Was I right to turn down a job because of my interviewer’s weird LinkedIn posts?

I read your column last week about whether coffee preferences are a good measure of character. I agreed that such a minor thing probably didn’t reflect something larger. But it made me think about one of my own recent experiences. I was going for a job that sounded like just my sort of thing. I was asked to do a formal interview. Beforehand, I did a bit of research about who would be interviewing me. As I researched I found one of my interviewers, someone I would work with if I got the job, was a prolific LinkedIn poster.

I found one of their posts quite interesting, but most of the rest seemed a bit overbearing, and a few were so dogmatic it made me nervous. This person seemed quite pleasant during the interview, but that post played on my mind; I was offered the job but declined. Could I have been too judgmental?

LinkedIn posters exist on a spectrum. Or multiple spectrums. Irreverent to fawning. Whimsical to earnest.Credit: John Shakespeare

In some ways, I think what you’ve described is the opposite of the situation with the hot coffee drinker from last week’s Work Therapy.

A fondness for a beverage at a certain temperature struck me as an unlikely, although not a completely implausible, predictor of work competence. A predisposition to LinkedIn posturing and pontification, on the other hand, seems like a trait that could tell you a lot about what it might be like to work with someone – albeit, no substitute for actually observing them at work.

I’ve made a few disparaging remarks about LinkedIn on these pages over the years, but I don’t hate it. In fact, I find elements of it – and enclaves or oases within it – quite enjoyable. Enlightening even.

But there’s no doubt a certain kind of regular poster dominates the platform and, as a friend said recently in a discussion about LinkedIn on LinkedIn “there is a direct correlation between how [bad] someone is as an employee or co-worker and how active they are on LinkedIn. Lots of posts equals massive drainer.”

This person’s posts imply what they and their colleagues do is the same as saving premature babies or advancing Alzheimer’s treatments.

I generally agree. Although I think, like most things, enthusiastic LinkedIn posters exist on a spectrum. Or multiple spectrums. Irreverent to fawning. Whimsical to earnest. Cynical to uncritical. Someone who posts often in the irreverent, whimsical and cynical categories is all right by me (hello to early investor in Big Mouth Billy Bass, Chad Profitz, if you’re reading this).

It’s rare, of course, but not unheard of. In fact, in my quick browse of the platform before writing this I found a post that described a 1998 version of Jeff Bezos, who “worked 5 days+ per week in the office, his muscles atrophying like tender veal under fluorescent lights in his beige room.” That is nothing short of high art.

Where does your could-have-been boss sit on the various scales? I let my morbid fascination get the better of me and clicked on the link to their profile you sent through. The fact you were unsettled by their contributions doesn’t surprise me.

What struck me, apart from the dogmatism, as you so aptly put it, was the pretentiousness. This organisation isn’t involved in monumentally important work. That’s not a criticism; the vast majority of jobs in the world fit comfortably into the not-particularly-consequential category.

But this person’s posts heavily imply that what they and their colleagues do during business hours is on the same level as keeping premature babies alive or advancing Alzheimer’s treatments. It’s not just earnest; it’s unashamedly self-congratulatory.

Yes, there is a chance this is all just some weird performance, that this person somehow feels they should be doing this, while not really believing any of it. And if that’s the case, maybe you did miss a good opportunity by turning this job down. But my instinct is that your instinct was spot on.

I know from your longer email that you’re not someone who takes themselves enormously seriously. Everything about the LinkedIn posts you showed me is the antithesis of this attribute. Unless you believe that in the world of work opposites attract, I think you did the right thing by letting this very wobbly job ball go through to the career keeper.

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