As collectors of memorabilia (aka “stuff”), we tend to max out on space and have to find new places to store it. Witness the malignant growth of personal storage units in those massive warehouses along every interstate highway.
We handle each item in our collection differently: some things cautiously wrapped for protection, to be encased and put away for another decade; others heaved carelessly into a box and piled one carton on top of another, to the rafters, for that rainy day that never comes.
Then you think, “I need that {name that tchotchke} and put it on my table.” Or “I want to give it Cousin {name} so they can enjoy it better.”
As collectors of experiences (as well as things), rearranged and reassembled, at any moment’s notice, in front of a prospect reading your LinkedIn profile, I ask you:
- Have you placed all the best prized trinkets at the front for display purposes only,
- Are you hopeful the viewer will ever see any dim romantic value you attribute to it?
- Is this a relic, like your grandmother’s china, a childhood diploma, a birthday card you made in kindergarten for your mom, of value to you but junk to others, or
- Did you place that experience story with great thought in front of another important item of true wisdom, so as to give it a new notch in your career narrative stick?
I always say that skills, and recommendations by others who witnessed your mastering those skills, are the sparkles you want to put in front of the messy box of factoids that provide so much less insight into your true capacity to lead and capability to accomplish.
Now’s a good time to review your profile for the sparkling anecdotes of triumph in front of the casual reader, when they stop for nanoseconds at your profile, for a very brief meander through your self-assessed experience. let them peruse for as long as you can capture their attention.
You probably need to make some adjustments to your profile to really tell your personal story. Get it up to warp speed now before the prospect arrives and leaves bored, confused, never to return.