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Going on LinkedIn is very much like going through the looking glass into Bizarre-O Land. It’s a wild ride. Maybe you spot a few genuinely good briefs with some practical advice in your feed, shared by seasoned industry veterans. Then you sidestep a hundred or so people robotically bragging about how they’re so grateful/happy to quit/start a position at their old/new job. At this point, you’re so deep down the rabbit hole that you start noticing the most awful stuff that LinkedIn has to offer—clearly fake, extremely cringy self-promo posts that ‘professionals’ write for views and likes.

You know, the ones where CEOs, recruiters, and high-flying managers do their best to seem human while they offer banal, double-spaced ‘wisdom’ just to stay relevant online. JR Hickey, from California, shares the very worst examples of brain-rotting content on his ‘The Best of LinkedIn’ Twitter page. Scroll down to check out the very worst LinkedInfluencers’ posts and remember to upvote the ones that made you facepalm.

JR, the founder of @BestofLinkedin, answered Bored Panda's questions about why these LinkedInfluencers behave the way that they do, as well as what LI users could do to stand out without resorting to lying online. Read on for our full interview!

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Marcellus II
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He'll do it again also because he has a wife at home that resents him & wants him out.

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Bored Panda was interested in JR's take as to why some LinkedIn users go to such great lengths to create fake stories and soulless reposts. We were curious to hear his thoughts on what their end goals might be.

"For a lot of these so-called 'LinkedInfluencers,' this is the first time they’ve had a platform of any size, so one of their end goals is to simply not lose their platform," the founder of @BestofLinkedin said.

"This is why they resort to copy and paste style posts that they’ve seen go 'viral' on the platform from other LinkedIn users. Basically, it’s like the kid who nobody was friends with who starts copying the other kids to get recognized/fit in. It works, but at the end of the day they’re not being authentic or true to themselves," he said.

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HogHedge
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

5 people died and he's bragging about his new job. Because, hey they're gone now and life moves on, right?

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Unfortunately, JR pointed out that there isn't really a clear or concise solution for how LinkedIn users could stand out from the crowd without becoming LinkedInfluencers. However, being authentic can help a lot.

"The internet is undefeated in sniffing out if somebody is full of [dung]. The way people get truly loyal/responsive followings is if what they’re presenting to the world is as close to or at least a version of their authentic self as possible," he told Bored Panda.

JR gave us a specific example of how this works. He actually practices what he preaches. For instance, he has a TikTok account called 'That's A Nice Touch,' @thatsanicetouch, where he goes around pointing out all the nice touches he finds around the world.

"It’s a little obnoxious and corny, but it’s a version of my personality that’s actually there, and that’s why people like it."

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Corvus
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If I were the hotel manager, I'd totally ask him to pay for this coffee machine.

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LinkedIn is huge on the internet. A whopping 830 million people use it in over 200 countries. So it’s hard to avoid making a profile if you’re looking for a job or want to make it easier for others to find you online.

At its core, the idea of LI doesn’t sound all that bad on paper: it’s all about networking with other professionals, looking for new jobs/talented individuals, and sharing awesome insights with one another. In practice, however… well, like any ‘regular’ social media site, LI has devolved into a weird digital space where job industry pros are trying to out-flex each other.

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Stephanie Barr
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have had managers like this. But they didn't brag about it on Linked In

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Jose Antonio
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe they should? there are alot more managers that aren't like this than there are ones that are

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RomanceRadish
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This would be great. But thanks to publicly sharing, Farhan can now anticipate a line of employees asking for the same.

nazzhw avatar
Nazz HW
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My boss is one like that... which is why the staff turnover is zero. Great guy.

ianbuhagiar_1 avatar
BewilderedBanana
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have serious doubts, but if that's even half true, this guy deserves an award

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JMil
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My salary increased by almost 60% in five years due to performance exceeding expectations. I only mentioned salary once in this time. I know that he solicited higher-ups to increase my salary at least twice. This may be true, it happens.

brendanmccarthy_1 avatar
Trophy Husband
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He's right that this is a manager's job. But I've never met one that would do this... I have a great manager right now, but I couldn't fathom him getting me a 34% raise (even though I'm worth it :) )

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CanadianaKa
Community Member
12 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I HAVE actually seen that kind of thing - new director came in, realized some of his staff had been there for more than a decade and neither role nor salary had kept pace with new hires. Within three months he'd achieved promotions, raises and new benefits for both. Granted, he is a RARE one!

