23 Research Things - Thing 7

So far 23 Research Things has been chiefly an exercise in self-reflection. However, occasionally it has thrown in some prods to do something truly useful. This week, prompted by Thing 7, I've gotten my LinkedIn account out of mothballs and dusted it off a bit.

Generally I only update LinkedIn when there's a big change to make, like a new job or new project, or when I'm looking for work. Thankfully, I've been in my dream job for almost a year now, which means my profile and privacy settings were a little neglected. I took the opportunity to change my profile such that the public version is more minimal, turn off the spammy notifications and add a bit more description to my current job. I also joined a group from the list of recommendations LinkedIn provided. I went with Library and Information Research Methods as I do a fair amount of practitioner research-related stuff in my current role and it's definitely a topic I advocate for as well.

My feelings about LinkedIn are decidedly less strong in either direction than with almost any other social media platform, perhaps because it's about as bland and impersonal as social media gets. While it allows you to include information like activities and volunteer work, those appear as a black and white list, divorced from any context, descriptive language or images. It's one thing to list "fitness" as one of several hobbies and quite another to post a photo of myself, mud-streaked, bedraggled and close to tears of joy after completing a Spartan Race. While I'm happy for employers and potential contacts to know about that facet of my life, LinkedIn is not a place to be your expressive, unvarnished self. It's the web equivalent of handing a generic CV to someone.

(This shot won't make the shortlist for LinkedIn profile pictures despite being one of the proudest moments of my life.)

Those impressions aside, it is undoubtedly a useful tool. In addition to its functions as a digital business card, I use it to capture large scale projects, committees outside of work and other such activities that I would no doubt forget about between re-spruceings of my CV. Since it's generic it doesn't really give me the categories I'd like. I'd prefer to export my Symplectic profile to LinkedIn and make it possible to capture my professional development in categories like "Teaching" and "Conferences". Regardless, I feel like it's a valuable point in the constellation of my online presence, even if it does tend to go unregarded for months at a time.

Edit: I was just highly amused by the disparate points of view on LinkedIn between my post and this one by Librarian At Heart. I thought I'd clarify that I'm not really bemoaning the lack of muddy-faced photos of me on LinkedIn - that's definitely not the place for them - simply noticing how my ambivalence possibly comes from the austere nature of the site. Equally it's hard to feel like you're connecting with real people on LinkedIn. I suppose it's not necessarily more curated or polished than any other social media site, just polished in a particular way.