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Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

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Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#271

Post by SMAAART »

I have a personal web site where I blog about once/twice a week. I blog about my personal observations on personal life and also professional life. The domain name is a variance on my first name.

I also have a "portfolio" site, and I am in a career path where none of my peers have a portfolio site. There I show off my technical expertise in a handful of software packages that are crucial to my career. The domain name is a technical name about these software packages.

Last year I concluded a successful job search and landed a very good job at a very good company. I used my personal website domain name as my contact, and highlighted my portfolio site in my resume to back-up my experience and expertise.

It was often a topic during my interviews.

These days I am studying Data Analytics / Data Science (and now ChatGPT/ML too) in order to augment my skillset and possibly make a career pivot. I have taken a very short very good domain name about data and I have started to blog about my perspective of Data Analytics/Data Science from my present career track (they kind of intersect / overlap a bit), documenting my learning progresses, collecting resources etc... this actually has landed me 1 interview at a great company without applying (the recruiter saw my LinedIn profile and this site); but the job was way above my head, but it was a good experience.

I advice everyone who asks me for job hunting advice the same: don't job hunt, build a career, and also build an online presence and a portfolio. I am no good at helping people getting a job in 30 days or less, but I am very good at coaching people in getting a great job 5-10 years down the line, if they start now.

Moreover, writing every day (I do that on my own Google Docs), helps think better; better thinking leads to better problem solving; which leads to better writing.

And then ChatGPT came along, and it's changing everything by augmenting people's capabilities.

Stay tuned.

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#272

Post by jokethrowaway »

Either your blog picks up and it becomes your identity - and can be useful for getting hired - or it's useless.

It's a bit like github: if it's not great you won't get much out of it, if it's good you'll get some gigs out of that.

Personally I discontinued my old blog back in 2011 and it wasn't never very useful, while my github still gives me leads for jobs and reputation.

I have a friend who is really good at maintaining his blog but it doesn't seem like it served him any good.

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#273

Post by pc86 »

Aperocky wrote: post #257
tricky wrote: post #123

There is an extensive network of caves under my city that were used by beer breweries in the 1800's to store beer. They are all but inaccessible, and, at the time, kind of a myth. Most people didn't believe they still existed. I was fascinated by this and I compiled as much information as I could find on my personal website in the early 2000's. One day I received an email, "do you want to go into the caves? I know so…

> Best part is I didn't get murdered. I was almost going to say this sounds crazy dangerous and more like a trap, but 15 years ago I would have done the same and probably came out safe. I don't know what changed, it feels like things are getting more dangerous, but unsure if it's perception, or the truth.

"Things" are objectively not more dangerous, in fact quite the opposite.

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#274

Post by averagedev »

For me, the reason is simply that I like having a blog. Truth be told, I have no readers. I only post once in a blue moon, or whenever inspiration strikes, so that's to be expected.

A good blog can surely lead to all of what you're mentioning, but personally I wouldn't get into blogging with high expectations of any such benefit.

https://elton.dev

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#275

Post by wannabebarista »

eugene2010 wrote: post #231

I've been profiling local and independent coffee shops in the metro Atlanta area on the website and blog for about five years. This project has allowed me to build relationships with coffee shop owners, baristas, and coffee enthusiasts in the city. It's been rewarding to be able to engage with this passionate community (via the newsletter/blog) but also via in-person events such as a coffee crawl I recently organized…

Really neat! I was a daily customer to One Cafe in the Flatiron building downtown for a few years. Big fan of their cold brew (before it was widely available).

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#276

Post by reactordev »

abhaynayar wrote: post #236
tricky wrote: post #123

There is an extensive network of caves under my city that were used by beer breweries in the 1800's to store beer. They are all but inaccessible, and, at the time, kind of a myth. Most people didn't believe they still existed. I was fascinated by this and I compiled as much information as I could find on my personal website in the early 2000's. One day I received an email, "do you want to go into the caves? I know so…

It's amazing how I'd never heard the word "spelunk" before today, and now in the span of the last few hours, I've heard it multiple times in three different contexts.

I take it you don’t play video games either. Spelunky was a pretty popular Indy game back in the day. Named after, you guessed it, spelunking. I first learned the word from “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego” back in the 90s. I had to ask my parents what it meant.

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#277

Post by dn3500 »

I've had a personal web site since 1995. I've sold a few photos, given permission to use some others, and had some pirated. I've got a box full of postcards from around the world sent by fans. I have another box of magazines (Maxim probably being the most famous), newspapers, and a dozen or so autographed books in which my photos have appeared with credit.

In the pre-facebook days it helped me locate some old friends I'd lost track of.

The closest I've come to fame was when a local TV station interviewed me as "the expert" on an obscure subject because my web site was the first google search result.

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#279

Post by rconti »

Aperocky wrote: post #257
tricky wrote: post #123

There is an extensive network of caves under my city that were used by beer breweries in the 1800's to store beer. They are all but inaccessible, and, at the time, kind of a myth. Most people didn't believe they still existed. I was fascinated by this and I compiled as much information as I could find on my personal website in the early 2000's. One day I received an email, "do you want to go into the caves? I know so…

> Best part is I didn't get murdered. I was almost going to say this sounds crazy dangerous and more like a trap, but 15 years ago I would have done the same and probably came out safe. I don't know what changed, it feels like things are getting more dangerous, but unsure if it's perception, or the truth.

Perception (maybe you just have more information!), and having more to lose, personally, as you get older.

Re: Ask HN: What has your personal website/blog done for you?

#280

Post by theroo »

simonw wrote: post #129

I've been blogging for nearly 21 years. It's done so much for me. - Got me jobs. I'd estimate more than half of the significant jobs I've had in my life came about through relationships that had originated with people getting to know my work through my blog. - Speaking engagements. I used my blog to bootstrap a bunch of these, to the point that I've spoken at well over 100 events. - Invitations to interesting meeting…

Was going to page you. Ctrl-F for simonw, and you beat me to it. Love your writing.
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