Career Tips
Why Being Your Authentic Self Can Boost Your Profile in LinkedIn
It is widely known that LinkedIn is the “It” social media for professionals where they can legibly show their glittery achievements to attract recruiters. But what if we choose to show our authentic selves instead on LinkedIn? Will that also attract recruiters?
It is socially accepted for us to humble-brag in LinkedIn because this is the “legal” and safe space where we can actually sell ourselves to the potential employers. But how can we stand out among these rockstar candidates despite of putting on every single achievements we have but none of them ever contacted us?
I did not realise this before but, after I got a random calling inside my head to just treat LinkedIn like any other social media I have (minus food and pet pictures), I receive averagely 5–10 messages per week offering me a job interview and some freelance gigs too (yea… I even got high value clients from LinkedIn), although I blatantly show in my profile that I’m on a career break or can also be harshly translated as unemployed 🙃.
I used to think that recruiters only care with people who currently have a real full-time job, not a random candidate who already seemingly-being-suspected-as unemployed for three months for the sake of pursuing personal goal instead. There was the time when I was so shit-scared to take a career break, worrying about how recruiter will judge me as a lazy person if I look for a job while unemployed.
I stopped worrying. I resigned in March 2022 and chose to pursue my passion through a career break. I keep my profile updated with the recent projects I made during the career break. Career break is not equal to being lazy, I see it as the best opportunity for me to explore new skills and whatever that make me feel passionate doing. Also… I’m not 100% unemployed, I still do freelance job and work happily from 9–3 from Monday to Thursday and spend most of my time taking courses/unpaid projects (but awesome for CV) that I’ve been dying to try in my whole life 🥳.
I edited my profile to be more like human interacting with other human. I make my profile more fun, add more Instagram-like profile image, and being active making relatable posts (with some added humour). Remember that we want to connect with recruiters who happen to be humans (could be a bot but not in LinkedIn (yet) I guess?).
I stop showing myself as a mere candidate for a job, I show myself as a partner who the recruiter can get along with. My profile screams “I will not work for you, I will work with you”. It means that I won’t make my profile to suit the company, but I will make sure the company choose me because I have a likable personality. Yup this attitude tho… 😂
After 8 roller-coaster years working for big corporation, small firm, to startup, I realise that I no longer want to be treated as a mere employee if I ever get a job again someday. I want to have an equal opportunity to have a say and share ideas with other people in the higher level, I want to see them to see me as a partner and encourage collaboration instead of top-down policy. With my latest profile on LinkedIn, I feel more powerful by showing who I am and braver asking more detailed things about the job offer. Not being a desperate job-seeker who will take whatever offer available in the market, like I used to 😂.
Do I still show my achievement? Of course… but it doesn’t speak anything about me, my personality, and what I’m looking for in a job. My profile will be drawn among other five stars candidates who graduated with higher degree, better universities, and top level experiences.
I show more of my authentic self by telling whoever check out my profile as a person with fun and creative side (obviously because I’m a designer so I have to show how creative I am 😁). I put some evidence of my works too using some images or article links (so they won’t think I’m a shady candidate, I mean… I know how to work and cooperate with people too, here are the proof).
So are you ready to show your true self and give more personality to your LinkedIn profile? Well… minus pet, food, rant-related posts 😹