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Rebecca McManus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Instead of doing this, why don't you just make sure your company are not shafting their new starters. If you don't exercise pay parity you spend all your time recruiting people instead of doing your job.

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Mel Colley
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This to me like it was written like it was from an imaginary point of view

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Brian “BB” B
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I have fought with corporate to pair fair compensation to or to retain employees, so it's believable

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Kevin Hickey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"I then gathered salary insights..." The CorporateBullshitSpeak is strong with this one.

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v
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Truly good people, regardless of what aspect of life you're talking about, do their good in a quiet manner. This is not to say that their good deeds are not known or that they are not known for doing good deeds. It means that truly good people don't blow their own horn. It would be amazingly cool if he actually did this for an employee but it's entirely sufficient that the only person who knows that he did it is the employee who benefited.

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El Howard
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've never had managers argue that I should be paid more, but I did have a manager take the blame for my mistakes. That was a good manager! He was just another consultant though.

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Carrie B
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had a boss that did this for me without me asking for anything.

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Zdena
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Please, please, one more fairy-tale, I am not sleepy yet!

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Some of these industry veterans resort to ridiculous measures to get attention. Like outright fabricating stories and bragging about how much overtime they work (weddings, birthdays, kids being born—it doesn’t matter to them).

They also try to turn boring everyday events into ‘deep’ tales about morality. A select few shamelessly copy someone else’s ideas by listing them in a slightly different format (it’s not that hard to credit the original creators, people!). While others see it as their ‘calling’ to comment on random stuff on popular users’ posts to show everyone how wonderfully active and clever they are.

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There are some competent and interesting people posting on the site, but there are far too few of them. It makes sense why we’ve seen so many strange posts popping up on LinkedIn. If you want to have a strong online presence and have tons of people looking at your products and services, you need to stay relevant.

It also feels good to have people praise you for your insights and share your posts across LinkedIn and pretty much anywhere on the internet or in real life. The simple fact is that people want respect, adoration, and wealth.

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Jason
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Mom is always on her phone at the park. She doesn't even know where I am. I bet if you send her a message on social media she will respond

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A part of gaining a following on the internet comes down to luck. But there are some things that you can control, including posting consistently, making your content relevant, and trying to share some unique interpretations of current work trends and events.

That’s why you have so many folks being incredibly active on LI, trying to have an opinion on everything and anything. Some of them are desperate to stand out but don’t know what to write about, so they go a bit… wild with their [cough] imaginations [cough].

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Sad Quokka
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My version - I was on my way to the interview but I saw a cat stuck in a tree, so I chose not to go to the interview and rescued the cat instead and ruined my new suit. It turns out that the cat was the interviewer and hired me on the spot

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Jason
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Strangely enough I have been using please and thank you for almost 4 decades and never assumed people would want to give me things for being a decent human being

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California-based JR, the founder of ‘The Best of LinkedIn’ calls out the very worst of the bunch on his Twitter page. The last time that Bored Panda featured his account, he told us about the origins of @BestOfLinkedin.

"Back in 2018, I was an Account Executive for a SaaS company in San Francisco. I had a boss who was a dinosaur—his idea of a good follow-up to a meeting was mailing laminated copies of the deck we presented to the prospect after the fact. The phrase, 'Stop by Kinko's' was uttered a few times in my short tenure there (Kinko's was dropped by FedEx in 2008, ten years prior)." At the time, a pretty significant chunk of JR’s job involved cold-calling on LinkedIn.

