I was recently chatting with an old client contact and the discussion turned to the stupid ways which people give the wrong impression on LinkedIn.
These were the major things we've seen and agree that they make people look like idiots online:
1. Long self-aggrandizing summaries: usually the people that did this were assholes anyways, taking credit for expertise in M&A when they really botched a due diligence project for their team.
2. Writing about themselves in the third-person. Saying "John Smith did…" is just fucking awkward… especially if you can't spell your own name correctly
3. Too many certifications. Do you have your MBA, CPA CISA, Lean Six Sigma and CPP certifications? Keep them if they are relevant to your role, scrap them if you got them because you didn't know what you wanted to do when you grow up. If you really must keep them in your profile, displaying them after your name at the top of your profile is extra try-hard.
4. Unprofessional photos: you wrapped in Christmas lights in your ugly Christmas sweater is not professional. Neither is a "couple" photo with half your date awkwardly cropped out since that wedding was the only time you wore a suit all year.
5. Broadcasting your activity to your network while you're job hunting. Your network and professional contacts will figure out what you are up to when people see tons of profile updates going through their feed, joining the group "what it's like to work at Zappos" and suddenly following a bunch of random companies.
Are any of you guilty of one or some of these LinkedIn faux pas? What have you seen that made you smack your head?