HER EDGE

LINKEDIN OR OUT?

BY ROBIN DEWIND

I have been searching for new professional relationships for weeks. When you work for yourself, you are always looking for ways to find new business. I made calls, followed up with colleagues, and called vendors to see how they were doing. I craved connection and the start of 2022, left me feeling like the previous year did, isolated.

I turned to a familiar place, LinkedIn. looking to hire a middle-aged television anchor. Career transition during an unstable job market requires personal reinvention. This was survival. Most connected, few responded.

I accumulated five hundred plus connections but there were no jobs, only polite responses, and sometimes nothing at all.

LinkedIn became a perfect place to appear like a duck on water. My smiling picture allowed me to seem calm and confident while casually sitting on a box looking like I had the world at my feet. Nine years and a business later, I am feeling a shift in my need for LinkedIn.

Lately this networking site about business, ironically offers up all the trappings of Facebook making me feel like everyone is living this amazing work life. It is the playground for professional cool kids.

I got on LinkedIn when I transitioned out of television. A well-meaning colleague insisted I had to be on it. He said it was necessary to broaden my professional circle.

It was the recession and LinkedIn was already the most popular business networking site for anyone looking for a job. Back then, everyone was desperately searching.

Posting my online resume was not enough. I had to tout my accomplishments, interests, and causes. Recommendations, endorsements, and coveted connections became important for my online brand.

Naively, I thought my work and reputation would be enough to find a comparable job at my current salary.

I could not have been more wrong.

With just a click, I buried three decades of professional work experience in exchange for buzz words like strategic, storytelling, and content creation. LinkedIn was not LinkedIn was my favorite pastime. It was better than other social media platforms. Here

work, career, and professional engagement mattered. I felt like I was “working” when I was on it.

Researching businesses and people I wanted to meet did not seem creepy or stalkerish. This social media pool was not about posturing or popularity. I would spend hours, looking through my connections, their connections, and their connectionsconnections. It was a rabbit hole that soothed my aching ego and need for a professional rebound. If I could just connect with the right people who would respond back, everything would okay. During my morning and evening scrolls, I find this modest platform has become like a boastful dating app. It is a picture our best professional self on steroids, but in a sneaky way.

On Facebook we collect “friends” who fill our feed with pictures and videos of life’s details. It can be fun or irritating (like family and friends can be) and that is okay. We can like it, love it, or keep moving.

LinkedIn has a hierarchy of “connections.” The pressure to comment, congratulate, or shout out a ‘big thank you,’ has made this resource less appealing. LinkedIn has mastered the art of being humble and braggy all at the same time. We have all done it. Sell our soul to sell ourselves to stay publicly relevant.

The quiet start to the new year had me feeling a little jealous that everyone on the site seems to have a bigger job, title, or better business than I do. When I look at all the awards, accolades, and promotions, I get in a bad mood and start comparing myself.

Are all these people really having more success than I am?

Instead of being Linked-In, I felt very left out.

“Be vulnerable. Log off, take a breath, and remember you are not professionally alone.”

This used to be hopeful place that was a lifeline during a difficult point in my career. Now it just made me feel envious that I am not re-posting a thought-provoking article from a top influencer for my peers to opinionate and debate over.

In the last month I have gotten three automated messages about website design, an offer for a corporate credit card and someone wanting to read my color wheel. A guy named Larry who insisted we knew each other fifteen years ago randomly messaged me asking if I “wanted to hang out?” Seriously Larry? You violated the rules, this is not Facebook Messenger or Match. Unexpectedly, my former colleague and friend Joanna reached out in a text. We had not spoken since before the pandemic and she wanted me to join her for a networking breakfast as her guest. She thought it would be a nice opportunity to connect with new people and to grab coffee to catch up and see how we could help each other. knows one of my connections and we are planning to meet for drinks.

I share this simple story for anyone who is feeling defined by what others are doing, sharing, and saying.

Be vulnerable. Log off, take a breath, and remember you are not professionally alone. Go out to lunch or gab a cup of coffee with someone you respect. They may need you as much as you need them. Connect, for real.