Have you ever had someone ask for your LinkedIn? Ask to connect? The question will, at that point seem, to the uninitiated, ridiculous. Their asking to link their professional life to yours publicly, as if a little lapel medal. Should one be flattered? Is this the new and evolved way of communicating – professional flirting? Either way you view the question, saying no or rather that you, God forbid, don’t possess an account, is an affront. Should this delicate world of professional flirtation be limited to the workplace or is it ok to connect (on LinkedIn of course) with your college peers?
Once you have succumbed to the constant external pressure to present an organised front on your future – make a LinkedIn profile, the professional phalanx – why not take it a step further and get LinkedIn Premium? Then you could see who looks at your profile! The days of paid Instagram view apps spring to mind. I doubt LinkedIn intended, at least initially, to appeal to the ever-growing and deathly-appealing inclination for movement towards a surveillance state. But how alluring is the concept of being able to see who your professional dating profile has attracted! The emotional manipulation of user-interfaces is nothing new. Nearing a revenue of 15 billion in 2022 and even experiencing a surge since then, this dating app is like no other – not only because it is unlikely one ever finds a date but also because your parents are on it.
Between Multiple Choice Question Exams and essays though, maybe it starts to look like a good idea – well it certainly can’t hurt anyway, right? This is the first step, not to recovering from but gaining an addiction. Soon the train of thought of even a lightly vocationally interested student will be consumed and taken to a whole new station. Just thinking about your future, the way nearly everyone else seems to be (When you secretly watch someone else’s laptop in a lecture and they’re applying for an internship on the first day of JF), transforms before you know it into opening LinkedIn at a house party. You have suddenly become incapable of forming an actual connection with this peer, the LinkedIn blue tells the solicited that whatever you had, your ironically enough, connection was false. We use people everyday whether we like it or not, but telling them this? No more use for the 19-year-old politics student you just met who’s somehow convinced you they’re in line for Taoiseach.
While it may be true that the Irish job market is looking, at best, tumultuous, is LinkedIn truly going to give you the edge? The truth is that it probably will. I implore those of you who are true career-romanticists (Definition: You believe you can get your dream job), to download the app – so long as I cease to hear “Can we connect?” on campus. Soliciting LinkedIn connections should be a more subtle process. You cannot ask for someone’s professional association as easily as you ask how they are – one of these questions is simply alien, especially in conventional Irish society where saying how you are is odd. But the subtle LinkedIn user, although this author admits they are not one themselves, could get the knife edge advantage they need to secure that coveted Big Four contract. Use of the platform without developing a dependency mirroring that of STEM students’ need for Zyns is something society is yet to see. If someone can show me an instance of this, I would delight in the innovation, novelty and social implications.
The more students on LinkedIn, the more normative it will become – a vicious cycle. But should we normalise something so potently addictive, all consuming? Seeing everyone around you strive for professional success when you’re still trying to get citations right (Chat GPT isn’t cooperating) is more than stressful. There is no stopping the onslaught of pressures for young people and for college students, of which both groups create a Venn diagram that looks more like a circle. How could we support students in the pressure of growing their professional profile? Of not just making friends but connecting with people.
Truly, we can’t– or at least it is my opinion that efforts are futile. Seminars on the topic will only increase the syntheticity of these student’s approach. The best way to attract employers is an approach identical to the best way to use tinder – have an account, use an account – but promptly forget that account when a real prospect comes your way. Meeting someone who could actually get you a job, or an opportunity? That’s an incredible coincidence, don’t ruin it with the blue LinkedIn glow emanating from your skin as you become the connection creature.
In an interview, depending on the tone of the interviewer (i.e. provided they’re not completely stone faced), something like a small self-deprecating joke or an appeal to their awareness of your nervousness can play in your favour. But on LinkedIn, not presenting the most idealised version of yourself? A complete faux pas. Please, LinkedIn population, stay human! If I hear one more “Can we connect?” I will in fact have to inform this inquirer of their apparent inability to connect with me. They can trade our real connection for another number on their networking tally. But if they need a favour, I certainly won’t be the best person to ask.
