Words That Define Our Generation

A high profile LinkedIn page is a great reflection of individual talent and professional achievement. Given most of us are business school graduates, our LinkedIn page is analogous to what an Instagram page is to a cinematic professional. Authoring your own high impact LinkedIn page used to be fairly easy; throw in a combination of ‘accomplished’, ‘designed’, ‘led’, ‘initiated’, ‘achieved’ and similar metaphors. If you were really good, you would garnish your page with a ‘design thinker’ or a ‘customer experience architect’. However, with most things in life, composing a high profile LinkedIn page has come a long way. This article highlights this evolution!

My middle name is cryptic!

Any modern day LinkedIn page begins with a technological flavour. Even if your digital literary is at best limited to making pivot tables, throw in a ‘digital evangelist’ in your write up. If you managed to read a wikipedia page on cryptocurrency, you are qualified to add ‘crypto enthusiast’. If you happened to study BASIC (Beginner’s All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language in Class 6 in school, the world will adore you if you add ‘blockchain enthusiast’ !

Nothing makes the world go around like leadership!

At business school, most graduates are taught to pursue leadership for reaching business moksha. This endearing spirit is what your LinkedIn page should reflect in abundance. Throw in a ‘life coach’ given you must be playing ‘agony aunt’ to most depressed millennials. In addition, if you own even one share in any company, you can garnish your page with a ‘value investor’, ‘contrarian investor’, ‘board member’ or ‘CXO advisor’. If you are really high on yourself, try pushing your limits with a ‘venture capitalist’ or a ‘transformation champion’!

All of a sudden, everything is about family!

In contemporary social media, family is making a comeback in acquiring a ‘cool quotient’. So it is fairly obvious it has to reflect on our LinkedIn pages. The world will celebrate with great gusto if you can add a tinge of ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘husband’, ‘wife’, ‘friend’ to your LinkedIn page. People have to realise that being a family member in this decade is so much more difficult than the thousands of years gone by!

In Michael Jackson’s words, ‘make the world a better place’!

After family, making the world a better place has become very very sexy! A 1 rupee donation to a beggar can earn you a tag of a ‘philanthropist’. Given the biggest curse of our generation is unrelenting depression, a ‘happiness coach’ or a ‘motivational speaker’ is bound to earn you brownie points with the opposite sex. Diversity is the new correct in business discourse; playfully decorate your page with a ‘diversity advocate’ to seamlessly fit in!

Follow your passion and you will never have to work a day in your life!

Being passionate of something is the ‘in thing’ of our generation. To live upto this ideal, your LinkedIn page should witness you wearing your passion on your sleeve. Throw in a ‘wildlife photographer’ even if all you have managed to do is click the domesticated cockroach. If you have a minimum of 5 friends on Facebook or Instagram, you qualify to be a ‘social media influencer’.  If you are the intellectual type, you can try the philosophy of ‘Ted Attendee’ or ‘Ted Advocate’. If you ever borrowed money from a friend and never returned it, a ‘serial entrepreneur’ tag will drape your entire profile page with unending passion!

While it is fairly obvious what is trending on LinkedIn today, let me take a leap of faith and suggest what will be trending on LinkedIn a few years down the line. I see the following dominating the professional discourse; ‘love angel’, ‘policy advocate’, ‘social engineering champion’, ‘thinker’, ‘status quo disrupter’. I am happy to hear your thoughts only if you agree with me!

In conclusion, a man’s chest is measured by the attractiveness of his LinkedIn page. With the above guiding principles, it is not very difficult to build an artificially attractive and professionally trending chest!