I recently applied for a job in Europe to do some content work for a new website, since a good chunk of my online expertise comes in content creation. I guess my CV was good enough to get me shortlisted in the first round, because I had a phone interview last week that was certainly eye-opening.

Of course, one of the major selling points on my CV when I apply to a web job is my blog: having a weblog that is widely read and relatively topical shows my ease with content management systems, demonstrates my experience in audience-targeted writing and content delivery, and gives a good sense of who I am and what I enjoy as well. One of my previous employers actually recruited me through my blog, and another stated that my weblog was one of the major reasons she decided to hire me. Needless to say, Wholesome Goodness has been a pretty good marketing tool so far.

Until now. As I was speaking to the recruiter for this new content-related position, she said that one of the main problems that the institution had with my application was my weblog. Not because they were afraid of me blogging about work (I never write about the details of my employment here on this site), but because they didn’t feel that someone that had a weblog could fit into the quasi-conservative atmosphere of the institution.

Which made me wonder: are there a lot of institutions that still think this way? That blogging is a tool for teenagers to tell their friends about what they wore that day? Obviously, the weblog world has come a long way from that point. Most major companies have some kind of blog in order to interact with their users, and many noted web celebrities have both personal and corporate blogs.

The Wikipedia entry on Corporate Blog is a great read, and also links to many other major players in the corporate blog world. Even the New York Times extolled the virtues of corporate blogging three years ago. Hugh Macleod describes the virtues of blogging in the business world: in essence, “markets are conversations.”

This is not to say I’m encouraging this particular institution I applied to to start a blog. Not at all. I can fully understand why there may be limitations and reservations to release sensitive information to the public. However, I am encouraging this same institution to stop being scared of bloggers: a person that blogs usually has a good handle over the needs and attitudes of his or her readers, which is important in any content-related position, blog or not.