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Please support neteffects by checking out this post. I hope you all enjoy it!
After this post went public, I shared it with my family via email. My brother - an outstanding software engineer - had some counterpoints to make. I asked if I could share them here, and since he agreed I'm adding them below. I left them more or less un-edited, so keep that in mind as you read through our thread back and forth to one another. His words I've put in blue, since that's his favorite color. I've put mine in green to keep with the theme/branding of the blog.
You know I love what I do. You know I care deeply about it. You may or may not know I love sharing what I do and my knowledge about it with others who come seeking it (that's why I tutored for 3 years at WashU).
The fact that I don't want to share all of that with the whole world arbitrarily shouldn't affect your opinion of me as a potential employer. If I were looking for a job, I would definitely try to build up a network on LinkedIn, but as for the rest, it's not for me. I really don't think that should matter, and if it does, the world is more broken than I thought.
I also don't know if that mindset is quite as ubiquitous as you seem to (though I also don't know it isn't), and I certainly hope it isn't. Admittedly my experience with the hiring process is antiquated. The popularity of social media (and by extension other forms of "online presence") shouldn't be understated, but I do think the world's obsession with it is somewhat temporary, and I don't know if it extends quite as far to hiring directors as you do. Maybe I'm just a dinosaur by some standards, but if so, I'm happy in the Jurassic (when all the best dinosaurs existed), and I plan to stay here as long as possible.
For what it's worth, I know that the "it's not who you are, it's who you know" concept has existed since long before the internet, and despite the fact that I hate that about the world, I also know it's not changing anytime soon. And yes, strong, unpopular opinions like the one in this e-mail are the reason I don't share them with the world.
You might be surprised at just how "popular" your "unpopular" opinion is. Just because what I write about works for me (and works well) doesn't mean it works for everyone. Yes, traditional methods of job searching are still valid, they just may not return results as quickly as you might hope (I don't know - but I do know that what I've done works quickly almost every time). However, even if you decide to completely ignore all of the internet stuff that's out there - don't forget the most important part. Strong personal recommendations. I'd refer you to ANY of my previous employers, because I know your work. That trumps anything online, hands down. (I may not have made that point strongly enough on the blog post). Once you have the trust of your manager, if you hand that manager a resume and say "Hey, hire this guy/gal" - they're going to have a very hard time ignoring it. Doesn't matter what else they have or have not made available to the world.
Thanks for the constructive feedback.
Yeah, especially within our field, a lot of us are pretty stuck in our ways. So it's certainly possible my opinion is more popular (at least for us) than I think it is. I do definitely concede that "my way" might not return results as quickly. I have no problem building rapport with the people with whom I work most closely. My manager has explicitly told me he would give me a good recommendation if I used him as a reference. I think that's probably true of anyone in my department.
