“Around 3 in 4 hiring managers or recruiters review candidates’ social media profile during the hiring process.”
You probably came across this type of article on LinkedIn during the job search.
Is that true? I have no clue, but I did have a shocking experience with an executive one time, in an interdepartmental meeting with 8 people.
“I saw Bryan on Facebook,” they say quietly to a team sitting next to them. Bryan (a pseudonym for privacy) is a member of the agency we work with. We frequently use his name and comments in our meetings to discuss weekly updates.
“Pfft–what?,” the team who heard the executive’s statement interrupts the meeting. The rest of us stop and turn heads to the origin of the snicker, trying to understand what is going on.
“Okay, look up his name on Google,” the executive ask. “Yeah, click that one.”
Shortly after Bryan’s Facebook profile dominates the big television screen, the login popup covers the center of the page.
To me, this episode was close enough to validate the job search advice–you want to think twice if your social media account is public because professionals do look up other professionals.
Why do I care about what other people think about me at work?
The answer is a conflicting desire for between career progression and freedom.
Let me explain what I meant by “conflicting”.
At work, my systematic and performance-driven mindset get activated. Hence, I try to leverage my time, advancing my skills and driving measurable performance to go further in my career.
However, when I am off the clock, my focus is building financial independence. I plan to share my creative projects, document my content creation journey, and write my POV of random stuff as a form of expression here on my blog. For example, my previous blog posts were about my health related to women’s health and pursuing a different education in nutrition. My passion in this area isn’t related to what I do at work.
Therefore, I can hardly connect the dots between sharing those side of myself online and advancing in career.
How did I overcome the fear of putting myself out online?
What has changed since then? Clarity and self-confidence.
Accepting a Desire for Financial Independence
Firstly, it became clear to me that I really want to build financial independence–the life with time freedom and money making with money (a.k.a. compounding). While you can still become a millionaire through your 9-5 job before retirement, I realize building my own income source would be more rewarding for me in the long term than working for the next 30 years or shorter. To me, it isn’t about working more or less; it’s about freedom and the possibility of unlimited growth. Once I began accepting my wants, I became a little careless about other people’s perception.
What opened my eyes was that I might’ve kept myself private online as a strategy to feel safe from potential troublesome I might face in my career. I guess it’s my mind trying to control outcomes instead of letting them happen.
What can be the worst scenario? How bad can sharing stories of personal growth jeopardize one’s career? The more I ponder, the little the problem become.
In addition, as I see my progress in personal finance over time, I feel more confident that I can achieve my financial goals with discipline and want to get there as quickly as possible. I’ll share the financial mistakes I made and what I learned next time.
Gaining Confidence in Writing
Secondly, I gained more confidence in writing. Just a little introduction about myself, I moved to the United States 10 years ago from South Korea. I used to insecure about my English, but looking back, the insecurity pushed me more to be action-oriented and solve problems by taking English classes in community colleges and by maximizing effort into creating the environment to practice English.
This semester, I enrolled a creative writing (non-fiction) class after reading a memoir, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Writing two stories in the class significantly boosted my confidence, and I discovered the joy of writing and sharing stories.
Mind Shifting from Fear to Joy
Lastly, when I ran a pros-and-cons analysis of living in fear and choosing joy–the fear of sharing my story online and the joy of the same action, the joy undoubtedly overweighs the fear.
Honestly, they are two sides of the same coin.
However, I’m not choosing the fear just because of other people’s perception over my joy.
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