"I was already dissatisfied with my role, my career, and the company, so spending a few hours a day on LinkedIn just about pushed me over the edge. I began seeing the first inklings of these so-called 'LinkedInfluencers' and started screenshotting their posts and sharing them on my personal Twitter account. Once those gained traction, I decided to create a dedicated Twitter account for it, and thus, @BestOfLinkedin was born,” he told us during an earlier interview.

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Adam Zad
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Courage is working in your p**s-soaked pants. Intelligence is changing out of them. Planning is bringing spare pants to change into.

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"I would say the best way to describe LinkedIn's culture is 'downright demented.' It's just a giant back-patting circle/echo chamber where people aren't even telling a version of the truth anymore," he said that the LI network is full of fabricated posts.

"It's unoriginal sellouts who regurgitate corporate buzzwords and stories of incredible business acumen in an effort to game the LinkedIn algorithm and try to hide the fact that there isn't a single thing that's interesting about them. And nobody will call them out, for fear of losing their job or it blowing back on them professionally.”

According to JR, “the entire platform lacks accountability, which is insane because its intention initially was to be just that.” It’s not all black and white, however.

LinkedIn does have its upsides, like being a pretty good place to read business news, as well as to find jobs, recruit talented people for your company, and network with others in the industry.

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Olivia Lisbon
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tbh I made my dad go to a Spice Girls concert with me, which he also hated, but in my defence I was 12.

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Jason
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My toddler just tells me he's the boss when I ask him to do something. Does this count?

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"It's a valuable business development tool but sadly it's been watered down by these self-proclaimed 'LinkedInfluencers' and their BS success stories. LinkedIn could improve the user experience drastically by focusing on moderating these posts and suppressing them when they don't offer anything valuable," JR, the founder of ‘The Best of LinkedIn,’ said.

"If the only reason you're posting on LinkedIn is to show off a picture of yourself with a story about how you were called 'too pretty' to be in business then your post will be taken down. If you aren't sharing anything educational or valuable, and instead are attributing incredible management advice from your FIVE YEAR OLD, your account will be banned. Sadly, I wish this was an easy fix, but LinkedIn has replicated every other social media platform and become another runaway train of trash," he told Bored Panda.

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N Miller
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, I'm disappointed this is being used for shameless self-marketing, because I'm fully prepared to believe that, outside of LinkedIn, this conversation did happen, based solely on genuine real world conversations (about Alexa and Siri, but the gist is the same) with my then 6-year-old nibling.

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"LinkedInfluencers, for how much 'expertise' they have, have some of the thinnest skins on the Internet. Because they 'create' their content strictly for LinkedIn, where nobody criticizes or calls them out, they lose their minds when an account like @BestOfLinkedin does. Personally, I've created content for over a decade now in the forms of comedy, podcasting videos, and articles," JR told Bored Panda.

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Olivia Lisbon
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sure, you’ll get a better “reply rate” if you offer to work for free. But you’ll also drown in debt.

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"When you create anything for the Internet, there's going to be 50% or more people who hate it. So you have to know that criticism comes with the territory. But when a LinkedInfluencer sees me poke fun at them for @BestofLinkedin? Oftentimes they don't know what to do with themselves. Usually, they'll try to doxx me or get me fired. Good luck, I'm a freelance Creative Director and don't have a boss. I get paid to write things for social media and more. So yeah, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to. If you don't like what's being said about you on the Internet, the proper response isn't to take your ball and run home. Or worse, take your ball and run and tell your parents."

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Jason
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Would have been icing on the cake if she mentioned the open positions

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Shyla Bouche
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why would anyone shake a beta? It's poor little fishy brain would get all bollocked up!

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Hotdogking
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Alright, time for me to ruin the picture for everyone. Anyone else notice the fact that he’s photoshopped into the car?

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