LinkedIn has become an interesting part of today’s social media. With more than 1 billion users worldwide, LinkedIn has become known as the professional’s social media.
A new user spending time on LinkedIn might find the initial excursion to be pleasant and uplifting. There are countless encouraging posts for those looking for new jobs, many people sharing interview tips, and many others sharing achievements and awards from their respective companies.
However, for those looking for jobs, they may spend hours on LinkedIn each week, and find that the employment world out there is more…complicated. LinkedIn is packed with professionals from all areas, but there seems to be a large number of people from management and HR/recruiting who have flooded the platform, all complimenting themselves for the amazing work they’ve done or how they are better than those who deal in bad practices. Let’s get specific.
Does this post look familiar? “Share the salary! Share the salary! I’m going to post this every week until this becomes a standard practice” How about this? “Don’t ghost candidates! Don’t ghost recruiters!” What about this one? “Workday is a terrible platform! Would you rather [insert terrible choice] or apply through Workday?”
I’ll admit, all these things ring some truth to the worker looking for a job. Yes, many jobs don’t include the salary range (however in some states it’s a legal requirement) and that can be frustrating. Yes, recruiter/hiring manager ghosting is extremely common. And yes, unfortunately, Workday is not the most user-friendly platform. But what does all this public complaining on LinkedIn do? Honestly, this isn’t much different than those annoying TikToks of consumers complaining about their favorite/least favorite company. What’s truly being accomplished here? How about “Starvation is a terrible way to die! War is bad! Stop famine!” Yeah, war is bad! We should get food to those who are starving! …Wait what are we talking about?
Okay, let’s get away from the moral shaming, and go to some moral posturing. “I just gave a candidate an interview. He really struggled to communicate and bombed the interview. What did I do, I hired him!” Insert eye-roll emoji here. This next one is one of my favorites. “My candidate asked for $X, and I didn’t give it to them. I gave them $25k more than they asked for!” Yeah, I’m sure you did. What about this one, “I just hired a candidate who was 8 months pregnant? Why, because pregnant women are going to come back and work harder than any of us!” Okay. (Are they even legally allowed to disclose that information?) This moral posturing might be even worse than the shaming of the bad practices. To be honest, I’m not really sure who these people making these posts are talking to. Are they talking to the candidates? I don’t think so because we don’t have control over this. Are they talking to management? Maybe, but what impact are these posts going to make? Are hiring managers everywhere going to suddenly start giving pregnant women who had a terrible interview $25k over their asking starting salary? No of course not. These posts accomplish two things: 1. The post makes the poster feel satisfied. 2. The reader gets bitter. Bitter that the job they work for doesn’t have these amazing recruiters/hiring managers. Bitter that they’ve had 200+ jobs ghost them, or that after three rounds of interviews, they were still rejected.
So what’s the point of all this? I don’t know what LinkedIn is supposed to be. Is it a place to share candidates’ skills who are looking for jobs? A place to show off skills and achievements? What it’s become is a place trolled by recruiters and managers setting false expectations for those struggling to find work. How do you know you’re being trolled? Watch out for those posts that get to your emotions. Watch out for posts that make you walk away saying “Yeah, stick it to em!” Or “Yeah, I should get that job!” We live in the real world, and we have to deal with being ghosted, or applying for 300 jobs without a salary (and yes, we do have to deal with Workday too).
P.S.
Managers, don’t think you’re getting out of this scot-free. Yes, we see your posts complimenting your company and/or employees but really, it’s you in the middle of the picture. If you want to be a good manager, just make a post that isn’t about you. You’ve already got the job, you don’t need to flatter yourself. Take a picture of your team, tell the world why they’re great, and stay out of it.
