that can be spam-filtered), and providing links to your LinkedIn profile and professional work. I think it’s important that, at the least, every professional gets their name out on the web in a way it can be associated with their work and achievements–it’s just good professional practice.

A blog, while often easier to set up, can be a challenge to maintain if the author is not an authority on their target subject (and their are usually some very good blogs on most topics already existent). If a blogger cannot commit to regularly updating their site with groundbreaking, creative, and informative postings that aren’t available somewhere else, there isn’t much chance of them gaining any kind of loyal reading audience. Blogging ability can be a great skill to add to any resume, but for a lot of people who are not primarily writers or authorities, it is too easy to get lost in the blogging wasteland. I think their time would be much better spent focusing on putting together a great, eye-catching personal page.

Short answer: it depends on the position you’re hiring for.

If this person is a Web designer or developer, they definitely need a Web-based portfolio of their work. It doesn’t really matter if this is their “personal site,” heck it could be a series of screenshots with links posted on Flickr, but it might wow me if they do and it looks good.

For the journalism-set it gets a little more fuzzy.

I don’t really care if you have a blog unless you’re using it to write about your industry. But it’s impressive for photographers and videographers to show portfolios online than in print or on tape.

All-in-all, you’re probably going to be more-likely to get a job working with the Web if you demonstrate your knowledge and awareness by having your own site.

i think for some, it get even fuzzier. In my case, my blogs have nothing to do with the journalism i participate in at work. They’re light, personal and about fun topics for me (green living, fashion).

I’ve long struggled with having two sides to my writing self, but the only way I can resolve it is that I have a very multi-faceted brand.

I think if you’re in the web, you at least need to be an early adopter. I question web journalists who don’t understand Twitter, for example.

It seems pretty obvious to me. In any interview (I would hope) there would be a question along the lines of “so, what have you done?”

You’re gonna show something, aren’t you? Will the Daily Gazette’s web site show what you want your potential employer to see?

It also depends on what you as the employer are looking for. If you are looking for dyed-in-the-wool technologists, then (again, I hope) you are *assuming* they have a personal web site because that’ll be the hallmark of just that.

But perhaps a list of commercial sites showing the interviewee’s great work would suffice.

In a similar vein, while interviewing IT candidates I always asked “how many computers do you own. When looking for dyed-in-the-wool technologists (why would I look for anything else?) folks with 8 or 9 computers with their own development rack would always score higher than, “I just have my ‘work computer’”