October 29th, 2012 
Emily 
My husband has been bugging me for weeks to make myself a LinkedIn profile, and I’ve been dragging my feet.
When I was teaching, I never had a LinkedIn profile. I had no trouble getting teaching jobs through my network in Rhode Island, and I didn’t know any other teachers on LinkedIn. Now that I’m a freelance writer, I can see why it would be prudent for me to have a presence on LinkedIn, but still, I haven’t gotten around to it.
LinkedIn intimidates me.
As my husband says, it’s ground zero for Type A people. “But, I’m Type A,” I told him. “You’d think I’d be all over LinkedIn.”
“You’re not really Type A,” he said, then went on to explain how in his mind, Type A people tend to be so competitive that they exaggerate or even lie to make themselves look better.
“You prefer to be honest,” he said.
It’s true. I mean, the name of my blog is “One Trailing Spouse.” I like to tell it like it is. I don’t go around exaggerating my teaching or writing credentials and I don’t pretend that my life is all sunshine and roses. But to me, LinkedIn feels like the kind of place where you’re better off not being totally honest. You’ve got to show your best side, and your best side only. And for some reason, that’s really hard for me.
I think it’s also hard because I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the people who will be looking at my LinkedIn profile will not be prospective employers. My guess is that it will be acquaintances who want to see what I’m up to professionally. And if these happen to be Type A acquaintances, then they will probably be quick to compare and quick to judge. I just don’t want to play that game.
So, if you’re already on LinkedIn, I’d love your advice. How do you use LinkedIn? Do you think it’s a useful professional tool? Are there any groups you recommend?
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Emily, I’m on LinkedIn, but honestly, I haven’t found it to be particularly helpful. I even joined a few fiction groups, but they just seem to generate an enormous amount of email notifications. I’ve tried posting to one group, but I still feel sort of like a voyeur. I’m not really in the loop. I’m not sure what to do to correct that. My main source of connections is still Facebook. I’ll be interested to see other comments here . . .
Yeah, I think I should give it a try. It can’t hurt right? And as a freelancer, it might help me get more jobs (I’m hoping there’s a portfolio feature). I’ll try to find you on there once I’m set up.
I am not on there b/c it intimidates me too! Though my husband is. I don’t think he thinks it’s awesome, but he has made a few connections, so may be slightly helpful? It does feel a lot like a game to me though…
My husband seems to enjoy it, but I don’t think it’s really helped him professionally. (Maybe I’m wrong?) I’ll give it a try and keep everyone posted.
If you expect to get paid for anything, whether it’s as an employee, self-employed or a freelancer, then I think it’s worth joining LinkedIn because in business it’s definitely the default social media platform where people will “check you out.” For most people though it’s nothing more than an online resume. I would set up a basic profile after taking a look at a few trailing spouse writers to see what they’ve done. Join a handful of groups, just to round out your profile, but I wouldn’t bother posting. Personally I find LinkedIn groups less and less useful as too many people are filling them up with promotional posts which are only one step below spam. When it comes to networking you’re right to continue using the social media platforms that work best for you. That’s what everyone should be doing.
Thanks so much for your tips. I feel a bit more confident and will probably start making my profile this weekend.