Cheap Office 2010 blog newbie-blogging-in-review

Now that JobsBlog happens to be around for some months, I thought it may possibly be interesting to search back again at some lessons I;ve discovered and views I;ve formed about blogging plus the corporate culture around me:



Co-workers Love that I weblog but ....


I consistently receive positive feedback from my peers and managers about JobsBlog, and most people agree that the recruiting bloggers (Zoë, Heather, and I) have helped bring more transparency to the hiring process and have enabled qualified candidates to better market themselves and self-identify for appropriate roles.



On a variety of occasions, Zoë and I extended the offer to other recruiting teams and recruiters to be “guest columnists” on JobsBlog. What better way to plug your open jobs, locations, and processes and assist in further unveiling our practices? Some recruiters specially asked if they could write guest entries; other times, Zoë and I proactively solicited columnists. But in the end,Office Enterprise 2007 Key, very couple of people ever followed-thru. (Sorry, I know we promised guest columnists back in March!)



As for Zoë, Heather, and me … our hope in starting our blogs was that other recruiters would follow suit with similar blogs. But there is still a huge void yet to be filled (college recruiting, sales/consultant recruiting, etc). I;d still like to see other Microsoft recruiting blogs in the future, but I;ve also discovered to stop holding my breath.
For now.



Blog who?


Beyond the regular visitors, off-the-street web navigators do not understand what a blog is or how to utilize it. This leads to lots of confusion, weird e-mails, and misplaced questions/comments. This phenomenon also tells me I need to create a technical careers newsgroup!



Agg readers v web surfing


As much as I tried to adapt, I;m still not a fan of RSS aggregators. I prefer to save the links to my favorite blogs in the IE Favorites folder and then read entries at my leisure.



Reactions


I truly never expected so much of a positive reaction to JobsBlog. Negative reaction? Sure. But the negative comments have been kept at an extremely surprising minimum. I;m happy as it teaches other recruiters that it IS ok to release your contact information into the public domain. People won;t shell you with spam, silly questions, or hurtful comments. Truly!



I;m also surprised we have only received two media mentions: one in the Electronic Recruiting News and the other in Workforce Management Magazine. Again, my surprise here is that we didn;t get a lot of negative backlash. I figured we;d get slammed with poo-poo mentions in anti-Microsoft media. So far, so good!



Friends and family


My Dad loves the weblog! He even reads the links and comments! All happens to be good except for the time I got the flat tire on 405, decided not to tell my parents as not to worry them, blogged about it,Windows 7 Professional, and then got inundated with phone calls, questions, and parental advice. D;oh!



I also think it;s very curious that I only have one non-blogging friend who actually reads and seems to care about the weblog. (Yay, Jennifer! Thank you,Microsoft Office Standard 2007!) Personally, if I had a good friend who blogged (especially one who lived on the other side of country), I may possibly occasionally check out the latest entries. But that;s just me.



You know what's sad? When your husband asks how your day was, and you reply with, “Effectively, have you read my weblog?”



The future


My true passion in life is writing. Now I just have to figure out how to parlay this blog thing into something more. Any ideas?



A couple of more lessons I learned as a newbie blogger


Get thick skin. Due to the anonymity of the internet, people think its ok to say mean things … but it still hurts. Ignore these people and move on.
Think before you write. Due to the anonymity of the internet, I sometimes think its ok to say mean things … but it still hurts others. Don't be “that guy.”
Learn that people will often take sections of your entries waaaaaay out of context. Write level-headed and direct comments in response (despite what you honestly want to write!)
Be prepared for critics who just don;t understand blogging, and instead of trying to sway their opinions,Cheap Office 2010, just let it go.
Yes, blogging in general (and Microsoft blogging specifically) can feel like yelling into an echo chamber. You know what? That;s ok.


Anyway, those are my thoughts on my first few months of blogging. I never realized how much fun I;d have,Office Pro 2010 Key! Thank you so much for sticking with us so far!



Now I have to stop blogging and get back to work!



gretchen