#73: LinkedIn For What?
The Price of Being Real
I’ve probably already blown it on LinkedIn.
For a very long time, through my career that concluded at the close of 2022, I didn’t pay much attention to LinkedIn. There wasn’t much time, and I usually wasn’t interested in leaving Ball Corporation.
Sure, I liked some LI posts, connected with new people, congratulated others I already knew and made sure my basic info stayed current. And that was about it.
Since 2024, I’ve looked at LinkedIn more than I did in all of the combined years before then. I have the time. And I learned while moderating an online job search council that LI might, indeed, be useful for a career.
I’ve also learned that LinkedIn is maddening.
There’s the endless stream of LI posts claiming to find new or interesting solutions in my field that seem unaware that those solutions have been used for years – sometimes decades – before those posters “discovered” them.
Then there are posts trying to be bold by going against the grain to deliver takes that get thinner by the month, until they feel more performative than instructive.
More frequent LI browsing means personal and commercial agendas are clear to me now, and thanks to the algorithm, come in waves, annoyingly.
And don’t get me started on AI-generated or assisted content.
Finally, there is the ever-present spam, the fraudulent offers and the plaintive requests to follow various monetized outlets. Not to mention the occasional fake come on, usually from a different country.
I held firm through all of it for a couple of years, reading and rarely commenting. But lately, my restraint has waned.
I’ve posted many heartfelt pieces of advice born of experience. And I genuinely cheer on colleagues and sometimes even strangers as they make their way through the professional world.
But also, I’ve snarked a few times, maybe scolded a bit. Once or twice I’ve even mocked, though so broadly the original poster didn’t know what to make of it, responded with an up vote and replied with, “Well, that’s a different take.”
Those latter posts are not from emotion, they are echoes of exasperation. Mostly with LinkedIn as a platform, and usually with people who appear to be disinterested in anything that happened before they appeared.
I’ve always been a stickler for giving credit to others. If someone else gave me an idea, or did some work behind the scenes, I said so. If the source was unknown but wasn’t me, I’d note I came across it while researching. It’s probably a holdover from my journalism days, when we sourced everything.
But to a hiring manager, that likely doesn’t matter. Nor do my authentic responses, which can be mildly critical. That’s authentic, too.
I’m not looking for a full-time job. Still, the odds of someone stumbling upon some of my posts and realizing, “Hey, that guy has decades of experience and we could hire him for a reasonable wage because he is looking to make a contribution, not to become a vice president” are likely less than if I had posted some happy pablum.
We are all told that we should “bring our authentic selves to work.” But that’s bullshit. I knew it during my career, and today it is, if anything, even less true.
Potential employers want you to act a certain way, say certain things and fit a certain type – including age. They don’t reward you for being honest, or for clever parody, or for applying humor to expose the ridiculous.
It’s not hard to act the way employers want. We all do it. It’s just not authentic.
My communications career is built around organizational culture, because strong, effective cultures are a beautiful thing, and lead to greater success. But also? The best cultures let in reality. And sometimes, the reality is that the work is silly - and it is OK to say so.
I wonder now and then if I should delete my LI posts, or post at all. Remnants of career-mode caution remain in my brain, and every so often I ponder, should I post this? Not all of my comments fit the model of “ideal employee.”
But they are authentic. I guess in the end, as Popeye famously said, “I yam who I yam.” Finally.
That should be a good thing. I think it is.
I’m starting to post more often what I really think. Maybe somebody, somewhere, will like it.
Meanwhile, I wonder how long it will be before someone announces on LI that they “discovered” Popeye?