Is your LinkedIn another FaceBook Profile?

In Indian job market, job portals like Naukri and Monster have played a big role since long, leaving very less market share for other players like LinkedIn. There are no second thoughts about LinkedIn’s potential. But somehow, for long, it was etched in job seeker’s mind that when someone started preparing for a job change, the first conversation began with “Update Naukri everyday bro, otherwise you won’t get calls”. I’m sure many in the entry and mid-career level can connect to this. But this seems to have changed in the recent times. There were a few recruiters asking me with an awe of surprise “You don’t have a LinkedIn profile”? Well, I always had it. But I never bothered to update it because I never expected job opportunities coming my way from LinkedIn. The possibility was too feeble. But looks like things have changed. Nowadays, a lot of recruiters use LinkedIn because of its robust networking capabilities, seamless cross-border connections with over 600 million user base and feature rich platform not just for employees, but for employers too. So I realized that it is important to have mine updated and started looking into it often. I installed the app too. This is when the surprise unfolded.

A video of a grandpa dancing (Left) and a MP updating distribution of ration kit (Right) on LinkedIn

What a mess LinkedIn really is! It is nothing more than just another facebook. From work-out and Yoga videos, ration distribution pics by certain MP, people posting Salsa videos of their grandparents begging their followers to like the video, content writers writing poems to scenic photograph posts with 3000+ likes which made absolutely ZERO SENSE. In other words, I was browsing through another social media profile of mine. With all such godforsaken updates, I was dreading to see the updates that made sense to me. I sat for more than two hours to remove unwanted connections, un follow/hide spammers. Despite my best efforts, after the clean-up, my LinkedIn feed just feels better, but still far from what I expect from a Professional networking website. I realized this is a big problem because people perceive LinkedIn as another social networking site. Here are a few things that you DON”T do on LinkedIn so that it remains a job and professional networking platform.

Profile picture

Your profile picture is undoubtedly the most important element of any networking site, be it professional or social platforms. Research has established psychological evidences that without a display picture, the accounts are perceived to be dormant. But if you have added a picture of John Snow, Ronaldo or your favorite god Hanuman as a profile picture to give an impression of being creative, you’re on self damage mode.  And yeah, the professor from Money Heist as your DP on LinkedIn does not make you a genius. Don’t get overboard with your creativity. Keep it simple, silly!

Whacky Profile Pictures n Linkedin-1

Whacky LinkedIn Profile Picture-2

Whacky LinkedIn Profile Picture-3

Adding connections

Adding qualified connections increase your job prospects. Yes of course. But you need not add every goddamn person you know and hype it. I was thinking twice to send a connection request to a good friend from my previous organization, because even though we connected over lot of cultural initiatives, we never worked together on any products/services. But here I am, getting connection request from a stranger car service guy who is my friend’s connection. Arggh! 

Updating the pic of The Atlantic Road, Norway (Left) and Writing Poems on LinkedIn (Right)

Your house maid’s husband’s distant relative who has completed his engineering and is now seeking job, your wife’s retired PSU uncle’s daughter who is a nutritionist, your college crush whose designation is Home maker, your primary school friend who is doing  research on zombies from Sudan University of Science and Technology need not be your professional connects. DON’T YOU GET IT? They neither belong to your domain/organization/technology/services nor can be of any professional value addition. If they really have known connections, ask them to introduce you to them. Accepting connections from every Tom Dick and Harry you’ve met in life perpetually is useless.  Go back to your profile, browse through your connections to check how many amongst your connection can really have a potential impact on your careers. Remember, connections are just numbers. 1000+ random connections from acquaintances do not; I repeat, DO NOT add any weight to your digital resume. For god sake, please stop adding the entire world’s populace to your connection list, morons!

Pro-tip: Create separate email-IDs for your professional needs and social media requirements. This will avoid a lot of your personal contacts sending you requests and it also give you more power to manage professional profiles.

Posting updates

Posting significant professional updates are indeed good way to let everyone know of your achievements. But majority of the updates from my connections did not seem deserved to be even there. A software engineer in my connection had posted her pics of distributing food packets during Covid-19 lockdown.  Why why why? Had her profession been Social Work groups, it would be worth an update. But in IT Industry, It will not give her any professional edge over others who have not done it. Another friend had copied leadership quotes from Google and pasted it. Will it help his followers inculcate leadership habits? I also found people posting the certificates of their organization’s mandatory trainings like EHS and Data Privacy. For heavens’ sake, stop this! A funny video with caption “Don’t give up” made some sense. But after seeing screenshots of a newspaper article on Happy Iftaar and a meme on Yamaha RX-100 to describe the Japanese engineering, alas! I lost my mind.

 

An Iftaar party cooking update (Left) Personal updates about Daughter on LinkedIn

In the midst of all these unwanted junk, many important updates go unnoticed. And even bigger problem is that unlike FaceBook, we cannot even delete the profile. It has to be there, up and running. You never know when you’ll have to make real use of your connections. So please don’t be willful and a pain in someone’s professional life. Be responsible and have social conscience. If LinkedIn becomes another FaceBook, destinies of many professionals may become undeniably enmeshed.  As we prepare for another economic depression, this gibberish will not take us anywhere. Go and act now. Because if you don’t, sooner or later we’ll be victims of our own complacency.

No; I am not posting this blog on my LinkedIn.