The Best and the Worst: A Recap of Deep Dive Careers’ First Year (Part 1)

First off, I want to thank all of my readers for making the experience of sharing my thoughts on this blog enjoyable. Without you, I would just be writing to myself or shouting at the moon.

I offer an extra special thank you to those of you who have read my blog more than once, thrown me a like or two, commented, and especially those of you who have followed. 

As of November 1st, it will have been one year since I set out to go ‘deep career diving’ with my audience. To honor the 1 year mark, I will choose 6 of the 26 bi-weekly blog posts that have been published. From this list, we will explore the 3 best and the 3 worst.

The nominees are determined by an unscientific combination of the following factors:

1. Total views
2. Likes
3. Engagement
4. My own judgment

Since most people prefer negativity (people are sick that way), let’s start with the 3 worst posts of the year from the Deep Dive Careers blog. In order to meet ‘the best,’ sometimes you have to know about ‘the worst.’

In Part 2 of this series, we will examine the blog posts that performed the best and some of the lessons I’ve learned in my first year as a blogger.

The NOT Top 3:

You may hear wise people say that you cannot know success without knowing failure. This is like the yin and the yang; salt and pepper; Jesus and Satan; Yankees and Red Sox, etc.

Here are the posts that suffered from severe neglect of attention and interest from readers.

3. February 7, 2020 | 3 Approaches to Career Movement

Here’s an attendee with a front-row seat at the snooze festival. Please stay with me. 🙏

The content in this one was actually pretty good. It does however suffer from having a notoriously boring title. Left with no compelling reason to click on the article, very few people did.

Anyone want to talk about career movement? You may wonder – What is that? Like a bowel movement?

2. April 4, 2020 | 3 Career Paths Toward Specialized Knowledge

Although I was pleased with myself when I wrote this one, this article was one of the least viewed, least cared about, and least significant blog posts of the first year, according to my audience. 

Since very few people clicked on it, you are likely unaware that the 3 paths are based on popular songs. That’s right. The Monkees, The Beatles, and Billy Joel lead any readers who remained awake enough to get past the title down 3 fun paths. 

Since most would-be readers were in a deep sleep before they could start their journeys, these paths only went to one place. A place called ‘Flop City.’

1. December 27, 2020 | The Gift of a Well-Tailored Job Application

This one earned the title of my worst blog post of the first year and in retrospect, it is not surprising. It turns out that just after Christmas, many people are been burned out from the constant stress of gift-giving. The last thing they want is to be pressured into giving a gift to the enemy – hiring managers!

Gift-giving fatigue aside, any recruiter knows that the holiday season is when people are least interested in searching for employment. I should know. I’ve been a Recruiter and Career Focused professional for a total of 3 years. 

Maybe next holiday season, I will learn my lesson. 🤷‍♂️