Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

One of the most fascinating conversations I sat in on during ERE’s Fall Expo was a roundtable discussion with author and Brazen Careerist blogger Penelope Trunk, Google’s talent expert Jason Warner, and a handful of corporate and contingency recruiters eager to pick the brains of these Web 2.0 veterans.

The main question posed by the panel was, who is blogging, and if you’re not, why?

A few people said they’ve been exploring this newfound world of Web 2.0 tools, albeit hesitantly mainly because of legal fears and threats posed by their corporate colleagues.

Jason Warner offered up his own answer to such a problem: break the rules. He immediately won the crowd over when he talked about how when he first began at Google, he got into some hot water by blogging without the company’s permission. But he was able to show the higher-ups what kind of value such a tool provides, not just to candidates but as a motivator of productivity and a great way to brand your company. Now his blog continues to provide excellent career advice and an intimate look into the Google culture.

Penelope Trunk agreed with Warner and expressed her frustration that blogging is still considered taboo at a lot of companies. She recalled when email made its debut and how it worked wonders for her sex life as she was able to perform “email sex” with her partner at the time. Blogging has opened up a lot of avenues in much of the same sense.

Many people in the room continued to talk about the barriers they have come across when deciding whether or not to blog. One girl frantically described the incredible array of social media she subscribes to and said that at one point she was so overwhelmed with the amount of content she was reading that she could find little time to blog. But she came to realize that she could let the content “float to the top” of these media channels and let other writers do the work for her, so at the end of the day it was simply a matter of sorting through the most relevant content and deciding on a timely topic to discuss rather than tackling a multitude of issues.

Warner took that time to point out the obvious differences between the girl, who was a Gen Y’er, and most of the other attendants in the room, who were probably on average late 30s or 40s. He said he wishes he could get inside her mind to be able to “think like her,” because he found her ability to sift through and create content via so many different portals a gift that seemed to come second-nature, while some of the older generations of the group were still struggling with defining what it means to blog and how one can make sense of all these new Web 2.0 tools that seem to crop up every few minutes.

But the group was in agreement on one topic: that it is incredibly important to blog, to be heard, and to share your experience with others. And if you’re experiencing roadblocks within your company, try executing a pilot program with only a few people at the helm to begin easing your colleagues into the 21st century.

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