I wanted to express an issue that I continue to see with Linkedin’s recruiting methods. This just something about the way it’s done that gives me a sense of disconnection. Do these people live, breathe and have a heartbeat? I’m sure some do but it doesn’t come across in my LinkedIn inbox.
What are your thoughts about all of this as a freelance writer or even a freelance designer? Is this working?
I’m a writer and I’m always open to freelance opportunities. But I almost never see a way to break through and actually find out about a freelance gig opportunity without having to jump through 10 hoops just to get a basic feel for what the job entails and decide whether or not I would qualify and if it would work for my situation.
First, I get these recruiters in my message inbox and they show up in the middle of my day when I’m busy doing other things. So I kind of just look at them, wonder if it’s a real person or if I should investigate it. Then I move along to a variety of tasks I need to be attending to. The message from the recruiter fades into the background and I never look at it again.
On the rare occasion that I do look at a job opportunity from LinkedIn I simply can’t get an idea of what the job actually involves. Because of that, I don’t feel compelled to offer my resume. The fact is that all of my information is already available on LinkedIn. You can see past job experience, endorsements from coworkers and clients, and a number of my websites which I currently run and which are still active.
The messages from recruiters always seem vague, as though they kind of spotted me as just another number in the crowd so they thought they would push their message my way. But I absolutely never get the feeling that someone would personally find me useful for the involved job and so it just doesn’t compel me to ever respond.
Am I missing something? Have you ever had success getting freelance gigs via LinkedIn recruiters or some other way on LinkedIn? It’s not that I’m not open to the jobs. It’s just that I get the sense that no one is paying attention anyway. It doesn’t seem like there’s any life there.
Also, do you get the sense of being dehumanized as a freelancer?
The last time someone reached out to me with a freelance opportunity was a designer who worked for an agency. They sent me the job proposal and the information included spoke about the freelancer in the third person. It made me feel like they were talking about a robot instead of a human being.
In fact it kind of reminded me of Silence of the Lambs.
“The freelancer puts the lotion in the basket.”
Modern companies place a lot of emphasis on having strong values and connecting with their people. But that manner of speaking points to complete distance and disconnection.
In the entire job profile that I read through the last time I applied for something like this, the language referred to the temp or freelancer in the third person for the entire brief. They weren’t talking to me and they weren’t even talking at me. They were just talking about me! I was literally nothing to them in this brief. Just a drone to negotiate hourly pay and contract terms.
Are computers preventing people from genuinely connecting at this time in human history?
Who else is feeling this? Have you had any success landing freelance job opportunities on the internet?
I think it all just comes back to that I’m running a small business and maybe I just don’t have the incentive to even try and break through. Why bother?
If you’re a recruiter who seems frustrated at the lack of interest in the blogs you are posting, can you think of some way that you can engage with writers who seem to match the qualifications of the job?
What can you do to go the extra step and reach out to a human being who might be a good fit?
If you’re a writer, have you managed to find a workaround for this problem? Have you successfully landed satisfying and lucrative freelance gigs on LinkedIn?
Thoughts?