Came here to work out something that’s been bugging me.
There is a whole host of insanity that I could ramble on about related to job searching in tech in 2024. But where I’ll start is with Linkedin. To be clear- no shade on platform itself. I currently spend A LOT of time there and it’s served me up most of my leads in the last month. Hats off.
Yesterday, I reviewed my profile with the career counselor that came with my lay-off package. And let me tell you, when you are a kind of lifelong irreverent creative who has found themselves (happily, excitingly) in another industry, and someone asks you “why” something is your profile? It can rapidly start to decompose your identity.
The banner picture of your tattooed arm holding a sword from your graduate thesis production of Byron’s The Corsair. But why?
Your summary section (the most important section?) of your profile only contains a link to the NYT article about how grown up theatre kids run the world and this old chestnut: Katie graduated in May 2013 from Columbia University with her MFA in Theater Directing. As she crossed the stage to get her diploma, she gave David Byrne (commencement speaker) her business card.
Why?
Because….it’s funny? It’s cool? Because it shows that I have a personality? Because I’m not like the other technical program managers? And then you start to trail off and the ground beneath a cartoon flower that lives in your heart dries up into parched little tiles- the petals drop, the stem shrivels, and the little face in the middle gives an exasperated sigh- a puff of dust escapes- and then the whole thing crumples.
Woof.
Well. When a recruiter comes across your page that might be all that they see. That top section- the picture of the arm and sword, the funny story about David Byrne. Why should they hire you?
Girl. Why should anyone do anything?
So all that to say- I’m gonna change it. It feels bad. I don’t want to. I wish we still lived in a world where QUIRKY meant something, right? Even on Linkedin.