Linkedin

As part of my seemingly eternal quest to get a "proper job" (as my mother would call it) I have just created a linkedin profile for networking purposes. As far as I can tell it's kind of a half-way house between a professional facebook and an on-line business card.

I can't say I enjoyed the experience. First of all; I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that much information about me being freely available on line. Yes I write this and I'm on facebook and I have registered my details with some other organisations like recruitment consultants BUT the crucial difference is that there's always some form of security. Here it's anonymity, on others it's password protection and choosing who sees me. On Linkedin anyone can see me, my employment and my education histories. As well as the potential for identity theft, I'm just not a huge fan of having my shoulder looked over.

Secondly was the language used. They asked about school when they really meant university. School has detention, bells, P.E. lessons to try and avoid and maths lessons to daydream through. University is where one studies for a degree (amongst other things). The confusion of the two is frustrating (not to mention that it creates a rather ignorant assumption that university is the only logical path to follow on completion of secondary education... Another post for another time perhaps).

Thirdly, I didn't like having to pigeon-hole myself into one sector for the purposes of my profile. My most professional level of qualification is in law and this is what I would like to work in. However I have no objection to using my biology degree either and working in the science sector. Equally, I don't mind taking the transferable skills from both and working in another sector still. It's not that I lack ambition to be a lawyer, it's just that it's not the easiest sector to get in to and right now I would just dearly love a proper job. Obviously the money would be nice but beyond that I'm desperate to have some genuine responsibility and to use my brain.

Finally, it was deeply uncomfortable having to write about myself and do so in a serious manner. I generally have a fairly light-hearted approach to life and can see the funny side in almost any situation. Taking myself exceedingly seriously doesn't come easily. This probably isn't helped by the fact that I think people who do take themselves perpetually seriously are complete bore. I don't mean to say that I can't be serious when the situation requires it nor that I don't appreciate the value of it. It just felt really false and disingenuous in this context (despite it not being). Ultimately, I felt like Richard Briers in the first episode of The Good Life. Is it a natural thing to feel slightly fraudulent when trumpeting your (legitimate) achievements?

Hopefully my efforts will come to something and someone out there will like what they see. If you want to hire a bearably intelligent, hard-working law grad/scientist in the London/Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire area do get in touch!

JR