The Minnesota Blogger Conference

I'm planning to attend the Minnesota Blogger Conference on Saturday, September 11 in St. Paul. Here's why:

• With all of the talk about social media helping people connect online, it's crucial to remember that networking in person is just as important (and some would still say more so). As useful as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be, there's really no substitute for meeting someone face-to-face and shaking their hand if you get the chance.

• Furthermore, just as networking is important, so to is taking advantage of opportunities to learn about what you do from experienced experts. The list of speakers is impressive and a good representation of the Minnesota blogging community.

• Finally, and perhaps the most important reason for me personally, is that I haven't done something like this before, and to be honest it is a bit outside my comfort zone. I'm not always the most social or outgoing person in the world, and I'm trying hard to change that. I know that small steps outside one's comfort zone in a safe environment are a good way to grow and get more comfortable with uncertainty, so that's exactly what I plan on doing.

So, if you're local and you're interested in blogging, check it out, since it looks like it will be a great event from what I've seen so far. And maybe, just maybe, I will get some ideas for making this a better blog as well.

A Punk Rock Farewell

No, not for me. But Laurie Ruettimann over at Punk Rock HR has set an end date for her current blog, as she co-launches a new company and takes her blogging ventures in a new direction.

Fortunately, she plans on keeping the posts available in some form, which means that if you've missed out on her insightful, subversive, and downright hilarious blog over the last few years, you'll still have the chance to catch up on it. I've loved reading her blog ever since I was introduced to it back in 2008, and it's easily one of my top three blogs about work to read. I've had the pleasure of meeting her in person, and she's just as awesome to talk to face-to-face as she is to read.

I wish her lots of luck in her new ventures, and can't wait to read the next few weeks of Punk Rock HR and whatever she chooses to blog about next.

Housecleaning

So, I haven't really done much with the layout, structure, and visual elements of this blog in quite some time, and it's definitely due for an update. I'm trying to come up with an idea for a very basic logo, symbol, or even a mascot to represent the site. In addition, I want to update the blogroll (mostly additions, and making sure everything I've listed is still active).

I make no guarantees as to how long this will take. :) Hopefully before the end of the month, but don't hold me to that. Along with that, I hope that a bit of housecleaning and polish will encourage me to write here more.

So, if you want to be included in the blogroll and have a blog that is about or sometimes covers workplace issues of any sort (not just about freelancers, contractors, or temps) feel free to let me know in the comments.

Shameless Plug

Yep, I'm back. I would be remiss if I didn't plug my wife's awesomely revamped blog, now located here. I think it looks pretty sweet, myself, but then I am biased.

Permanently Hired Mind

It's been a busy month. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I was offered and accepted a permanent position at the company where I'm currently working as a consultant. Though I received word of this a couple weeks ago, I will still be a contract employee for one more week, and after that I will be a permanent employee of the company.

This is the first permanent position I've held since I graduated from college seven years ago, so it's a new experience for me. As such, I expect the transition will provide some good blog material, since I plan to keep this blog despite no longer being one of the people on which it focuses. When you've done something for seven years, you get a lot of experiences and subjects to talk about, and I'm not done talking about it yet.

The Top 50 HR Blogs to Watch in 2009

While Hired Minds isn't an HR blog per se, there's some overlap with them, as I talk about work and career issues in my corner of the world, albeit from the other side of the desk. As such, I read a lot of HR blogs, and think that anyone could benefit from doing so.

Evan Carmichael agrees with me that HR blogs aren't just for HR pros, and as such his list of The Top 50 HR Blogs to Watch in 2009 is definitely worth reading so that you can find about some of the best HR bloggers out there.

And, of course, I have to shamelessly plug it if for no other reason than my wife's blog, HR Minion, is listed at #45.

Run Silent, Run Deep

So, after a week where I managed to post every day, I follow it up with one where I don't post until Friday. I've had a busy week, though -- met with recruiters at two staffing firms, attended my HOA's board meeting, and had the usual homework, job hunting, and stuff around the house to do as well. Next week promises to be pretty full too, but I want to do a better job of regular posting.

