Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#171

Post by jlelse » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

My blog (jlelse.blog) is absolutely worth it for me for the following reasons:

1. I enjoy sharing things with the world. 2. I got to know a lot of people who wrote me mails because I posted something. Some really nice connections with people from all over the world. 3. I learned a new programming language by developing my own blog software. 4. In job interviews I can tell about developing my own blog software with new technologies.

But I just post when I want to and what I want to. That can range from tutorials to just a casual images I took when walking through my neighborhood.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#172

Post by rr888 » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

I notice nearly everyone posts links to their blog. If you write a blog and want people to look at it, do you really have to do this as much as possible?

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#173

Post by stevenfoster » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

I've been writing on Substack this year and it's been nice to have the blog/newsletter option for people who want to follow either one.

https://stevenfoster.substack.com/

Writing and Publishing or maybe now Creating and Sharing have been incredible for my mental health. I can refine and bring clarity to my thoughts. Then sharing those thoughts I more often then not find at least one person who finds value in them or perhaps is moved by my words/photos/video, to share something of value with me.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#174

Post by xena » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:29 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #135

xena wrote: post #107

I've found it worth doing. My blog (xeiaso.net, formerly christine.website) is the main way that I get employed at this point. It also helps that people link it here a lot. After 100 articles or so writing got a lot easier and now people rely on my blog for a lot of things. I think it's worth it, but I've also been exclusively self-hosting it. I currently have the code (and writing) open source on GitHub ( https://gi…

> My blog is the main way that I get employed at this point. I don't use my blog ( https://medium.com/@parttimeben ) to get employed, but it has helped me organize and document my thoughts. For example, when setting up a new machine, I've always needed to keep track of what I installed before, what worked and how I got it to work, etc. Sure, I can google this stuff again, but just writing about my experience helps a…

Me too, but somehow people really like that. I don't get it either!

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#175

Post by munificent » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:33 PM UTC

I don't write when I feel it's worth it to me, I write when I feel it's worth it to the reader.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#176

Post by typon » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:34 PM UTC

darzu wrote: post #170

miscaccount wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of interviewers who even read resume, let alone a blog is very minimal. Even if they read it , i doubt people would be asked the same questions as one who has no blog. So in my opinion the return of investment in terms of hiring is close to zero. However it can be a great tool to document your journey or learning and how much one has evolved.

This doesn't match my experience. If a candidate advances far enough that 3-4 of us are going to spend a couple hours of our day interviewing and deliberating, we each will at least scan resume linked blogs.

Of the companies that gave me offers in the last few months, none of them even knew I had github projects until I brought it up with them during the interview process. I mention these github projects on my resume in a separate section - its not even a throwaway line.

Personally, if someone has a blog or a Github and I'm conducting an onsite interview with them, I definitely spend an hour or so going over everything.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#177

Post by adrianmsmith » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:34 PM UTC

A lot of people saying their blog helped them get jobs.

I have a blog [1], with over 200 posts. I went for interviews at three companies in Austria in 2015, was surprised not one company mentioned my blog. Turned out the recruiter had removed the link from my CV. Presumably because it had my email address on it and they were worried the company would contact me directly. Great "value" the recruiter provided to the company there.

So no, my experience is if recruiters are going to remove the link to your blog, having a blog makes absolutely no difference to the job-seeking process whatsoever...

[1] https://www.databasesandlife.com/

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#178

Post by ellisv » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:34 PM UTC

> Does the time spent writing feels worth it to you?

Yes. I write for myself (and reference some of my posts years later) but unexpectedly some of my posts have helped other people and that's a great feeling.

> Did it help to get noticed/ find jobs or other opportunities?

Not yet! Although I think it has encouraged a lot of other behaviors that might have helped to get noticed or find other opportunities.

> Do you learn something new from it?

That's generally the reason I do it – to document things I've learned.

> Writing up my thoughts in presentable state took too much time/effort. Right now, I simply save my notes to my personal Notion for future reference.

IMO that's good enough. If you want to make your writing public don't waste time trying to make it "presentable" - just get it "good enough" and publish. Or slap a giant "DRAFT" label at the top.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#179

Post by ellisv » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:35 PM UTC

TylerE wrote: post #159

xena wrote: post #107

I've found it worth doing. My blog (xeiaso.net, formerly christine.website) is the main way that I get employed at this point. It also helps that people link it here a lot. After 100 articles or so writing got a lot easier and now people rely on my blog for a lot of things. I think it's worth it, but I've also been exclusively self-hosting it. I currently have the code (and writing) open source on GitHub ( https://gi…

Quoted post unavailable.

> So don't publish it under a license that specifically allows that?

That doesn't stop anyone.

Re: Ask HN: Is having a personal blog/brand worth it for you?

#180

Post by ellisv » Mon, Jul 18, 2022, 4:40 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #117

From the hiring side, I always spend time reading people's blogs, Github, or social media if they make an effort to include it on their resume. 9 out of 10 times, blogs are extremely stale content from 5+ years back. A lot of people start blogging at the beginning of their careers and then just stop. This creates a weird frozen-in-time effect where what's shown on their blog doesn't match their current skillset at al…

Guilty! Well, not quite 5 years but my writing has slowed down a lot. As I get older, I have less time to write and spend a lot more time on other hobbies and obligations.