Personal blogs can do a lot to hurt — and very little to help — the academic job-seeker – “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.” I get the impression that my blog may have hurt me with some of the jobs I applied for, but I can’t really know for certain. In my case, though, I was looking for a job that really fit my personality, so perhaps it was all for the best. There sure are a heck of a lot of cautionary tales out there, and certainly no one wants to get Dooced. It’s a really fine line, isn’t it? I’ve commented on this sort of thing before, I don’t really have any answers. It’s too early in the game. (via JP)
Aside
Also, from the academic end of it, there is a lot of talk now about the potential political leanings of faculty members. As a result, one can imagine a situation where students could use a faculty member’s blog to question grades and in-class comments. Not only would this lead to a complicated process for already-hired faculty members ( as well as their department chairs and deans) but I could imagine hiring committees not really wanting to get involved with someone who is apt to post their political thoughts online in the first place. Its hard enough when there is a lot of “professor said-student said” going back and forth (see: Columbia Middle Eastern Studies Dept.), its probably even more complicated when faculty members have easily “google-able” blogs.
I think I wouldn’t want a job where I would have to pretend to be somebody else. I did that for many years and it wasn’t fun.