It should be said, before I launch this rant, that all people make connections based on a variety of positive strengths they have, social skills, technical skills, the skill of fashion, hair, or just a smile…
The variety is vast and one should not ‘beat up’ on someone just because of jealousy. Still, there appears to be a trend on LinkedIn, and while I may focus on women, the trend, who’s causes seem apparent, is probably, most certainly true for men too. This is because we are humans and perhaps this article can only reflect this fact and nothing more.
What started me in this venture for truth that lead to this article, is my desire to hit the magical 500+ connections LinkedIn, which I now have. During those early times though I started to wonder what was taking so long to get new connections, ‘like I mean years man,’ for people to discover my profile and want to connect. Granted Architecture isn’t the most exciting career and admittedly most people don’t know much about it. But given that it was taking me so long, I started to look around at other profiles to see what was helping be successful in this area and soon discovered that certain people seem to achieve not only this elusive 500+ connections mark, but also had been flooded with ‘Top Skills” points, and I mean all their available slots for skills were maxed out to 99+ endorsements. Well they ‘just must’ be remarkable people, right? Of maybe it had more to do with ‘just lust.’ Let’s see what we can discover together what might be wrong with the LinkedIn picture…
For our example profile in which I have protected everyone’s identity except myself (my picture is under ‘How You’re Connected,’) (and, please do not look up this woman and harass her with your unwanted opinions, that would be rude and troll like). I’ve also blocked out the identities of the other women who most likely have nothing to do with this apparent flood of attention. Perhaps, and this is just speculation, certain people know all too well what is working ‘in their success’ and thus wouldn’t mind if I showed their profile picts and names, but it is not for me to say so they shall be ‘blocked out.’
Let us start by analyzing what we see:
1) Connections: It’s great she has 500+ connections, who knows really if it’s 501 or 50,000 and that’s the point of reaching 500.
2) Experience: Looking at the profile page, I see this young lady has had one job for the last 7 years. That’s great. She’s teaching massage through lectures, nice, has recently joined a company (well 7 years ago but never mind this, I mean who updates their extensive LinkedIn profiles anyway), and is even offering a link so people can check out their amazing skin care products. I’m sure all of her connections are either interested in the skin care products, or her teaching classes, because it doesn’t look like she’s giving actual massages although their might be demonstrations, you never know, it might be worth a try. Hmm, no other job experience. Well apparently, and abundantly so, that is not an issue because she is endorsed to high heaven.
3) Skills: I don’t think I’ve seen a profile with every listed skill maxed out like this. She has, as endorsed by these people, so many ‘most excellent’ skills, everything from Bodywork to Pregnancy. That’s great, really terrific, awesome, in fact awesome is probably truly warranted in this situation unlike most. She IS awesome.
4) People Also Viewed: This is interesting that all these ‘connections’ were also looking for their other contacts in Interior Design, Accounts, a City Manager from Atlanta, Construction Connections and other areas ‘blocked out to protect their identity.’ (/sarcasm because isn’t it just interesting and obvious that who ever is looking at this profile is also cruising other ‘similar’ profiles).
5) Who endorsed this young lady: No this is NOT a surprise (is it to you, do you really want to defend what’s happening here when you see a vast majority of men), but one has to wonder about the credibility of these men who have either taken a lot of instructional classes on massage from this woman or are just wanting to associate, for ‘business reasons’. What IS actually interesting, there is at least 2 women who have connected and endorsed this lady, and may be legitimate connections (even friends and family are legitimate), or not, but it reflects the notion that there are certainly men who are legitimate connections for other reasons than the most superficial.
And of course this brings up the obvious, what is a legitimate connection. Well you know how LinkedIn works, you must know or have worked with an individual, which also means you can’t meet new people who might be great connections unless you’re introduced (yeah right, who asks another persons to stop what they’re doing to launch an introduction, unless they are purely in sales). Anyway, the reasons for connecting can indeed be varied, and even the ‘I thought you were interesting and maybe we can go out and live happily ever after’ is also okay, really it is.
6) Profile Picture: One notices that this poor woman can’t afford a full size profile picture? Or perhaps she chose this one photo over other factors, like the photographs’ size. Not to say that everyone has photoshop skills and knows how to resize images, but the size of this photo is a factor of consideration because despite it’s size, she used it. This points to a probable fact that it’s not the quality of the photo but more the content.
7) Profile Picture closeup: Upon closer inspection, that’s right, get real close… one notices the vast amount of skin that’s apparent in this image, AND I MEAN VAST, like looking upon a picturesque valley with snow topped mountains beyond, urrr, I get carried away sometimes… and specifically the angle of the shot highlights this aspect wouldn’t you agree? Note that there appears to be a foot/leg in the left corner (did you get that far into the picture?), and the bottom isn’t even cropped properly, so one can say image quality is NOT a factor. In fact, the center of the photo is focused on the neck area and it appears she might be on a dance floor dancing during a night on the town.
Truth is, photos of people in relaxed settings are a good option for a profile picture, so I give this profile points for that.
Okay, to back up a little in this growing rant, this profile reflects the life of a real person. She is allowed to enjoy the attention, but lets also not just flood certain people with all the attention because you could be impacting another deserving young lady who has worked hard, has the skills and therefore should be acknowledged just as much as this lady, seems appropriate behavior don’t you think?
