This post is regarding LinkedIn and other social media platforms in general.
With LinkedIn you have to be very cautious about what you change your “main” job to. I would very strongly suggest that when you have decided that you are about to start your overemployed journey, this is when you decide on what to do.
There are essentially two scenarios you will have to decide upon:
- you are intending to stay in the job that you are in currently and get another job on top of it, or
- you are going to leave current job and then seek to get another job on top of the new job.
Both are fine and feasible.
If you’re going for route 1. nothing needs to change, keep your LinkedIn exactly as it is. Easy.
If you’re going for route 2. All you have to do is update it to your most recent job – IF YOU WANT, but I would strongly suggest that you didn’t. This is mostly so that you don’t have to update your CV every time you apply for a new job – make your life as easy as possible. But it’s also so that, when you do go about applying for those other additional roles, and you have a nosy employer sneaking up on your LinkedIn, everything matches your CV. Not only that, but if you’ve been at J1 for a long time, it’s far easier to answer the “Why are you looking for a new role” question than, “why are you leaving your current job so soon?”.
A point to note is that people on LinkedIn don’t have their profiles updated all the time – it’s not a pre-requisite for being offered a job, so you are fine if it says on there you’re still working at x company in y role, even if it was from 6 years ago.
Now, once you have settled your LinkedIn profile to whatever route you chose, and you have another, or multiple other jobs, don’t do anything further.
From my experience, I have been asked to update my LinkedIn profile to reflect my newly acquired job. Excuses are your best friend in these situations. You can range from “I forgot this week, sorry it’s been really busy” to “I haven’t used LinkedIn in years” – this one only works if you have been in J1 for a long period of time. Colleagues from jobs will look at your profile and we all know colleagues can be tell-tales – I have had colleagues lurk on my LinkedIn, but oddly never send me a connection request. I’ve never asked them about it, as I don’t want it to be a topic of discussion. Avoiding has been the best policy for me.
LinkedIn is the least of your, and your employers’ worries, however. So I wouldn’t be too caught up in whether this needs to be to date or not. But, be very careful of what you share/like/post on LinkedIn. Colleagues may start to add you on there, but you don’t have to respond to their connection requests. Make a point of being less and less visually active on there, so your excuses are validated.
You also have to be really cautious over how you use your social media accounts. If you’re accustomed to always posting about what you’re doing during your work day, you may want to roll that to a close before you embark on getting another job. Get people accustomed to you not being active on social media, make like the 90s. If you’re going to miss or struggle not talking about your work day on your socials, maybe the overemployed journey isn’t for you? Just a point to think about.
But other than that it’s pretty easy to fly under the radar.
Hope this gave you something to think about, I’ll see you at the next post, yeah?
Love and laissez-faire! x