By now, you've all seen it:

People complain to me (about me?) every day.

"Act professional!"

Um, ok. Anything for you total stranger.

"Nice emoji. What are you, 12?"

Uh oh! Who called the LinkedIn Police?? Now I'm in trouble...

"Why are you always yelling at us in CAPS?

I DON'T KNOW.

"What a rant. This is'nt Face Book.

There it is. The killshot. BOOM. *Editor's Note* I find this to be unequivocally true. 100% of the time, when someone accuses you of ranting or having a post belonging on Facebook, that comment will have A) At least one typo and B) Spell Facebook "Face Book" In fact, approximately 80% of the time, the post will have both A & B. That amuses me greatly. I am petty.

So then, what IS LinkedIn? Is LinkedIn solely a place where recruiters can find endless candidates to mass email jobs to, never to be heard from again? Does LinkedIn exist so people can connect with other people, and within 5 minutes message them their MLM pitch? Is LinkedIn supposed to be dominated by beautiful people posting selfies and garnering 1,000s of likes and comments? Because, if so, I am going to post a selfie of me at the gym with an inspirational quote. I need the views. BADLY.

There has to be more to this professional networking site, right? SO why is it whenever someone tries to utilize the platform to engage socially, the torches and pitchforks come out?

I personally believe that being social on LinkedIn is actually the BEST way for people to network.

To land a job, everyone is always saying, in some form or another:

Resume Submissions? Boooo

Online Applications/ATS? Boooooo

Recruiters? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Networking? *lights go out* *laser light show starts* *deafening crowd roar* *Eye In The Sky starts playing*

But how do you network? WHERE ARE THE NETWORKERS? LinkedIn! It's like industry happy hour ALL THE TIME. Personalize that invite, connect, and off you go. But then what?

CPA 1 "So, hey, public accounting. Am I right?"

CPA 2 "Totally."

CPA 1 "Did we just become best friends?"

CPA 2 "No. No we did not.

BORING. You check your feed. You like posts. You add comments. You get to know people. There is more to knowing people than their feelings on Blockchain. You know how "networking" is handled by real networkers? Golf. Steaks. Big steaks. Booze. Let me ask you. On the back 9, choking down a Tomahawk, drinking a Dirty Martini, you think they're taking about Blockchain? NOPE. Kids. Wives. Who they would like to kill if they could get away with it. LinkedIn is the online version of this *Editor's Note* I am 99% sure discussing hypothetical murders on LinkedIn is a direct Terms Of Service violation. There's only one way to find out.

I build relationships with my contacts. Some of you know what music I listen to. Some of you know what comics I read. Or what drinks I prefer. (Alcohol. The answer is alcohol.) But I also answer your questions. Help you with your resumes. You refer people to me. I push my industry contacts for you. It's because we got to know each other. It's because we got unprofessional.

Someone messaged me over the weekend to help prepare for a phone interview this week. Someone messaged me 4 hours ago just to tell me then didn't get the job they wanted. They didn't even know why they were telling me. They just wanted to tell someone. I mean, how cool is that? LinkedIn allows that to happen. For everyone out there struggling, looking for a job? This is a support group. This is human interatcion. You stand up, you say "I am Adam K., and I am out of work." Everyone says "Hi" and off you go. Talking helps. Listening helps. Venting helps. You can find solutions. Ideas. Suggestions. There are times where your friends and family aren't going thru what you are going thru. But those people are on LinkedIn. Someone should feel safe and confident enough on a Professional Social Media platform to engage other Professionals in this type of dialogue. Compassion. Empathy. Those qualities aren't independent of Professionalism.

Where else can the introverted, the socially anxious Professionals find this? My whole life I have been socially anxious. I am a classic introvert. Interacting in person with other humans exhausts me. Physically exhausts me. Like requiring a nap. But on LinkedIn I can network. I can relate to people. I can get to know people. Then when I meet them in person, it's not as hard to relate. It's not awkward. Unless we are eating. Then the combined look of horror and amusement make me self-conscious. These are people I can place at new jobs. Produce income. Become successful. Rinse. Repeat. It's all connected...in no way is getting to know someone unprofessional. And the best way to get to know someone is finding out who they are and what they believe in. And if they feel strongly about Blockchain, so be it.

I'd like to take a moment and introduce Karpiak Consulting's new tagline:

"Go on. Get unprofessional."

Thanks for making last week's article "The Art Of The Invite" a featured article on RecruitingBlogs https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/art-invite-adam-karpiak

If you have any questions about anything I discussed in the above article, looking for a job and/or working with a recruiter, just ask! Shoot me an email at akarpiak@karpiakconsulting.com

For more about me or my firm, please visit www.karpiakconsulting.com or www.linkedin.com/in/akarpiak I am always looking to network with good professionals that share my values in recruiting, so shoot me an invite if you agree with me!

You can find job postings, as well as loads of content on Karpiak Consulting's Facebook page www.fb.com/karpiakconsulting Please "like" or follow the page to be kept up to date on all of new content daily. I re-post articles of interest I find online regarding recruiting & public accounting, and I also post emails & messages I get (redacted of course) regarding recruiting that I think are of interest, including stories from candidates about other recruiters doing bad/confusing things.

I am also featuring a Candidate Of The Day. If you are interested in being featured in one of my daily LinkedIn posts, shoot me the following info in an email (I've created a Gmail account to stay organized: DailyJobCandidate@gmail.com) with the subject: Daily Job Candidate. Tell me your desired position, industry, and geographic area. This way my entire network of recruiters and networkers could see if they could help out the candidate in any way with leads or point them to someone else that might be able to help. Just by reading the post, people in my network would be able to:

1) Reach out to the candidate directly if they think they can help them.

2) Like or share the post with their network, in the hopes someone in their network can help the candidate.

3) Tag a person in the post's comments that may be able to help the person.























