As an expansion on point 7: consistent, legible, self-motivated output on topics that matter is just a huge signal of value in intellectual work. A problem with basically all hiring is that the vast majority of people just want to “get through the day” in their work rather than push for excellence (or even just improvement). Naturally, in hiring, you’re trying to select for people who will care intrinsically about the quality*quantity of their outputs. There are few stronger signals of that than someone consistently doing something that looks like the work in their personal time for ~no (direct) reward.
Also, if you’re worried you’re not good enough, you’re probably right, but the only way to get good is to start writing bad stuff and make it better. I wrote the first post of my meh blog on this topic to keep me going. It’s sort of helped.
Agree with the above—fwiw I and hiring managers I work with have solicited applications and hired candidates based on seeing their personal writing here and elsewhere. That’s definitely not a sure-fire path to getting hired and you shouldn’t Goodhart it, but if you have the urge to write and are holding yourself back for any reason, I’d endorse you pushing through it. As @Mjreard notes, this sort of writing is a hard-to-fake signal of intellectual investment and productivity, and hiring managers are hungry for such signal.
Thank you for praising my new hobby, Ozzie.
As an expansion on point 7: consistent, legible, self-motivated output on topics that matter is just a huge signal of value in intellectual work. A problem with basically all hiring is that the vast majority of people just want to “get through the day” in their work rather than push for excellence (or even just improvement). Naturally, in hiring, you’re trying to select for people who will care intrinsically about the quality*quantity of their outputs. There are few stronger signals of that than someone consistently doing something that looks like the work in their personal time for ~no (direct) reward.
Also, if you’re worried you’re not good enough, you’re probably right, but the only way to get good is to start writing bad stuff and make it better. I wrote the first post of my meh blog on this topic to keep me going. It’s sort of helped.
Agree with the above—fwiw I and hiring managers I work with have solicited applications and hired candidates based on seeing their personal writing here and elsewhere. That’s definitely not a sure-fire path to getting hired and you shouldn’t Goodhart it, but if you have the urge to write and are holding yourself back for any reason, I’d endorse you pushing through it. As @Mjreard notes, this sort of writing is a hard-to-fake signal of intellectual investment and productivity, and hiring managers are hungry for such signal.