Lawyers & law students can land jobs by publishing a blog

The Philadelphia Inquirer has a story this morning (reg. req’ed) about an employer hiring a person at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School because of their blog.

Terrence Ryan knew Scott McNulty in passing…. But it was McNulty’s blog, or Web log, that made Ryan take a harder look. It showed Ryan that McNulty, a systems administrator, really knew computers. More important, it revealed his ‘geeky love of technology,’ a personal quality that ‘tends to work really well in our department.

Because of the blog, Ryan offered McNulty, 28, of Center City, a promotion to systems programmer on a team responsible for information-technology services. McNulty took it.

LexBlog needed a new IT person with certain skill sets suitable for, what is widely labeled, Web 2.0. We also wanted someone with a passion for blogs and, of course, who wants to live in Bozeman Montana. The typical search through job postings and the like brought some talented leads but not the perfect fit.

After some keyword searches on Google for ‘perl,’ ‘linux’ and Bozeman, I found a blog published a student that was wrapping up his studies at a major University in the Southeast United States. The student had the skills, passion and was looking to relocate to Bozeman. If we can put a deal together this week, we’re going to hire him. Think we would have found him had he not published a blog? No way. In addition, there is no way he could have evidenced his passion and skill to me without the track record his blog laid out.

Law students and lawyers can learn a few things here. Plus the field is wide open as most lawyers are slow to technology and scared of their shadow when it comes to being innovative.