Why Blog?

Monday I was offered a new position, yesterday I accepted it. I’m hoping that this is the last time I’ll have to look for a job for a very, very long time. Having an unexpected change in your career and having to search for a new job is one of the most stressful things a person can do. It was hard, I didn’t sleep well.

I did get to talk to a lot of interesting and smart people though, and got a view of what their challenges were and what their company was like. Most of the people I spoke with were at a company that was growing fast, and they were looking for help scaling and automating their infrastructure, something I’ve come to specialize in. I applied for thirty-four positions, got back twenty-one responses, spoke with twelve companies, and found three positions where I was a near perfect fit.

Of the companies I spoke with, one of the common themes I heard again and again was “I read your blog.” Through my writing here they were able to take a look back through my history, understand how I convey information, and generally get to know me better. One of the first things I did after I started the search was write two blog posts explaining how I came to be where I am in my career, and what I believe DevOps to be.

Writing these posts served two functions. Most importantly it forced me to think through what I was trying to say, to understand what I think about the topic, and convey that in a way that’s concise and understandable. After writing the posts, when the questions inevitably came up during an interview, I was better able to answer without rambling.

I’ve often wondered if keeping this site up was worth my time, my experience during the past month prove, at least to me, that time spent blogging is time well spent. It’s an investment in my future, a calling card to the world. This site is my little corner of the Internet.