When LinkedIn is mentioned, job seekers and employers come to mind in the simplest way. Because on this platform, you can see that new graduates or people who have left their jobs and are looking for a new job are trying to reach people who are experts in their fields. Likewise, it is possible to see that company owners and experts give various advice to individuals who will start working. Actually everything is ok so far.
I can hear you say that in a platform built on career development, there is nothing more normal than such initiatives. But in recent years, things have gotten out of hand. The platform, which has more than 900 million users, has now officially lost its seriousness and started to be filled with content that people share on social networks such as Facebook and Instagram. So is that our only criticism? Of course not.
In fact, it is the young people who burn the most on this platform. Because most of the time, thoughts such as “Let me get that certificate, attend that training, add this link, it will be a reference for me” cause them to continue their job search with a big zero in their hands.
LinkedIn users know that there are 24/7 posts on this site that include job searches of new graduates, certificates they received, announcements about starting a new job or a training course. Of course, you can see not only new graduates, but also young people who have been unemployed for a long time making such posts.
Many, if not all, of these people struggling to complete their career advancement are unaware that they are wasting their time. Let me explain why to those who ask why: In the capitalist system, individual success has turned into a fetishism. The system teaches you from a very young age that you need to take exams and see your friends as potential competitors.
You have to go to good universities and graduate with good grades so that you can be successful in a white-collar job that is approved by the system. Of course, besides individual success, you also need to create a network for yourself.
We can say that LinkedIn is a platform where this expectation of the system clearly works. For example, social media phenomena can create content on various topics and create a following for themselves; This platform enables human resources specialists, managers, bosses, and company owners to become popular by sharing video, visual and text content.
However, these people have already established themselves in certain positions. Mostly, they use this platform to put themselves forward, instead of communicating with the people they will hire.
On the other hand, relatively younger job seekers think that adding these people as friends will be an important step in their careers. However, this is a huge misconception for young individuals who are unaware of LinkedIn employers who are not into hiring people.
In order to attract these people, all the young people who attend the free trainings at the x institute and buy their x certificates for a certain fee, all they do is display them in the showcase of their LindedIn profile. So, how much do employers care about this show, who tell about his company and his company’s achievements on that platform?
Do job seekers find employment easily when they increase their connections? Do those connections help a job seeker get a job? These need to be questioned.
Or do most of them do nothing but leave a congratulatory message to the posts of “my new participation certificate”, “my new certificate”, like the relatives who comment on the post of a young person who shares the excitement of winning a university on Facebook?
In fact, it should also be questioned whether young people attend trainings and receive certificates and participation certificates, even from a field that has nothing to do with the department they graduated from, just in order to show themselves well-equipped to employers.
Because this situation presents us with a prototype (typing) who has knowledge in many fields but is not an expert in any subject. However, this can lead to not being preferred in job applications. While the system says “learn as much as you can” on the one hand, it also expects you to be an expert in your field.
And that’s why LinkedIn is turning into a free market where various trainings are marketed other than getting people to work. In short, we can say that this is a platform that plays into the hands of marketing companies and is unfortunately not very serious.
Companies often share content that sends the message that young people need to improve themselves more. This shows that employers are doing nothing more than offering people a job, but driving them into consumption with the fetishism of success.
Of course, it is not uncommon for the platform to be used for its intended purpose, albeit rarely, and for people to network with each other. Well, if you’re saying that the issue ends with this, wait, there is more.
The absurdity of posting posts on career development site with referenced words…
Think about it, you go to the interview and you blow up a saying. In real life, this makes people say, “What’s the matter, why is he saying these things?” and lowers the person’s chances of getting a job. However, on a career-oriented site, interestingly, you can see the postings of job postings on the importance of being successful all the time.
Moreover, most of them are in the setting of Instagram or Facebook posts. The examples you see in the pictures above also explain the subject clearly. Of course, these words can encourage people to work towards success, but LinkedIn may not be the appropriate platform to share them.
What about those who share their personal life stories and venture into LinkedIn influencers?
Recently, HyperSocial CEO Braden Wallake shared an unexpected post on LinkedIn with 43,000 followers. Wallake announced to his followers that his grandmother passed away, which is of course sad news, but ultimately a post that has nothing to do with the founding purpose of the platform.
Think about it, the CEO of a very important company tells the people who take him as an example, on the platform of establishing business connections, that he went to his mother after the death of a relative. Likewise, the man’s followers criticize him harshly. They say that they are trying to make their company’s name stand out by making such posts.
Maybe this criticism is too exaggerated, but people may be trying to explain that this type of informal sharing is not the place. The funny thing is, this man had shared a picture of him crying on LinkedIn before. That’s why we can say that people are not wrong to think that he is nonsense anymore.
Although this example is from strangers, we also have people sharing their personal life stories on LinkedIn. Of course, they also draw arrows of criticism.
In particular, Twitter users may react to the circulation of such content. Let us share with you a few examples we have compiled:
This example brings to mind LinkedIn users who tell stories about “I learned software from 0 and succeeded”. Because when we look at these stories, everyone draws the image that they can handle everything very easily.
However, no road to success is as easy as described, unfortunately, and it should not be forgotten that not everyone can be successful in everything before giving hope to people.
User Aysuda Ceylan says that when informative content is shared on LinkedIn, she gets less interaction than her dramatic life stories, and she sums up very accurately that the issue is nothing more than a love of interaction.
Another interesting issue is the emergence of a concept called LinkedIn influencer. It is seen that Thelma Teetee, who attended the award ceremony named Pulse Influencer Awards, was mentioned in this way on Twitter.
There isn’t yet a LinkedIn user in our community who introduces himself in this way. Of course, that doesn’t mean it will never happen. Then we will leave the comments to you on this subject.
And don’t those who post on a voluntary basis on a career platform like LinkedIn make them say they give up?
For example, you request a service from someone and all you expect in return is volunteerism. Once the service itself is a financial phenomenon, you cannot afford not to pay the person doing the work.
If the person is a university student and is not ready to enter the business life, maybe he/she can apply for these postings to improve himself/herself. But to say “we are looking for someone to work voluntarily” to those who will apply to start a job means to exploit that person’s labor.
Let’s warn those who will apply for these postings with enthusiasm: Job postings on LinkedIn include phrases such as full-time, part-time, remote, remote, or volunteer. Be sure to pay attention to these emphases so that you do not even spend your time communicating with people who will employ you and will not pay you.
In conclusion, the following should be said: One of the reasons why LinkedIn is no longer a platform established for network development is that it is no different from other social media platforms in terms of algorithms, software and marketing strategies. When it was first used, LinkedIn did not have the ability to produce different content (for example, the video post sharing feature came later) as it does now.
When you look at it, there are now features to produce visual, audio and written content using hashtags, as in the others. That’s why people may not see any harm in sharing what they share on Facebook or Instagram from time to time on LinkedIn.
- Image Sources: Dark Horse, Medium, Clipchamp, The New York Times, MIT Technology Review
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