I was talking to this girl who was in one of my online (at that point) classes. She didn’t want to “connect” via Facebook or Insta, but she really, really wanted my number…
From the way she spoke, and acted, and the sheer enthusiasm for everything, I assumed she must have been young, or, at least, younger than me…
I thought this a bit “mysterious”, so I tried to find her. The only place I could? LinkedIn. And fuck, what a LinkedIn…
I had never seen anything like it. It’s full of wokeness (pronouns, flags, “sovereignty never ceded”, “women in STEM”, Indigenous place names, and the most… Self-aggrandizing stuff I have seen on there for years)…
But not only that, she even has her own website… Where she posts her “work”, and also photos of herself, always wearing a suitably woke facemask, or facing away from the camera…
Even on her LinkedIn, it’s absolutely packed with photos and videos, but none of them directly show her face. That, combined with a list of achievements stretching back a decade that are really… Unusual for someone apparently without a degree (Executive Assistant to the Dean, CEO of an environmental org, etc.), just… Really weirded me out.
And yet, despite all this bullshit, she has less “Connections” on there than me (noting that I put zero effort into that place), barely has a “network”, and apparently spends all her time doing volunteer, unpaid work, for which she gets awards (and apparently “tops her class”), but apparently doesn’t actually have any evidence of a paid job, at the same time…
Anyway, I’ve seen this kind of thing before, generally from women. The kind of girl who only has paid, professional headshots on her Facebook. I always found that odd. That and all the “professional” bragging…
I just find it really weird. I suppose it is an extension of Instagram “hustle” culture, but professionalized… Though fuck, at least they attempt to look pretty, on Insta…
But yeah, I just don’t get it. I’ve truly never really understood this. Maybe it’s the depression. Maybe it’s the low self-esteem. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve achieved fuck all, in years. But I’ve never been the type of person who would hype myself up like that, on LinkedIn or whatever. If, by some miracle, I topped a class/assignment again, I really don’t think I would tell anyone much, let alone post about it!
Anyway, I just think this is a little sad, frankly. It makes me feel (much) worse, but it also makes this girl look like a complete narc, if nothing else…
Thoughts?
I realise that this is merely a symptom of current culture, but I hate it. I really do.
My initial concern was if she captured you and if half this post was written in morse code.
Hahaha nah. Just a rambling rant. Written on my phone. Which kept crashing out.
So sure, it's rambly. I fully admit that, lol. But there's some substance in there, I promise, ha.
You stumbled upon someone with little to no working experience, which is why she fluffed up her linkedin profile with anything she could just so she wouldn't have nothing if she did end up getting a leg in somewhere. The aversion of facebook or any direct pictures says a lot, in the sense that "she" doesn't want people to know what she looks like even if it is just a family photo or an inopportune tag. I'd say the hyper-vigilance and the facemask is telling of either a troon or a tragically ugly woman.
But even a butterface will plaster her mug all over the place so it's more than likely the prior.
Looking at the LinkedIn again, could just be ugly, insecure and a bit weird...
Someone in their 30s or 40s having a midlife crisis? A very weird attempt at reinvention?
But I don't really know. It's just a really, really odd profile.
I suppose the fact that the person is unwilling to show their face, tries to hide their name, doesn’t have social media apart from LinkedIn (apparently), and is obviously trying to project a particular image of themselves, which may not match reality…
It’s all very “red flaggy”. Not that I was ever looking to date her. But even just as a classmate, I’m not sure I want anything to do with her, if indeed we cross paths in person, lol…
Pretty sure she exists, though. Just not sure exactly, umm, who “she” is, or what the fuck her “deal” is, lol…
God I hate people on the internet, ahaha.
ChatGPT 0.01
Yeah, could be...
I dunno. It's all a bit weird. Here's some redacted fluff:
"After more than a decade being a high-level administrator, and years spent as an Executive Assistant in higher education, I have moved from the boardroom to the lecture halls, tutorials and laboratories of [X], undertaking a Bachelor of Science, Majoring in [X] and [X]. And then an Honours degree. And then the PhD.
Chemistry is all around us; it is the Universe and I want to learn more about the intricate details that are the building blocks to everything we know and are yet to discover."
Seems a bit weird to do shit in this order.
She also doesn't have her full name anywhere, except obviously it's in URLs and stuff. Which is, again, odd, for LinkedIn...
But who knows? Maybe it's all true.
Maybe she is a troon, as you say. Or just ugly, like fucking Sia, lol.
From the sounds of it, my first guess was that she was trying to sell you something, like a MLM product.
As far as LinkedIn itself is concerned, I deactivated mine once I realized that having my resume available for the whole world to see was probably a bad idea.
Yeah, I figured some might have assumed it was some scam/MLM shit. But the point is that she "found me" via a live lecture where we were chatting in the sidebar. So she had to be an enrolled student for that to be possible...
It's still vaguely catfish-adjacent, but she is at least consistent, across all her communications...
I think she's just a bit weird, and has weird ideas about things (including how to use LinkedIn). And is either lying about her background (and thinks she is a better liar than she is), or has had a really weird career path, and like a mid-life crisis...
And that's coming from me, lol...
I don't know. She's just a bit too "mysterious" to bother with any further, I feel... Strong, strong vibes of bullshittery.
But yeah, I agree with you, actually. I fucking hate it, but it is almost obligatory, as a student, now, so... I still have mine. I just don't use it like she does...
I’ve been working for 15 years and I’ve never needed LinkedIn.
