I visit LinkedIn daily, and I hate LinkedIn.
Why LinkedIn makes accomplished people feel worse
Like most social media platforms, it’s an engine for self-loathing and anxiety. It’s a hall of distorted mirrors. It’s full of puffery, half-truths, and humblebrags.
At all times on LinkedIn, someone terrible is peacocking in a way that probably gets under your skin. Someone else is explaining how a technology you haven’t paid attention to holds the key to growth in your chosen profession. Maybe there’s an awesome job posting, and when you click through to take a look you notice that 100 people have already applied. Someone you didn’t like that much in school has a job title you envy. Another person is crowing about the leadership lessons they learned while taking their dog to the groomers. It’s exhausting.
Ugh.
Still, we’ve got to be there, right? And if we’re there, we’ve got to look professional, and sound professional. Right? Right??
So what should you say in your LinkedIn Profile? How do you optimize it? Are you making a crucial mistake?
There are career coaches EVERYWHERE who make this into their pitch. They drum up the anxiety and self-doubt that LinkedIn is so good at creating in smart, accomplished people, and crow about the “7 Mistakes That Are Killing Your Job Search” or “This LinkedIn Mistake is Costing You Opportunities.”
I won’t do it. And you are too smart to fall for it. Right?
LinkedIn is a tool, not a spellbook
The answer for whether we need to be on LinkedIn at all, and if so, how to use it, requires us to zoom out. Way, way, way out.
LinkedIn is a tool that you may or may not wish to use. Like any tool, it has capabilities that make it appropriate for some things, and not for others.
Think of it like a waffle iron or a hammer, a hose or a pencil sharpener. Whether you use the tool — and how much you need to read articles or consult experts about how to optimize your use — depends on what you’re trying to achieve by using it, and what other tools you’ve got at hand.
Which requires you to know what you want, and have a plan to get there.
Most people, even really smart people, have only the vaguest idea about how to find meaningful work. Instead, LinkedIn seems to exist in people’s minds as a sort of spellbook. “If I get the magic words in the magic order, someone out there will find me and pull me into this place I don’t have to choose, I don’t have to find, I don’t have to describe.”
Nobody is coming to save you (and that’s good news)
I’m sorry to tell you that nobody is coming to save you. No matter how good your LinkedIn profile is. There’s no genie who will pop out and grant you the exact combination of challenge, compensation, and collegiality you need right now.
The good news is that this means you don’t have to wait for someone out there to choose you. You’ve got the autonomy to do this.
I believe you need 3 things for finding your next pursuit. LinkedIn is a great help for one of the three, and only of limited value for the other two.
How to use LinkedIn in a way that feels good
So why do I visit LinkedIn daily if I think it’s a bitter brew of self-loathing, empty corporate-speak, and self-promotion? I’ve found a way to use it that makes me happy, rather than anxious or envious.
Instead of thinking of it as a magic spellbook, I think of it as a magic address book. (I’m old enough that I had several of these — and I remember scratching out physical addresses, phone numbers, and even emails when someone I knew had a life change). When you’re ready to reconnect with someone you know and like, LinkedIn gives you tidbits of context about what they’ve been up to. You can cheer people on, or let them know what you still remember them being great at. You can do favors for people — make intros, forward their postings, answer their questions when you can. Instead of thinking about it as a tool for promotion or discovery, remember that it is a tool for deepening your connection to the people you know and like.
Use LinkedIn to show others that you are thinking of them. DON’T use it to try to force others to think of you.
You’re not a hot teenager at the mall who’s going to get “discovered” by a talent scout and whisked off to a perfect life. Did that ever happen?
A better way to take action
There are better ways than hanging around LinkedIn to take action towards work you love. Come to my free monthly office hours and let’s get you some better tools. Or we can just rant about LinkedIn.
