First, let me just say that I love LinkedIn. It is a great resource that has made me a better professional, and it has helped guide me to decide the direction in which I would like to go with my career. However, sometimes being a girl on LinkedIn can stink. LinkedIn is a great place to build up professional connections and a career network, but some of the users are looking for more than just a connection that can endorse their written communication skills.
Getting a new job is exciting. What’s so exciting about a new job is telling other people about it, and especially posting about your new position on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a very encouraging community (which is one of the things I love about this site), but sometimes the members of this community are a little too encouraging, if you know what I mean. I remember I posted about a new position on LinkedIn this past May and I received several “best wishes" for my new position; I was very touched. Then one random man from Florida decided to tell me something along the lines of “you’re very pretty; I love the dress you have on in your profile picture…," and so on.
Needless to say, I was very freaked out. So, I turned to Google. I simply searched “LinkedIn is not a dating site," and tons of articles popped up from Forbes, The Atlantic, and many more, on why LinkedIn is not a dating site.
It’s true. LinkedIn is NOT a dating site. The purpose of this website is to help people build up their professional network, bring people to find jobs, employers to find employees, and increase learning. Nothing in that previous sentence involves anything about making someone’s love life more exciting. Creepily messaging a girl, telling her that she has a beautiful smile, is extremely unprofessional.
Accomplishments in the professional world are amazing and beautiful. Let’s STEP UP and congratulate each other on their achievements, rather than their appearance, on this supposedly professional resource .