Career Confidential

Career Confidential I am so grateful to all who have shared feedback on my writing and to those telling their own stories in comments and…

Career Confidential
I am so grateful to all who have shared feedback on my writing and to those telling their own stories in comments and messages. You’re all amazing. I’m grateful to be connecting with you. Thank you.

I have tried to reply to every DM and email, except for the scammers and spammers.

I hate myself for saying this, but if you sent me a message and you haven’t heard back, please send it again.

Spammer and scammers: Why are you suddenly messaging me here? I have a perfectly good iPhone with no other purpose than to receive your calls at 6am on Sunday morning. Can’t we stick with that?

Everybody else: I am reading every comment, direct message, email, connection request, job offer, marriage proposal, and job application.

I’ve also read your hate mail, constructive criticism, your insults and your accusations. I’ve reveled in the inspiring stories of your triumphant victories, and I’ve mourned your heartbreaking tales of bitter defeat.

Keep it coming! Your comments are a great way for us to support each other. Agree or disagree, sharing in public helps us normalize the ideas that describe the world we want to live in.

I have been thinking about those of you who aren’t posting because you don’t want your employer, manager, or peers to know you’re looking for a job. Also those who have issues that you don’t want to post publicly.

I think LinkedIn is less toxic than other communities in part because our content is tied to our professional reputation. It’s as though they’re putting all of our tweets on our credit report.

That sounds like a terrible idea, unless you have perfect credit and nothing interesting to say. It sounds like a system designed perfectly for the most privileged people, which is exactly what we have.

A system that is set up to reward public engagement creates a disincentive for anonymous or private discussions. There’s a lot that appeals about that, but it could be a negative if we’re looking to put people who feel vulnerable on a level playing field.

To put it in user-centered product terms, jeopardizing psychological safety creates friction that works against healthy communities. And vulnerable people are the ones I want to help the most.

If you’re reading this, know that you can always write me directly, via DM or through http://bizlet.org.

I’m going to continue to try to reply to every message I receive. For now I’m going to prioritize connecting with people who seem to need it the most.

If you have something you want to talk about, but you don’t want to share it in public: I want to hear from you.

We won’t get internet points for our credit reports, but all of us will benefit in other ways.

At a minimum, I promise that I will continue to read every single one of your messages.

Please keep them coming, and please keep going.

— Matthew