I can remember the very first blog I ever wrote.  It was about eight years ago on MySpace and it was a rant about a rude lady in a grocery store.  It seemed like I was good for two rants and a couple poems a week.  It wasn’t long and I was hooked. 

And thus, my passion for writing was re-kindled and my fascination with blogging began, and has since never subsided.  Some years ago, I watched a video of Seth Godin and Tom Peters discussing blogging at an American Express annual meeting.  Tom Peters made the statement that in the last last fifteen years, blogging had been the single greatest thing he had done for his career.  At that time, I had been writing daily for only three months but I had to whole-heartedly agree with him – though my fixation with blogging was still so new.

When Jason Davis, aka Slouch, asked me to contribute in some way to RecruitingBlogs a few years ago, I  was excited by the opportunity and after a weekend of brainstorming, I sent him the outline for Bonus Track.  The discipline that writing daily brought to my life and work changed my life and my work.  After two and a half years, I can honestly say that writing so often and so intensely has completely changed my life, my work – has changed me.  For almost four years, the RecruitingBlogs community has inspired me in my work, taught me about the industry, and produced my greatest friends and mentors. 

When I have had the opportunity to present about blogging at a public event, I have suggested that everyone should write, as often as possible or, as many writers will share, when you have something to write about. Everyone should write, everyone.  I have also stated that not everyone should publish and not everything should be published.  I have many posts sitting in draft form, waiting to be tweaked or trashed.  And there are many more where they came from. 

Great adventures, interesting travels, horrible interviews, brilliant partnerships, nightmarish candidates, resentful applicants who didn’t get the job, unresponsive hiring managers, fantastic new hires, conniving split partners, pristine recruitments, happy clients – all stories waiting to happen or blog posts in the hopper.  You may have heard me say this before and it continues to hold true.  I write because I have to.   It is no longer a matter of the project I need to complete or a stringent goal.  It is part of who I am.  And the who I am changes daily.  

I am incredibly honored and thankful to be a part of this community, my "online work home".  Sometimes, change is necessary and as Noel and Tim pick up where Slouch left off, changes will occur.  One of the greatest lessons I have learned from social media is how to be flexible, how to adapt quickly and how to take it in stride.  These are necessary and admirable traits in business today.  Garner these, provide a quality service or superior product, and stay true to who you are. 

The greatest things you can do for your career are many.  Pick one, master it – be great at it, that’s how it becomes a greatest thing.

by rayannethorn