Last Sunday, the Boston Globe proposed an interesting concept: Blogging is actually good for your career. In the article, they list 8 reasons why blogging can help further your career. All are good reasons, I suppose, unless you are a political blogger. In that case, you still risk a rockier road because of your blog. Yeah, A-list bloggers can write their own ticket, but for the B, C, and D listers of us out here, our blogs could be a hindrance to our careers. Let's say that I interview for a job that would be a promotion and a nice pay raise. I go in and I knock the socks off of my interviewer and move to the top of their list. Then the interviewer, a Kerry voter in 2004, Googles me after I leave. My name is attached to this blog and the interviewer gets my conservative political philosophy up close and personal. Think I'm going to get that job? Doubtful. Even in one's current job, there is the ever present risk of being Dooced for blogging, even if you follow all the rules to avoid being Dooced.
In some circles, yes, a quality blog can probably help your career. Never be lulled into a sense of security, though, because in the wrong circles it can and still will hurt you.
Update
Go read Prof. McAdams on this topic. For the record, I actually wrote this about an hour after his post, but couldn't get it to publish until after work today. Any similarities are purely coincidental :-).
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