LinkedIn post

I posted on LinkedIn the other day a screenshot of a cover letter I had received while reviewing job applications that was (to me) obviously bot-generated and included numerous square brackets saying things like “[insert example of previous job experience here]” — my post said something along the lines of “Actual cover letter I reviewed today – better than 80% of other applicants because at least it actually included a cover letter”

I posted it, forgot about it, then I received an email notification from LinkedIn today saying “Your post has had 240,000 impressions in the last week”. I logged in and saw a comment that said “How unprofessional of you to post this” with 56 likes. There were other comments – about 15 – that were neutral, and nearly 300 reactions on the post.

My instant reaction was panic. I went for a swim and talked it through with my partner and decided to delete the post. I think I did so because part of me agrees that it must have looked unprofessional to have posted a screenshot of an applicant’s cover letter. I justified posting it to myself on the basis that it was so obviously bot-generated, depersonalized, and didn’t include any identifying information. But I have this deep sickly feeling of having done something wrong, or out of alignment with my values, as I do really value professionalism.

I’m trying to calm myself down – I’ve gone swimming, I’m writing this as a coaching question, I’m telling myself that most people look at a social media post for 5 seconds, move on with their day and never think about it again, it’s not a big deal.

The main thing is I really don’t want to ruminate on this or beat myself up about it for years to come, which is the kind of thing I have done in the past with similar situations where I think I did something wrong. Would appreciate any coaching you have to offer on this. Thanks.

 

 

Answer:

 

This is a perfect example of you being a human and making a choice that, in retrospect, you didn’t like. What do you have to learn from this experience? What has it taught you about yourself and what you value as a professional person? How has it given you an opportunity to reexamine your expectations of yourself? What if, instead of a problem, it’s a perfect opportunity for you to learn more about you in the professional social media space?

This is part of the shitty 50 of life. The TFC Professional Team has a F-ups and Failures tab on our Slack page. It’s so wonderful to be able to honor when we make mistakes and work through them collaboratively and with kindness. How can you give this space to yourself? Get curious about what you fully need to take ownership of here and what you can drop as a result of doing that. Come back when you want more coaching and let’s keep moving through this.