The Top 10 Reasons HR Bloggers Suck.
There’s the A List, the B List, and so forth. Of course, as Courtney Stodden and Andy Dick prove, even the F List at least get invited to the occasional VH1 awards ceremony and shop at Kitson. Below that, on the totem pole of fame, there are local network affiliate meteorologists, inspirational speakers and newspaper columnists.
Then, one level below that, you’ve got your King Curtis, Omarosa or Joe the Plumber types, and below them, you’ve got your convicted militia leaders, Congressmen and Canadian Football League players.
And then somewhere, somewhere far, far down in the bottom, like Dante’s Inner Circle, but with way more self-loathing and latency issues, are those people who sit somewhere between fame, infamy and dreams of grandeur.
I’m talking, of course, about HR bloggers. I guess I have to admit I am a professional blogger now, and have been going on near a decade now. The fact that I’m engaged, reasonably well adjusted socially and have an antipathy for science fiction, fantasy and Douglas Adams have led me to largely ignore or avoid this label.
I tell people I’m a writer, and when they ask what I write about, I normally get as far as “recruiting technologies, mostly,” before they lose interest. I do not blame them.
In fact, I am bored with my own beat, so to speak. I mean, it’s quite difficult to get really excited about something as mundane as a background check provider or an assessment product. I have been largely able to find angles interesting enough to at least not end up as listicles or cut and paste pastiches from a bunch of other articles, like so many “bloggers” out there (not the best of company to be in).
I have, at this point, met so many self-professed “bloggers,” however, I can tell you that this honorific has about as much meaning as “social media maven,” “employer branding expert” or “Boolean Ninja.” That is fair, since there’s no litmus test for being a blogger – not even blogging, as I’ve come to learn.
Same goes for recruiting, but there’s a reason I can stay relevant despite not having actually recruited for years now – although really, at least I’m transparent in my being full of shit, but then again, I actually have a blog, and not all the shit I write about has anything to do with HR. Just the ones that pay the bills. Say what you will about me or my credibility. But I have a blog, and people read it.
Hell if I know why, but that sad benchmark means I’m way out ahead of most of the people who purport to be “bloggers” and who want nothing more than to deliberately achieve my largely existentialist and accidental existence.
HR Famous is anonymity everywhere but the conference circuit I’m pretty sure is my punishment for some sort of cosmic transgression, doomed forever to wander the halls of Marriott properties talking about Twitter for some terrible wrong I’ve wrought in some past life. Or the mistake of getting a BFA in the present one – hey, it seemed like a great idea at the time, OK? At least I write.
Boom.
Seriously. I can’t tell you the amount of “HR bloggers” who, when I ask about their actual blogs, tell me something to the effect of either “I’m about to launch it” or “I’m in the middle of relaunching it.” Still others refer me to their Facebook or YouTube pages (not blogs, nor are “VLogs,” for the record).
Very few actually point me to an actual post-based, somewhat long form content destination; those that do, and certainly the ones who most aggressively promote their “blogging expertise,” introduce themselves as their URL or always self-reference “their most recent posts” generally suck at writing.
It’s like watching The Special Olympics. It’s really great that you’re living your dream and doing what you love, but let’s just say the Pulitzer people aren’t going to be calling any sooner than Corky from Life Goes On is going to represent Team USA in Rio, or the Kids of Widney High or Wesley Willis were going to win Grammys for Album of the Year. You live your best life, but there’s a certain inherent limit to things.
Your best might not be good enough. Seriously, do you even read your own shit? If so, at what point are you so far into Ed Wood territory you can’t realize the fact that at best, your content is an unmitigated disaster and at worst, Top Recruiter: USA vs. The World (which looks like Rocky IV meets a 1960s Toho monster movie, but with way less irony).
This is particularly true of people who blog about business related topics, the misfortune Island of Misfit Douchebags I’m stranded on these days. I mean, even the best are really the worst. Present company included.
Don’t you have something better to do with your time? I know I do, which is why this article is ending so abruptly. Charney, out.
Snark Attack 
U mic dropped your post… love it👍
There was not 10 reasons in this article, neatly labeled as points 1 through 10.
There was no bold font at the start of each paragraph to tell me that it was one of the 10 points that weren’t labeled.
You didn’t use enough exclamation points
This article does not hype any new technology that solves problems that don’t exist.
This article does not draw any wild & imaginary correlations to separate occurrences that make the statement “correlation does not imply causation” to be false.
This article doesn’t jump on any bandwagons and doesn’t look like an article that a top 10 blogger would make a vine of and post on their friend’s youtube channel.
Thank you for making me smile after reading this.
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