Tell Me About Yourself

Hopefully, when a job hunter goes for an interview, s/he has prepared for it. Job counsellors and job search workshops advice would-be-employees to put on their best act for this event- clean, conservative suit, professional-looking briefcase, no outrageous hairdo nor jewelry, no chewing gum, no smoking. And remember to talk about yourself - your job accomplishments, to put it more precisely.

The most difficult question in an interview - Tell me about yourself - has sent inexperienced workers to think of it as a trap; while the flamboyant ones think of it as an ego trip, but the educated job seeker knows it as the moment to sell oneself for the job.

The About Me section in a Blog works the same way as in the job interview. It is the section of a blog that should be devoted to tell readers who you are, to gain their trust. If readers know salient points about you, the blogger, they will be drawn more to you and to what you tell them.

When I created this blog, it was intended to jog my mind out of a rut; I was out of a job. I didn't know much about blogging; all I knew was I enjoyed reading news on the Internet and used the Net to research for various purposes. So the About Me section had baffled me. What do I talk about me? Should I post a photo of me? Since my blog is a conundrum of unrelated topics and stories, would people even read it - thus, I postponed telling about myself.

" According to the AOL "Blog Trends Survey," nearly 50% of bloggers say they do it because it serves as self-therapy, and one-third of bloggers who responded say they write frequently about self-help and self-esteem topics. The survey also revealed that when it comes to relieving real-life pressures or dealing with personal issues or tragedies, six times as many respondents prefer to write in their blog or read blogs written by others suffering from similar problems rather than to seek counseling from a professional.

Conversely, only 16% say they blog because they're interested in journalism; as few as 12% say they blog in order to break or stay ahead of the latest news and gossip, and a fractional 8% blog in order to expose political information.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, about 8 million Internet users say they have a created a blog, and according to a Technorati study, the number of blogs in existence doubles about every five months."

For more than nine months, the section About Me didn't say much about me; today I decided to tell about me.