Originally posted June 20, 2013 by Nicole

Authors Note: Reading through this, much of this material still holds today in 2024 and if anything, has just illustrated how this particular social media site has gone downhill.

Maintaining a career in these modern times is difficult.  Between the economy and the rapid pace of technology, some industries are shrinking while others are expanding.  Those of you actively job-hunting know that competition is stiff for jobs.  Those of you who aren’t actively job-hunting are being encouraged to network, network, network to keep your name and credentials out there in case you do find yourself unemployed.

These days, many hiring managers don’t just rely on the references you provide them to check your credentials and background. No, like everything else technology has added rather than reduced a layer of stress to a process in our day to day lives.  Now, hiring managers often run your name through their search engine of choice and expect to find you on at least one of the major social media sites.

While Facebook has been used by some as way to network professionally, more and more people have joined Linkedin to maintain their professional profile.  Linkedin is pretty much the buttoned up, watered down version of Facebook.( Author’s note: Now in 2024- the posts are basically FB lite. Just check out https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedInLunatics/ for proof. ) Now, I to this day refuse to join Facebook (still refuse) but I did reluctantly join Linkedin about two years ago (2011- so present day 13 years) after being successfully browbeaten by numerous business articles insisting that one simply MUST be on Linkedin to grow one’s career.

Aside from collecting co-workers like baseball cards on the website, you are supposed to join groups and post comments on forums to flex your expertise in your chosen career.  Most of us on Linkedin however, rely on the “let’s just connect with as many people as possible” strategy in the hopes that the more your name pops up on contact lists, the more likely some recruiter will find you and offer you your dream job.

Two years into being a member of Linkedin, I’ve yet to move onto my “dream” career (still haven’t but current role gets me closer).  Instead, I’ve been hunted down by recruiters strong arming me into interviewing for  lateral positions which would  lengthen my commute by 15 miles only to be contacted by another recruiter who called me about two potential job opportunities then never called me back (LOL all still holds true today). I have had better luck with applying to positions directly via a company’s website.  I’ve had a 75% success rate in obtaining an interview this way, but alas the jobs I’ve interviewed for weren’t quite a good fit for me.

At times I’ve thought about deleting my profile (still think about doing this).  Yet I remain. Why? Well, because the one perk of remaining on Linkedin is that you can spy on your co-workers.

Now, before I elaborate on this point, let me say that there are many nuisances on Linkedin.  For one thing, when you log into your homepage, Linkedin will feature 4-5 business articles ( not sure they do this anymore). 

In addition, you will find that several of your connections have also posted links to business articles they feel you should read. While this doesn’t sounds so bad, having so many business articles grouped together illustrates how most business articles just rehash the same crap over and over.

Once in awhile, you might see an article that shows promise.

An open bar in the office? So now my coworkers can annoy me while sober AND drunk!

On the downside, you have to wade through numerous “5 Reasons You Suck at Your Job” or “Why Top Companies Won’t Be Hiring this Quarter” or “Why Trend X is No Longer Trendy” type of articles.

Really? The job market is experiencing slow growth? The devil you say!

Do you really need an article to spell this out for you? After the initial “honeymoon” period on a new job, it’s been my experience that 2:1 you probably do work for a stupid company.

I don’t even know who or what Huawei is.  Thank you Linkedin, for making me feel stupid.

 After you wade through dry business articles posing as trendy advice columns, Linkedin will try to recommend jobs that you should apply for.  Problem is, these jobs recommendations as far as I can tell are based on keywords from the job titles in your work history.  So if you are trying to switch careers, these recommendations won’t be helpful.  Also, 50% of the job recommendations I receive are for sales jobs I am not remotely qualified to apply for (still true- which tells me LinkedIn’s algorithm still sucks after all these years).

Sales Manager III?  Wow, I’ve never even held a sales job in a retail store, let alone field sales.

Another annoying aspect of Linkedin is that it likes to remind you of how long you’ve been trapped at your current place of employment.  The real kick in the teeth is when your co-workers chime in to rib you about it.

Once you get past all this, you can find some good stuff on Linkedin.  For example, you realize even that the senior level manager who sits down the hall from you is also ashamed to work for the company and recently changed his job title on Linkedin to identify himself professionally as an improv actor.

The next fun feature is uncovering lies your co-workers tell about their work experience.  You see, Linkedin profiles are essentially resumes.  This allows you to rifle through the BS they’ve been using to pad their resumes.

Senior Analyst  

Company X

Public Company; 1001-5000 employees;

March 2010 – June 2011 (1 year 4 months)

• Weekly forecasting of revenue and analysis of weekly changes and variances to budget, forecast and year over year variance.
• Resulted in increase in accuracy from 75% to 95%+ with detailed explanation of variances. Really, because after you were fired, our director was still yelling about how you didn’t know what the hell you were doing this whole time.
• Creation of analytic model.  Analysis and reporting of sales data including year over year analysis, gap analysis, forecasting and variance analysis.  Yeah, we scrapped any and all reports you developed and instead put together analyses that were actually useful to management.

When you are checking out another person’s profile, Linkedin gives you a rundown of other profiles people checked out after reading the same profile you are looking at.  Sometimes this information can be telling about who else you are lumped in with professionally.

Note: All profile pics shown in this blog post are clipart photos EXCEPT for the Hooters girl above.  That’s the actual pic on Linkedin. No, really.  I just stuck a red dot on her face to protect her identity outside the Linkedin universe, but somehow I don’t even think it matters.

This leads me to another interesting point about Linkedin. This is supposed to be a professional networking site.  Linkedin encourages you to use a professional photo to establish yourself as a credible expert in whatever it is you do.  Yet some people still don’t get it. As a result, you’re likely to come across the following profile pics:

The Children – numerous people post a picture of their kids instead of themselves.

Random Object – some people post a pic of an object or symbol instead of a photo.

Guess which one I am  – Then again, some people opt to include a picture of themselves…among a crew of others.

In addition to the fun features I’ve shown above, you can also endorse the skills and write recommendations for people you know.  This is great if your boss or a co-worker check off endorsements on your profile or write a glowing recommendation.  This is not so great if the endorsement or recommendation comes from your mom or your spouse.

In a nutshell, despite the dry business discussions and overt lies found within the pages of Linkedin, it does provide some chuckles and helps you keep tabs on the people you work with everyday.  It’s an easy way to maintain an online presence for career purposes. If used correctly, you can use Linkedin solely for business contacts and then promote the fun stuff, like your personal blog, for your other social media sites. (Author’s Note: RIP Twitter.)