How old is she? In her 40s?
I wish I knew/could tell. But this is the thing - it's nearly impossible to tell. Especially with no photos that actually show her face (she's not Sia, so that's bloody unusual)...
But the LinkedIn stuff suggests she could be. Late 30s/Early 40s, maybe?
Which is part of what is so odd - to act like someone in their early 20s, with no degree, but then to claim all this experience "working in admin/boardrooms"...
Who knows. It's just weird.
So many red flags. Too many, lol.
She could be really insecure about her lack of success. I have a friend like that. Early 40s and always exaggerating the importance of her jobs because she's not really that successful in life.
Oh, she's a hippie who thinks she knows how to run a corporate culture. This is her idea of how it all works.
Actual professional hustle culture folks act nothing like this.
"Hustle culture"?
I suspect that the usual expressions, "hard work" and "ambition," have been folded into this neologism, a collective term used for identity politics purposes that makes lazy slobs like me, who just go along to get along, feel better about themselves. "Oh, no, I don't buy into that hustle culture jazz. I'm a nonconformist. Is it five o'clock yet?"
Stick to "workaholic." Or "mean motor-scooter and bad go-getter." I've always liked that one.
It's more like having five side jobs and no real one.
“The modern woman’s dream!”
It really is beginning to feel that way…
I unironically envy you.
I actually can't do that - just going along to get along, working whatever job, and accepting an "average" life...
I swear I've tried. I just... Can't.
And it's actually not great. Like, yes, "boohoo, how pathetic (of me)", but it leads to a great deal of frustration and deep, deep feelings of inadequacy...
I know I can do better. I try and do better. And then I fail, again and again. Far more than I have any right to.
So... There is absolutely nothing wrong with what you just described (see: John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", for one example), and I genuinely wish I had it in me to think like that. But I don't.
Don't sell yourself short. We're all on our own journey. Unfortunately I've completely fucked up what I, and everyone else, expected of mine...
Hey, man, it's a cliche, but cliches tend to be true: It's never too late to start all over again. I, like most people, have led about three or four different lives so far at 61 (I think this might be my last version . . . I hope it's my next-to-last). And of course there have been many fuckups along the way, but who hasn't had them?
Yeah, you know, I think you might be right…
I dunno - the LinkedIn says she has done all this admin stuff in the Uni sector. But of course I don’t know the veracity of that. Seems unusual, for someone with apparently few previous qualifications…
Anyway, I don’t really know. I just find the whole thing weird, and I’m really just tired of people not being upfront with me (women in particular, but some of my male friends, too. I hate it)…
When I first talked to this chick, I thought she was some enthusiastic first year, who really cared about science, was a bit naïve, but was like, fresh out of high school maybe, and hadn’t really experienced much of “Uni life”, yet…
Now, I don’t even know who, or what she is, but it’s clear that my first impressions, and perhaps the kind of “self” she was conveying, were very, very far off reality…
Not the first girl to do this, of course. It’s just always a bit shit. Some of that is on me, maybe. But some of it isn’t.
It reminds me of the villain in State of Fear. He's a lawyer who specifically tries to seem like a worn out academic.
Ha, but with extra “stronk woman” vibes..? 😂
Yeah, I could see that, lol…
Man, I hate being conned. Like, in real life, I hate answering questions about “what do you do?” or “why are you studying there?” or “what is your career goal?”
Occasionally I’ll just sell some bullshit story to shut the other person up, or to make myself sound like less of a failure, but never in my wildest dreams would I a) actively lie about my job and location to someone, for months (the other girl - not the LinkedIn one), or b) make an entire LinkedIn full of fanciful bullshit, and then make that the entire image I present to the world…
It’s just so weird. Instagram, sure. I’ve known plenty of girls who do that on Instagram (including the other lying girl). But LinkedIn is a whole other level…
I've seen it a bit. People trying to be the next big name in tech, but can't find the any key. It's been common in many of the fields I've studied.
Ngl, I was initially very confused, there, with what you just said, ahaha... Took me a minute! Simpson's reference, or legit? Lol.
But yeah, STEM seems to be full of this (see the quote from her LinkedIn that I pulled out above)... Both tech, as you mention, and my area, bio and related fields...
Or the girl who claims to speak Spanish fluently, but can't even actually converse with you, when push comes to shove..?
In this case, someone who says "I like chemicals because they're pretty", and then claims to have assignment marks of 99/100..? It just doesn't add up, lol...
Then again, I can write quite well, and yet I suck balls at "doing the Uni", so... I dunno.
Marks are certainly one measure of intelligence, and I don't deny that I'm probably not as intelligent as someone who functions better in this area, but it is increasingly apparent to me now that there is more at play here than just intelligence...
If you're organised, are good at jumping through hoops, and are self-motivated, you'll likely do rather well at Uni. For whatever reason I'm not, so I struggle, and I don't get the marks, even though, like, I might actually "know" more about the subject area in question than some of my more "successful" peers...
Anyway, I'll shut up. Life's fucking frustrating right now, though, and I really wish I had this shit figured out a decade ago. Now it almost feels too late, frankly...
This is actually the second time in a day that I have discovered that a woman I was talking to isn’t quite what she appeared (or wasn’t quite telling the whole truth)…
It’s incredibly annoying. I’m not talking about troons, either. Just lies…
The other one even lied about what city she was now living in, because of course she did…
God damn it would be nice if people cut the bullshit for once.