Last week I visited a 'business networking event' in the World Trade Center area in Amsterdam. It was a meeting for expats interested in making a living in The Netherlands. Now that I have returned from my projects in Berlin, I feel like half an expat myself, so I thought the meeting could be suitable for me too.
There were several speakers, among them two recruitment consultants speaking on how to create 'a consistent image on the several social media' as 'potential employers tend to look at this too'. The message of the recruiters was that if you show 'being a party animal on Facebook', and it contrasts with your 'professional Linkedin profile, it might give the wrong signals'. I have been thinking on this issue already for some years, especially while--to satisfy my multiple identities--I have been thinking how to merge these identities together in a representational image. But, the questions raises, why impose on myself this 'one dimensionality' and why deny the multiple identities by presenting certain qualities and passions as, for example, hobbies (as the recruiters suggested)?
According to the speakers, 'potential employers', at least in The Netherlands, almost all check your Linkedin profile. Linkedin is a social platform, without any real direct function, I think, like Facebook or Twitter. You become 'friends' mostly on a professional level, but the question is, where does it all lead to? Now, recruiters and employers have discovered the Linkedin 'tool' to fastly scan 'your online cv' and inform themselves whether 'they' are going to invite you for an interview or send you an email or not.
Of course account managers of Linkedin will tell you otherwise, but Linkedin is a nice tool to sell companies and others people with business interests, but what is the real benefit to the man or woman 'publishing an online cv' on this platform? A few months ago I thought about deleting this Linkedin profile all together because I cannot control who is visiting my profile and overview their intentions. Many potential big brothers watching you? Linkedin didn't deliver me much and I, in all my naivity, subscribed already in 2004. It is nice to respresent my art initiative Kuiper Domingos Projects, but that's an activity or business being built up and I have to make my money for the biggest part elsewhere at the moment. Why show this vulnerabiliy at all online?
I know I write on my blog on it now also, but still, people have to do a bit more to get into this story and follow the line of thought on the blog, in contrast to other 'social media', Linkedin in particular. I have never used Facebook in a personal manner; I have tried to keep it professional and Twitter as well, also trying to expose a consistent (art) image via the social media. But, what if I write about art, marketing, music and so on and still need to make money with some other project additionally, does this blog writing undermine my professional credibility in, for example, the marketing sector, a sector I worked in for some years also?
It is complicated, but somewhere also not. While doing my projects in Berlin, my art friends on Facebook kept me informed on their projects, parties, works etc. all over the world. In short, for me, Facebook has a function. The same counts for Twitter, I can post events on art or media and sometimes see what some of my contacts do. I see Twitter can be a 'specialist news stream', it sometimes even makes the mass media press agencies futile, although it can get also very vulgar, but you can skip that out, by not befriending certain people or intitutions.
What about this Linkedin profile? I have now around 500 'contacts', but, next to finding some old high school friends, it didn't benefit so much, yet. I am even considering minimizing my profile, because I don't see the benefit of an 'online cv, seeable by anyone'. If I am to be judged by 'potential employers' or 'business partners', please only after I have sent them my cv or business proposal and not otherwise. Linkedin seems to benefit recruiters and other intermediaries, but they tend to be not wanted anyway, for employers they raise the costs of hiring somebody new, for potential employees, they try to pose themselves in between 'the job' and the applicant, mostly unwanted.
Looking back to, let's say 2002, it was still easy to find jobs or even freelance opportunities online, now, with all those specialised SEO agencies, it's getting harder and harder to find information about work, jobs etc. online by the day. It's the same old trick of the recruiters and job agencies: they roam the internet, try to claim jobs, mostly unasked for, and try to block direct access by employees to their potential employers. The biggest agencies hire the best SEO marketeers and try to control the online job market. It's getting more and more interesting.
I think it's time again to talk to some of my IT friends about this, I am sure there must be a new way around these online job agencies and intermediairies, whos benefits are doubtable anyway. Most serious companies put their vacancies on their own website and advertise it in certain magazines or online platforms. You have to change your approach and even more follow your interests on where you would like to work or network to get business without being lured in 'interesting job offers' of one or another agency. Next to that, one of my contacts gave me access to a tool that is bought by job agencies and recruiters to roam the internet for jobs, so on a personal level, I am ahead of 'them'.
To be continued...