In the meantime, I suggest you check out my wife HR Minion's blog. She's currently working as a contractor after working in an exempt position for the past two years, and she discusses some of her recent thoughts and experiences here, here, and here. The other entries are excellent as well -- but of course, I'm biased.

In the Pipeline

Reflecting on my recent posts, I realized that I haven't talked much about the original focus of this blog -- that is, the working life of us hired guns. So, I'm going to remedy that in the near future with some stuff I have in the works that's more devoted to consulting, contracting, and temping than the more general career discussions I've had lately.

Here's some topics I'm going to be looking at, though I make no promises as to when I will post on them:

-- Your staffing/consulting firm and you
-- Contract positions for newbies (focusing on people moving into these from permanent positions)
-- Permatemps, and why companies use them
-- What you need to know before starting a contract, consulting, or temp assignment
-- The difference between contractors, consultants, and temps (short answer: pretty much none)

In addition, there will be posts on more general topics as well as I feel like doing them.

By the way, I added a number of links to the blogroll over there on the right that I think you'll find interesting. If you have a blog or website that you'd like added, and it's related to the subject matter on this blog (even loosely), let me know in the comments or send me an email, and I will consider it.

A Self-Imposed Challenge

Lately, I've been averaging about a post a week here on Hired Minds. While that's not bad for a blog that's just starting out, it's not where I want to be, either.

As such, I plan on posting at least once each day starting tomorrow through the end of the week. Mostly, it's just to get myself in the habit of posting regularly. I don't know if I will keep up that pace afterwards, but surely I can do it for just a week, can't I?

I don't plan on giving myself a prize if I make it or anything like that, nor punishing myself if I don't. This is just for the sake of doing it.

Why Vlogs Aren't All That

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day if you observed it, and that you, uh, have a great President's Day, I guess. Today I'm going to talk about a growing trend in blogging, and why I'm not really a fan of it most of the time. The trend? Video blogs, or vlogs.

It's easier than ever to record, edit, and post video on the Web. Even my cheap little EeePC comes with a basic webcam and simple video recording software. I've yet to use it, though, and odds are you won't see a vlog post on Hired Minds anytime soon. To be honest, I'm concerned that this is taking off so much (even though it's been around for several years). It's not just that I'm not a fan of them for the most part, it's also that if you're a blogger, vlogs are quite possibly causing you to lose readers.

Why the drama, you ask? Well, consider the following:

1. Most people spend time at work reading blogs, and (let's be honest) this is often done somewhat surreptitiously. If you have a video on your blog, the reader either can't listen to it or has to dig out headphones to hear the sound, considering that they probably wont want other people to hear it. This will also apply when the reader is, for example, reading your blog on their laptop while watching TV with their family. Better hope they have a DVR so they can pause American Idol! Additionally, watching a video will draw a lot more attention than reading text on a screen. These factors will combine to cause people to not read your blog post at work.

2. They can be hard to view. Not everyone has a fast Internet connection, and sometimes people may be reading your blog on a mobile device. In the latter case, video can be especially problematic since some mobile browsers don't handle video well unless it's formatted specifically for mobile devices and, more importantly, unless someone has an unlimited data plan, the video will eat up tons of their allotted download memory. As a result, these folks are going to skip your blog.

3. Most people can read faster than you can coherently speak. People typically can read significantly faster than a person can talk while still being understood. Granted, this is a generalization, but I would guess that's probably very true in the case of frequent blog readers. Unless you're doing an auctioneer impersonation, I can read your blog post faster than you can talk about it.

4. Most of the time, vlog posts don't add value. The bulk of vlog posts I've seen are just someone (or people) sitting there talking about something. How does this add value to your blog? We can get this information just as easily by reading it. Plus, I will bet dollars to doughnuts that you spend more time working on a vlog post than you do on a standard written post, unless you are a fantastic improvisational speaker and have a slick video setup. The caveat here, of course, is that sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. If you're showing how to do something, for example, a video could be the way to go. They can also be interesting if you are posting from a unique location or have a special guest on your blog. But most of the time, text is king (or queen).

Brad over at Brad Ideas wrote a post about this a few years ago. I'd say it's still true today, if not more so. If it ain't broke...