Treading A Fine Line Between Self-Praise & Bragging: How To Be Relevant On LinkedIn

LinkedIn, a professional networking platform, has become famous (or infamous) lately for being a site where people unabashedly boast about themselves and their accomplishments.

A Quora question puts it aptly: "Why on LinkedIn has boasting about oneself and one's achievements become acceptable and applauded? Does bragging or humility serve society better?"

Unsplash

Why are people boasting on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a site meant for professional networking where users create profiles that serve as virtual resumes, highlighting their work experience, education, skills, and colleague endorsements.

Just as you would highlight all your career accomplishments on your resume, you do the same virtually as well.

Career coach Amanda Davies says that we should normalise self-praise. Davies encourages professionals to share their achievements and ideas with others in order to highlight the impact they have had.

But, there is a thin line between self-praise and bragging - and the latter is oft loathed, even by your potential employers.

When does self-praise become boasting?

Bragging, also known as boastful speech, refers to excessively talking about oneself or one's accomplishments to impress others.

This excessive praising on LinkedIn seems to have put people off. It can give the impression of arrogance to potential employers, which ends up turning them off.

Getty Images

This can also create an image of someone who is self-centred and not a team player.

How do you self-praise without boasting?

LinkedIn is frequented by recruiters looking for "passive candidates" who aren't overtly looking for their next job but may be open to a conversation if any opportunity arises.

So, it is definitely a smart move to talk about your past positions, including sharing your accomplishments on your profile.

But how do you self-praise without bragging or boasting?

Unsplash

LinkedIn shares the following solutions to effectively self-praise without bragging:

1. Be authentic: Focus on authentic storytelling about career experiences in as genuine a way as possible on social media.

2. Collaborate: Rather than solely focusing on self-promotion, individuals should participate in industry discussions and thereby gain valuable resources and insights. 3. Honesty and humour: Humour and authenticity act as a counterweight to self-praise, which helps balance out any potential annoyance amongst your listeners.

For more on news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.