The web as showcase

My Friday column in Expansión, Spain’s leading financial daily, is called The web as showcase (pdf in Spanish) and draws parallels between what happens in the computer programming labor market and the rest of the professional world.

In the programming world, the real showcase for professionals is increasingly the internet. If you want to find out about a programmer, go online and take a look at his or her work in open-code repositories, their reputation in certain development communities, the projects they’ve participated in, etc. In short, the web has become in many senses the place for them to showcase their work, just like a gallery is for a painter.

This dynamic is now affecting growing numbers of other professionals. Management of an information repository, Twitter comments, membership of LinkedIn groups, etc, all influence what the labor market will think about you. The web is now the platform for more and more people’s work, a place to show off you knowledge and skills, and refuting the long-held idea that anybody who spends too much time on the internet isn’t doing any work.

At the same time, the web can create a somewhat distorted image of somebody. These are perceptions that can play a key role when a company first looks on the web when deciding whether or not to hire somebody. Fair or not, that’s the way the world now works, and with all the accompanying concomitants.

Below, the full text:

The web as showcase

For a few years now, the computing programming labor market has been subject to an interesting phenomenon: when a position comes up, people send their CVs in, but nobody looks at them, except companies still rooted in the last century.

Instead, what really opens doors and establishes a professional’s marketability are other variables: the projects they have participated in, the technical discussions on certain forums, the open-code programs they have contributed to, or their work on freelance sites… The real CV, the one that actually establishes what a programmer is worth, is to be found on the web, and can be seen by anybody who wants to.

In which case, how to organize one’s search for work in this area?

Well, for a start, not by just sending in CVs, but instead by taking advantage of one’s time to focus on the activities mentioned above.

This phenomenon, which is essentially rooted in technology, already applies to growing numbers of other professional sectors. The key factor when hiring somebody these days is what the internet says about them. Managing or taking part in a LinkedIn group, or having a social network account where you comment on what is going on in your sector are now essential aspects of the selection process.

With each day that passes, we are what the internet says about us, for better or worse. If you behave like an idiot online, then try to do so under a false name, otherwise, most people will think, and perhaps they’ll be right, that you behave like an idiot all the time, and thus not worth employing. Do you want a job? Then start working the web. It’s the new showcase.

(En español, aquí)