Fiat Lux

I finally got a good night's sleep and am feeing a bit better today, but still not feeling very bloggy.

Part of this, I know, is directly related to the fact that I had a job interview Tuesday and almost the first thing out of the hiring manager's mouth as the interview started was, "I've read your blog".

That was the first time I'd encountered that phrase in an interview. It seems to me that when someone starts an interview off like that, the person in question probably has some ideas already set about you, and that has the potential to be either very good or very bad. Luckily for me, it was good, and I have already accepted a verbal job offer from the company (hard copy is being FedExed). It's only an internship, but it's also the first non-survival job I've gotten since 2002, and I'm very pleased about the whole thing.

It's also making me think really hard about this blog and what I can "safely" say here.

Despite the economic recovery of the last several years, this is still a tight job market, and doubly so for people like me who are, in essence, re-entering the workforce. I worry that personal details could be used against me in hiring decisions. A casual Google search on my name will bring this blog up in short order. I have to assume that anything I say here will be read, and potentially used in a hiring decision.

I don't really care if an employer knows what my politics are. If someone felt so strongly about my opinions on world events that they felt they couldn't hire me, well, I probably wouldn't have been happy working for that person anyway. I'm concerned about the personal stuff though. And thus we go full-circle to this week.

As mentioned, I've not been feeling very well this week. But if I start to blog about why, I find myself thinking, is this something I really want an employer to know? It's none of their business. And so the blog post doesn't get written.

Feeling that I have to self-censor in order to be employable is no fun. Now, maybe I'm being paranoid. After all, I got the job. But that's how I'm feeling.

And yes, I know there's a ton of other stuff I could be blogging about right now. Sorry, but I'm not feeling very inspired. Cruise my blogroll; the usual suspects are all kicking ass and taking names. If past history is a guide, I should be feeling more bloggy in a day or two.