Thing 3: Your Professional Brand

My professional what?  I’m no Gucci handbag and no amount of branding is going to turn me into one!  OK, at a logical level I get this.  It is really good to connect and network and to make your work known as it will increase your employment and professional development opportunities.  It is particularly important for us self-employed people who never know where our next pay-check is going to come from.  But at a subliminal level joining LinkedIn feels like streaking naked down Grafton Street on a Saturday morning.  Self-promotion as a concept is alien to me and carries too many negative connotations, probably stemming from my upbringing which taught me to work hard and not make a fuss.

Anyway, I went against my instincts and signed up after fretting about it for a week.  Because of my chequered employment history, I actually found it quite difficult to define my professional identity.  I am still working on it as it’s not something I can solve in an hour.

What I don’t quite get about LinkedIn is that it is supposed to be a professional networking tool but in fact you are discouraged from connecting with people you don’t know.  So I have connected with my brother, my best friend, a cousin, a co-worker and a handful of old college mates.  Except for my co-worker and one friend, not one of them works in the archives sector.  How is that going to further my professional career I wonder!

What I did find interesting, though, are the groups that LinkedIn allows you to join.  I am waiting to be accepted to three of these, Rudaí 23 included, and am looking forward to seeing how they work and interact.  You never know, an evening spent out of my comfort zone may not have been an evening wasted after all!