Interview with a blogger - Dan McGuire

Dan McGuire is a Co-owner of Broadbean Technology.  His background is as an IT recruiter.  I've known Dan for many years, since he started attending our networking events back in 2002.  He's a pleasure to know and to work with - in fact we now organise the networking events together.  In real life and on his blog his humorous and yet professional personality brings real colour to online recruitment in the UK.

How long have  you been blogging?
I started in March this year.

Why did you start?
I’d been meaning to start for a while but, you may recall, my very first blog was a response to claims that my beloved job posting industry was on it’s last legs. That triggered some healthy debate and I’ve been blogging ever since.

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
I’m MD of Broadbean so I run the business day to day as well having responsibility for the company’s development. We’re embarking on an expansion plan in the UK and Europe involving a number of new offices so a big part of my job at the moment is identifying the new locations and finding the people to head up those operations. We’re just moving into our new Canary Wharf office too, increasing headcount by a third so there’s a lot of recruitment going on.

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
It gives me a platform to air my views on the industry and a chance for people to communicate with me in public. Blogging debates are fantastic and I like to encourage them wherever possible. I always stand by my views and am happy to say exactly what I think on my blog. Hopefully people see me as someone who knows what he’s talking about and, that being the case, I’d say yeah it helps the business.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
Finding the time. I work late every day as it is and sometimes other things take priority over blogging. It would be nice to write every day and, believe me, I have plenty to say but given something business critical or blogging its an obvious choice.

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
I like Digital Recruiting and Colin Minto’s as they’re no nonsense and say it how it is which I love. I always read yours and I keep an eye on Peter Gold’s just in case he says anything about me!

What do you want your reader’s to know about you?
I like to play devils advocate and throw things out there that people may not agree with. Sometimes people get upset when you talk straight. I don’t skirt around issues and sometimes it’s good to rock the boat. I just say it how it is and as long as people know I’m not being rude or insulting I’m happy. I don’t expect people to agree with me all the time and most people respect my honesty. I love good debate and I think we should all do more of it.

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment related blog, what advice would you want to give them?
Make sure you have the time and make sure you have something to say. I haven’t blogged regularly for about a month due to holiday and sorting out the new office and now I feel under pressure to get something fresh on there which can be annoying when you’re really busy. Speaking of which I better go and write something now!

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
I’d say you pretty much covered it Lou.