Brewed Fresh Daily

At least around these parts, it's fairly well understood that some of the best job referrals come from friends, family, and past colleagues. In other words, the good job leads come from your social network. This is not new--at least in the tech world. I've seen many examples of folks who got jobs because of contacts they made on e-mail lists, in newsgroups, and at technical conferences. And it's common around here to see groups of people who've worked together in previous jobs. For example, there's a group of engineers who all left SGI in the same timeframe and ended up at Yahoo. This happens quite often--especially with startups. I also know of folks who are in their current jobs because of things they've said to largish audiences. They build up an audience by writing for a magazine, trade publication, or maybe by writing a book. In doing so they established their reputation and people began to see them as thought leaders in a particular field. That made them more valuable to the publication and more valuable to potential employers. Traditionally, this type of publicity and opportunity has been limited to a much smaller group of people. There are fewer slots available and the barriers to entry are higher. The interesting thing about weblogs is how they are able to enable both of those while lowering the barriers to them at the same time. By starting a weblog and sticking with it, you find yourself knowing more people who you'd have otherwise never met. But more importantly more people will come to know you. And at the same time, you're writing and writing frequently. If what you say is interesting to enough people, that reputation builds quickly.