There have been a lot of stories like this one about whether or not maintaining a personal web site, weblog or Myspace/whatever area might potentially harm someone’s job prospects. The Chronicle of Higher Education has run a number of pieces on the effects that student weblogs have had on those students when applying for Master’s and PhD programs or teaching jobs.
I have one diehard rule about my websites — never write about work. It is mind boggling how many people have easily identifiable blogs or web sites who regularly post about their day-to-day conflicts/problems/successes in their jobs. Unless you’re blogging about your job as part of a company-sponsored effort, it is beyond stupid to blog about work, and I have no sympathy for people who have been fired for blogging about their co-workers or the person in the NY Daily News article who was applying for a job at the university at the same time she was posting insulting remarks about the head of the search committee at the university. Duh.
Beyond that, though, anything goes. It is certainly possible that someday I will apply for a job and someone will find this blog and decide that I’m not quite what they’re looking for. Frankly, life’s too short to worry about stuff like that.