To spunk up your job search, sometimes you gotta let it all hang out. Opinions, like deep expertise in a single industry with little transferability to other sectors, have a way of making you MORE valuable to a FRACTION of potential employers.
I knew within about 3 months of starting this blog that the opinions rendered here would make me unemployable to a lot of the HR community, and that's OK. Lots of people who would normally hire me just couldn't risk taking on the liability that is my habit of writing HR/Talent opinion 5 days a week. For example, I probably can't get hired at a community bank or an insurance provider.
But as mentioned at the jump, there is a flip side. State strong opinions and display skills with new tools, and even though lots of people can't touch you, there's always a small segment of companies that finds you more attractive as a result.
Take the case of Chris Faust writing at the Huffington Post, who was just laid off at USA Today:
"Today is the last day that I'll walk through USA TODAY's glass and marble lobby, itself a monument to flusher times.
I've been laid off from my dream job, and I'm not going to lie. It sucks. I enjoyed almost everything about my immediate world there, from my globe-trotting reporters to my creative production team to my hard-working and open-minded boss. My group was tight, and we laughed and learned from each other every day.
But what bothers me the most is what my firing represented. See, I've been learning all the tricks that a modern multi-platform journalist is supposed to know. In the past 22 months, I've blogged, tweeted, shot photos and videos, and handled speaking engagements. I edited my section, managed my high-personality staff and then in my spare time, I wrote cover stories - something that very few other editors at USA TODAY do. I hustled and I cajoled and I ended up out on my ass anyway.
So to the managers who made this decision, in less than 140 characters I tell you: Good luck steering the Titanic. And thanks for the head start. Now I'm really going to run"
Let's take a look at the boxscore for those of you scoring from home:
-1 - Calls her former business the "Titantic". Probably costs her some looks from traditional print media, which she seems done with anyway.
-1 - Basically called her team high maintenance. Honest but catty.
+1 - Ballsy enough to call her former business the Titantic. Shock and Awe, even if it's obvious. Mission Accomplished..
+2 - Talks about using the new skills for 22 months in a traditional media business, signaling she's a player in the new media game. Holla!
+1 - In a weird kind of way, there's a couple of traditional outlets that probably already have calls in to her - because she's put herself out there as having 22 months doing new media the right way in one of the biggest outlets around.
I've got it as a +2 overall in the game of making yourself more valuable to fewer people as a way of finding your dream job.
What's your score? For Chris or yourself?
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