Thursday, May 30, 2013

LinkedIn Personality Clash

A few months ago, I started a LinkedIn profile to consolidate my professional life and to try and make real-world working connections (it's not what you know, but who you know, right?).  I had all the skills I thought I could do at least halfway decent posted (leastways, at the forefront of my mind at the time), acquired professionally or otherwise (volunteer work, theater experience, scholastic-accomplishments, et cetera), and I was ready to go!  Unfortunately, most of my "endorsements", the things people know you CAN do well, are in stuff like "Facebook" or "Social Media".  Nowadays, hundreds of millions of people use social media, so it really doesn't help me stand out from my competition.  Basically, I'm an Eagle Scout with a 3.86 GPA, a Study-Abroad experience in Ecuador, and an Environmental degree from the University of Oregon...and I can marketably do Facebook.  ...  Kind of pathetic, in some ways.  I think the problem is the people who ARE endorsing me found me through Facebook, hence the social media nods.  On some level, I feel like the hapless worker, promising prospective employers with a pathetic plea of "I can do...stuff."  On the other hand, maybe I'm being ungrateful to my peers and for their endorsements.  In fact, there are marketable qualities to knowledgeability in social media (eg: communications; global consumer trends; et cetera).  Maybe I could get an environmental job involving social media to mass communicate issues imperative to society and the world at large?  ...  Or maybe not?

What do you think?

Meanwhile, I'm still looking for a job...
--
-Thomas

No comments:

Post a Comment