Given that the above is just a proposition, I propose the following to test my growing suspicions:
Experiment:
So I propose a little experiment to test a theory that it’s the ‘sexy photo that matters on LinkedIn’ to see if we can determine and prove what is going on regarding the flood of connections and endorsements for certain people, of course with the permission of LinkedIN: In order to understand if these are legitimate connections and perhaps legitimate skills, and not based solely on the profile picture, we need to create an experiment that measures how people react to this component (the picture).
We would start by taking a very well reviewed profile that has all these skills and connections (like the example in this article), and then duplicate it 30 times changing only one item, the profile picture, assigning 10 to ordinary people, 10 to ordinary looking men, and as a control group, 10 to attractive women who show extra skin, to see how fast they get connections and endorsements. It would be a sort of race to see who wins :). All profile pictures must be of people the same age, but the actual image and quality of image can vary, because given our example apparently the quality of image is not a factor.
What the results should be: The results should be an even spread of new connections and endorsements relatively equal amongst all 30 fake profiles, because people shouldn’t show favoritism especially on a site like LinkedIn where skills and resume is the real purpose of the site.
What the results probably will be: A reflection of the many men who want to ‘connect’ with attractive young women. LinkedIn is NOT a dating site, so if this is the true result of the experiment it is essentially a huge disappointment for those who work hard to improve themselves and feel that LinkedIn is worthy of their presence. By the way LinkedIn, if you’re reading this: don’t forget what happened to MySpace and why.
Lets keep in mind, that just because one is attractive does not mean they don’t work hard to acquire and have those skills that make them a true asset to this world, it’s just a bit ironic that LinkedIn won’t let you connect with someone you might actually know but don’t have their email handy, or perhaps to connect with a family member or your OWN CHILD but prevents this connection. So, what’s at stake here is the credibility of LinkedIn and, of all those men, some legitimately connecting based on family, friends, colleagues, done business with, etc., who are only using LinkedIn as a way to associate themselves with someone they no nothing about, and in reverse, the person who accepts connections and all those ‘skill points’ to help propel their own career. Well, I guess after this little article one can say none of what LinkedIn purports to uphold is actually true, thus one can ignore the whole site, but doing so actually does leave you in the ‘pre-computer’ era.
If the experiment proves to be true, then one could post almost any picture of anyone (read the terms of LinkedIn before doing this) in order to ‘get connections, and apparently skills (oops, I meant to type endorsements).’ If this is true, the switching out of profile pictures with pretty women, then the ramifications on websites like Twitter would be… oh wait people already do this on Twitter all the time getting tens of thousands of followers and selling the ‘page’ to people who want an instant following of tens of thousands so they can look all important. All it appears to take is a superficial attitude with a superficial photo. It doesn’t take much to get a ‘follower’ or connection, just smooth skin and a smile, with some clothing of whatever type, and boom, followers and connections, blindly following even though there’s a guy, on twitter, making all those profiles in order to make money.
So who do I respect? I respect a person like Joan Goody of Goody, Clancy & Associates who said in an interview ‘it’s when I come home that I will put on a skirt to feel comfortable” for she has a professional attitude that shows in her architectural work, and that warrants respect and acknowledgement.
Conclusion:
For me, I took LinkedIn seriously, as a place I could show that my connections reflect the credibility of my skills and experience. What I see instead, through the mist of credibility, is humanity clawing to both climb up and thus ensure their own financial future through the use of skin, or, for people to find their true love if only during the fleeting moment of a wish.
So, unless and until credibility can be reestablished at LinkedIn, I will look at profiles like this with skepticism, being unbelievable and thus not credible. Unfortunately for me, if I get many more ‘skill endorsements’ like this young lady already has, I too may be considered ‘not credible.’
As for me, I reached 500+ connections. Maybe it’s because I changed my profile picture from something recent to a photo taken 25 years ago, “oh no I didn’t,” ‘oh yes I did’ or maybe it’s because I started ‘connecting with anyone and everyone that LinkedIn allowed me to connect with,’ perhaps this is all that’s ‘going on.’ Enough of the people I sent invites too accepted and so I met ‘my goal’. But to this day I seem to possess only a few skills (via my endorsements), apparently, even with two and a half degrees, one a master’s degree from Harvard, and an Architect’s license, and obvious skills in rendering and architectural design (and perhaps, just maybe, some writing skills too even though I insist on 2 spaces after a sentence), yet apparently this young woman easily out paces me… yes, yes, good for her.
Maybe it’s the profession… okay, another LinkedIn experiment, 30 profiles like above, but this time everyone is an Architect. Go!
Why did I write this article? To point out the obvious? Yes. But I also wrote it because Google loves ‘negative articles’ and thus writing this will drive more traffic to my website as negative things get more ‘hits.’ Yes that’s right, I’m manipulating you! But only in the context that Google weighs things much the same way all those men weigh things on LinkedIn, for all the wrong reasons. Also in the context of putting the truth on the table for you to reflect on. It’s not about ‘looks’ although this can help, it should and must also be about substance, otherwise our world will turn into a cheap whore looking junk heap. (<<< Did you notice I used a negative word, did you? More hits for me!)
Why else? Because I and others deserve recognition, because of our passion, hard work, devotion, and love of the profession. Our sacrifice is deep with continued drawing, designing, thinking, learning and we shall, without hesitation, continue our quest in the world of Art, Architecture, Landscape, Sculpture, and the built visual environment. Thus, if LinkedIn fails in it’s true mission, our world may look like the majority of Russia, so endorse wisely.
For LinkedIn, if you’re wondering, credibility is in the form of recommendations that are thoughtful, specific and real. That’s where to look first, unless the user is new and then look towards their education and if they have acknowledgements and awards, those are certainly worth noting and endorsing.