What inspires you to make?

I voted for "I think the making experience will help my career"

It may not. But almost every post I submit is written with the premise that it will be relevant to industrial practice.

I think making has helped my career in many ways, including helping to land jobs.

A by-product of making is writing proposals on element14, which enable making.

This is a very useful business skill to have and element14 proposals help hone that skill.

I'm a prolific blogger and learner, doing formal training.

After doing many of these things in parallel for a decade now , I learned that:

• doing formal trainings
• volunteering in the company,
• taking professional risks
• changing company
• getting out of the comfort zone and
• getting certified

has helped in every step of my career.

Up till now, publishing and blogging did not do anything to progress my career. It has been a blocker at times because being a public person is a risk.

Blogging would not have helped me at work either although I did blog about the interesting locations where I was stationed at times. Upon retirement I became interested in electronics but was reluctant to blog about that because while electronics were critical in the work I did most of the technicalities were not my direct responsibility or background. Fortunately people who are more knowledgeable than me tolerate this and as an enthusiast I have benefited tremendously from the feedback my blogs sometimes get. I have also benefited from reading posts from you and others who do these things professionally. Please continue. :-)

That is interesting.

I have taken or been forced to take many on-the-job courses, which helped a bit, but not enough to get a promotion. (Most were not technical courses)

I tend to test things at home that I am interested in from work, (when there is no appetite at work to spend time investigating) so this often has a direct benefit at work and has even led to patents, which look good on a resume. I don't blog about work-related research I do.

I am not sure about whether blogging helps one's career - I guess it depends on the job requirements.

That is interesting.

I have taken or been forced to take many on-the-job courses, which helped a bit, but not enough to get a promotion. (Most were not technical courses)

I tend to test things at home that I am interested in from work, (when there is no appetite at work to spend time investigating) so this often has a direct benefit at work and has even led to patents, which look good on a resume. I don't blog about work-related research I do.

I am not sure about whether blogging helps one's career - I guess it depends on the job requirements.

dougw  wrote:

 

I am not sure about whether blogging helps one's career - I guess it depends on the job requirements.

Promoting your (off-time) project works.

My experience is that when you show self-made projects when applying, they are a great asset.

Blogging on E14, RS Components and on the Ti community, and using that as an asset -  in my career - was a negative power that I had to defend in interviews.

One of the reasons is that almost all of my blogs on element14  have 3 out of 5 stars,

I showed an electronic load I built here and the hiring partner said that it was not relevant because 3 stars and "good effort'" comment on element14.

While I was in the e14 top member community I flagged this,.

My balance after being here for many years is that it hampered my career.

When I negotiate without mentioning my online persona, these things don't play a role.

That electronic load was a great project - way better than 3 stars.

I am surprised that anyone would judge it solely on star rating, when the whole blog is there.

The fact that you did that project on your own time is a better testament to your capabilities and attitude than any paper resume.

That's not how the world rolls, Douglas. 3 stars in the new millennium gives a fail.

I stopped posting things that matter here because of that. I only post flashing leds these days. Just like when this community started. My 3 star posts are a liability instead of an asset. I flagged i while I was a top member. I did not like the answer so I accepted it and left that area.

Things I use for my professional career, I post on other places. This community burned me.

Jan Cumps  wrote:

 

One of the reasons is that almost all of my blogs on element14  have 3 out of 5 stars,

I showed an electronic load I built here and the hiring partner said that it was not relevant because 3 stars and "good effort'" comment on element14.

That is awful.  I have never received benefit from the star rating system. The stars don’t correlate to the quality of the work, I always get 3 or 4 with no rationale, and so they have no useful purpose. Fortunately they don’t impact my retirement and I can ignore them.

I flagged it in the public and top member area. I believe that e14 has representation in both areas and replied to me in both areas.

Jan Cumps  wrote, in a few different comments...

 

>My experience is that when you show self-made projects when applying, they are a great asset.

>Blogging ... was a negative power that I had to defend in interviews.

Thanks for that valuable insight, Jan Cumps, I would have thought the exact opposite!

I wonder if the same applies to public Github repositories.

> changing company

I've noticed that too - the first company I worked for especially continued to treat me as the fresh-out-of-university developer they hired, even though I had nearly 7 years of direct-to-their-product experience that no other employee there had. When I was let go (economic downturn), my next job paid TWICE what they had been paying me! Yikes, why didn't I leave sooner?

The problem is though, that I have found it difficult to find new jobs to switch to, possibly due to being a remote employee (since 1999), which was not a cool thing to do before 2020.

Maybe I need a good course in interview jargon

Best,

-Nico

I know that many people never give 5 stars just on principle and everyone has a different idea about what they correspond to.

I don't care at all what rating my blogs get because I have already formed my own opinion, but then I never would have thought the score would be used by a potential employer.

I am not sure how it could be fixed from the forum's side, but it would be interesting to see if there are good ideas out there.

From the employer's side, there is also clearly a pretty sad failing that could cause them to miss finding good employees.

It sad to hear that you were adversely affected. If you need a recommendation, let me know.

Maybe the forum could have a separate way of endorsing member's skill sets - the way that Linked-In does. I think it could carry more weight than the Linked-In system because you could link a blog that proves the endorsement.

I don't care at all what rating my blogs get because I have already formed my own opinion, but then I never would have thought the score would be used by a potential employer.

I am not sure how it could be fixed from the forum's side, but it would be interesting to see if there are good ideas out there.

When you are applying, it does not matter what this island thinks. You are not the hiring manager of a blogger trying to post good blogs, dougw.

Once you have a 3 star post, company sees it, and the battle is uphill - no matter if it's flagged by someone who posted something relevant in the last decade.

A single person can join this community and influence ratings. It's a big community but that power is in a few person's hand. No matter if they help this community.

All good if you're pensioned. But if you are active in the market this community becomes a liability. For Me.

I flagged this but to no avail. E14 knows it. You were in the conversation.

Element14 mentioned that the star rating is participation, and that members have to deal with it. My way of dealing with it is to avoid posting anything professional here. Because it will get a mediocre rating if I don't blink a LED.

Discuss.

I tried to discuss this before but at no avail. Latest I checked no one is reading my posts anymore. 3 readers on  my last 9 industrial posts.

When you are a top poster here and you receive mediocre acceptation, you have to take it. It's documented at top members.

For me, posting here has resulted in being flagged as a mediocre engineer. Because the (if I'm lucky) mediocrate rating and the "nice start" or "good explanation for a beginner"  comments. 3 stars, 2 stars if I annoyed him.

It's all documented here. Novel ideas, never done before projects.: "Nice Start Jan". Blink a LED in RTOS: 5 stars.

I flagged it to e14: "Eat it Jan - That's how we rule. Part of the participation model"

What next? I'm a professional electronic person, blogging here.

When I apply for a job, I post my projects elsewhere or send a word document summary. I just can't use my 400+ e14 posts anymore because the ratings and the non-industrial-relevant comments.

Let's discuss what blogging here means if you are In The Business.

From the blogger-in-the-industry perspective and element14 perspective: Bring it on. Discuss.

dang. I rarely use the star rating system here.

My criteria would be more along the lines of 5* for anything being useful or helpful, rather than the "5* is only for exceptional work" that some people might use as a standard, which rarely happens. I mean, you took the effort to share - that's worth a lot right there. You're making the world a better place by sharing. Lower ratings should only apply to vague, misleading, false, or dangerous posts.

I'll have to be quicker to rate, to balance out the difficult to please folks out there