Editing yourself

And how it matters to your job search

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

In “The Social Network,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is dressed down by his ex-girlfriend for his misogynistic comments about her on his blog.

“The internet isn’t written in pencil, Mark,” she says. “It’s written in ink.”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we put out into the world as part of our online lives. I’ve been through some things in the last two years: a brain tumor, lost a bunch of weight, quit my job of seven years. Then I had a stroke.

Since I’m a writer, I’ve written a lot about all of this, and posted it. Some of it on Medium, some on Facebook, and some even on LinkedIn.

Danger, Will Robinson!

I had a friend tell me, after I posted about my stroke on LinkedIn, that I really should make a followup post about how well my recovery was going.

Yeah, I guess that’s good advice. But I bristled at the idea that I needed to constantly monitor what I was saying and how I was saying it in case some potential employer got a negative impression of me because of it.

Exactly how much do we need to edit ourselves for the sake of a job?

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There are extreme examples of this, of course. Back in the blog days, a couple of extremely vile right-wing bloggers, Kim and Connie du Toit, were trying to set up a business developing software for homeschooling parents to track their children’s educational progress. Good idea, but even they didn’t expect that their online output (which included calls for turning Mecca into a glass parking lot and the lynching of their political enemies) would be a problem in a seemingly unrelated field.

But when potential investors read their posts, the investors (understandably) ran scared.

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In my case, all I was dealing with was being honest about things like feeling that I’m too old for some potential jobs, or frustration with competing against a flood of talented 25-year-olds. Or even mentioning the health issues I have been dealing with.

Are those things disqualifying? It’s not like I feel the need to overshare. But I also value honesty, and I think writing about what I’m going through could possibly help someone else. That’s what I’m doing with this newsletter, after all.

Unlike most topics I discuss around here, I don’t have definitive advice for you in this area. Everyone’s experience is different. And as always, I would love to hear what your challenges have been with revealing (or not revealing) yourself online.

What I would advise is, whatever you share in whatever context, be intentional about it. Every time you post anything online anywhere, consider who might read it, and how they might react.

If you decide to share something, whatever it is, then you can stand by that decision.

If you decide to keep something private, that’s great too, and no one is owed any information about you, least of which a potential employer. It’s not hiding if you don’t go into a job interview, shake their hand and say, “I’m so glad to be here after my recent stroke.”

Just own your decisions, and move forward from there. You are the captain of your own ship.

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More so than almost anything I’ve written so far on Mighty Forces, it would mean a lot to me if you would respond to this thought experiment of mine this week. What have your decisions been about sharing or not sharing things about yourself online? Has anything you posted ever affected, either for good or ill, your chances in landing a job?

If you don’t have a story about that, I would like to hear how you came to subscribe, what you would like me to cover, or any other feedback you have.

As always, thank you so much for being here. See you next week.