In today's competitive hiring market, one must not only be competent but also uniquely distinguished (Photo: LinkedIn)
Modern recruitment encourages us to become ever more public and performative about our daily doings. No place perpetuates that more than the versatile LinkedIn: a professional networking goldmine; a portal for “thinkfluencers” to post motivational screeds about #teambuilding; and, indisputably, a site that indulges the 2008 Facebook dream by revealing who has been stalking your profile. It also excitedly announces your peers’ promotions and anniversaries, hinting ever so subtly that you are the only person in your network who has yet to hit a career milestone worth celebrating.
LinkedIn is, for the most part, a way to break out of your lane and swerve away from tech bros spinning improbable yarns about how hard they work. Once described as an “economic opportunity for everyone” by former CEO Jeffrey Weiner, the strait-laced digital ecosystem is a workaday cousin to social butterfly-like Instagram or TikTok. But job hunters on the Microsoft-owned entity, especially after the pandemic, are having difficulty catching the eye of potential employers. How does one stand out in a talent pool where everyone seemingly has a “proven track record for delivering results” or subscribe to the belief of “omni-channel integrated solutions”? And the “amazing people skills” they claim to have? Surely, their ex would love to hear all about it.
In Southampton, England, graphic designer and illustrator Courtney Summer Myers took things into her own hands by posting a bold pink #Desperate sign under her profile picture, sparking global conversation. The creative move is modelled after LinkedIn’s existing green banner “Open to Work”, first rolled out during Covid-19 in June 2020 when millions of people were furloughed or abruptly dismissed. The service puts candidates right in the line of sight of HR staffing officers and broadcasts their availability so they do not have to send cold emails to every company in town.
“There’s been a lot of discourse about how the #OpenToWork banner puts off hiring managers because it makes you come across as desperate,” Myers wrote on her LinkedIn last month. “Frankly, as a victim of redundancy, I am desperate, and I don’t think that is anything to be ashamed of. Being laid off doesn’t reflect a lack of skills, talent or work ethic — it’s just bad luck. No one should be embarrassed that they need to pay their rent and bills, support their family or feed themselves.” At the time of print, her viral post has garnered nearly 435,000 reactions, 9,650 comments and 9,011 reposts.
courtney_summer_myers_.jpg
The 28-year-old, who applied to around 700 positions since she was let go in November 2023, started a movement that has been adopted openly across the world (she even created a transparent PNG version of the pink banner so others could use it). The official #OpenToWork, however, has the option of privately nudging headhunters. LinkedIn revealed that 200 million professionals have turned on the feature in the back end of their profiles. Recruiters can see that they are actively looking but ordinary users will not be able to view anything.
Myers’ episode has reignited the longstanding debate of “to banner or not”, especially when the shame that often comes from being unemployed feels like a scarlet letter that’s digitally tattooed on your face. It also does not help that the perennial employment stigma — whereby outstanding employees are plum for the picking and those left behind are automatically considered second choice — still lingers. Touting the #OpenToWork badge may even give the impression that you are willing to settle for less, especially if your public availability is being equated to a sense of urgency.
The diatribe against brandishing the banner on LinkedIn has also caused concern among employers who have labelled it amateurish and overly eager. Are these aspirants casting a wide net to pursue roles they are not truly suited for? In order for recruiters to bite, applicants are better off building a compelling online presence and marketing themselves strategically to appeal to the right openings. This advice perhaps brings to mind the “Purple Cow” concept in Seth Godin’s bestselling book of the same name. The logic is simple: a purple cow stands out in a field of brown cows because it is unexpected, unusual and impossible to ignore. Despite obtaining double degrees and scoring exceptional grades, which have long been proxies for high-paying gigs in a competitive market, one must not only be competent but also uniquely distinguished.
Admittedly, LinkedIn’s personality makeover in recent years has been baffling as users no longer flaunt their professional triumphs but also share personal frailties. This trend mirrors a corporate landscape that urges people to talk about their hardships, be it about mental or physical health, colleagues or counterparts. Now that the social network has washed up on this unexpected shore that borders on oversharing, is it really okay for people to parade their desperation online?
linkedin_extra.jpg
The negative reaction to the banner, while not entirely fair, is understandable. For many, it represents our corporate mortality, an ugly reminder that even a college graduate, industry elite or high-calibre high-flyer could be next on the chopping block. None of that, however, should stop anyone from using every tool in their arsenal to snag a position. Activating the banner may court a slew of irrelevant or low-ball job offers that do not align with your experience or salary expectation but this can be overcome by fine-tuning your narrative in the bio section. Make it clear that you are not taking up anything that comes your way because if your ambiguous profile is a wasteland, nothing good is going to land in your court.
The tumultuous rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace has befuddled economic and employment prognosticators. Will computers replace your lunch buddy John from human resources? That reality does not seem too far-fetched as LinkedIn has recently unveiled an update that utilises generative AI to write cover letters based on job descriptions and a career-matching tool that details how a recruiter may evaluate one’s profile. Today’s hiring technologies go way beyond basic online personality assessments to mine information from a resume database. Deploying a banner may function as both a filter and a flag, tilting the scales towards those who look to be actively in demand. But ultimately, your skills — adaptability, critical thinking and ability to juggle hundreds of Chrome tabs — will be the true mark of merit.
This article first appeared on Nov 11, 2024 in The Edge Malaysia.
