How a Blog Led to a Job

Good story yesterday from Joy Davia of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, who writes about how one job seeker posted something on his blog which led to him landing a job. It's a great example of how the new job market works in the 21st century.

(February 5, 2006) — Matthew Bernius hit many low points on his way to snagging that coveted job.It began when Bernius returned to Rochester last summer after graduate school at the University of Chicago. He had just finished a yearlong educational leave from Eastman Kodak Co., and his one-time employer wasn't taking him back.

So he applied for coffee shop jobs, hoping to make some money while he hunted for full-time work."I was told I didn't have the right skills to make coffee," recalled Bernius, 31. "I didn't quite know how to react to that, especially after spending the amount of time I did in graduate school."

Still, he persevered, never forgetting the golden rule of job hunting: Network, and use every contact you have to secure that job.Bernius' networking, for example, touched off a domino effect, as contacts referred him to other contacts. He eventually landed a six-month teaching gig at Rochester Institute of Technology — a job he didn't think he had a chance to get.

It began with his blog. He talked about his job hunt and his hopes of combining the Internet skills he got at Kodak with his new cultural anthropology education.

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