My brother Mark has recently been looking for a new job, and he was asking about how blogging might help him.  I encouraged him to think of his blog like an extension of his resume, and now I'm regretting that I said that.  Instead of using his blog to promote himself, he should be blogging to join conversations that interest him, and the employment connections will hopefully follow naturally.

I was reminded of a conversation I had last summer with InfoWorld President Bob Ostrow who suggested that the only reason people blog is to get a job.  In fact, I may have been interviewing at Yahoo! at the time, and it's plausible he knew something was up, inspiring that comment. 

But it's not about landing a new gig.  There are at least as many motivations for blogging as there are blogs out there.  Showing what you think about can give prospective employers a nice way of understanding what value you bring (or don't bring) to the company.  But blogging only because you want to be noticed is a sure way to get noticed for the wrong things by the wrong people.