Why are UK, UK based and UK-countries related (India, Nigeria...) students so cringe on LinkedIn?
This is something I really don't understand.
I'm sure not just the students mentioned above, but everytime I see it it's one of them.
They have LinkedIn profile with a section of professional experience of 10+ more items, but everytime I go check it it's just insight events dedicated to some bullsht, laughable title "MD" , "Head of" when it's just about a student run club.
They wrote whole articles about how insightful was a networking event of 2 hours, and when they have a real work experience they seems ashamed of it when it's 10x more valuable than the straight up bullsht mentioned above, especially when it's not something "prestigious" and give it stupid name (associate managing sales or something like this when it's just working in a clothes shop), despite the fact it can be the sign of real motivation to work.
Any professional realize how fraudulent these profiles are in less than 10 seconds, and it literally show nothing about their ability (especially when you compare with German/French/Italian students who have serious long internships in the industry).
To be clear, I don't blame people trying to have more experience on their CV (like working in a clothes shop to pay rent), but I blame students having cosmetic meaningless virtual or insight afternoons and calling themselves "Ex-JP Morgan" after a spring week.
Why are they doing this?
London kids are just corny in general bro. The amount of times i’ve come across those 5 paragraph long insight day posts is wild. Also, they’re always written by ChatGPT. May God help us.
It’s cringe not Brexit that causes the decline of the Brits. From commanding the seas and most of the land to this!
This is a classic example of selection bias and the availability heuristic. You're focusing on a few exaggerated LinkedIn profiles and overlooking those with genuine achievements. Plus, the most memorable and visible examples of embellished profiles shape your perception, leading to a skewed view.
Be quiet london boy
bro defo wrote a paragraph for his spring "internship"
Based on the discussions in the Wall Street Oasis forums, particularly those focusing on LinkedIn behaviors, it's evident that the practice of embellishing titles and experiences on LinkedIn is not unique to students from any specific region, including the UK. However, the phenomenon you're describing might be influenced by several factors:
Cultural Differences in Self-Presentation: In some cultures, there's a stronger emphasis on titles and perceived status, which can lead to students giving themselves inflated titles for roles that might not traditionally warrant such designations. This can be seen in the way students from various backgrounds present their involvement in student organizations or short-term internships.
Pressure to Stand Out: The job market, especially in competitive fields like investment banking and consulting, is incredibly saturated. Students might feel the need to stand out by any means necessary, which can lead to the embellishment of titles and experiences. This is often exacerbated by seeing peers present themselves in a certain way, leading to a cycle of one-upmanship.
Misunderstanding of Professional Norms: Some students might not fully understand professional norms and the implications of misrepresenting their experience. This lack of understanding can be particularly pronounced in students who have less exposure to professional environments.
Impact of Social Media: Platforms like LinkedIn encourage a certain level of self-promotion, which can sometimes cross into the territory of exaggeration. The social media aspect of LinkedIn might make it feel more permissible to 'market' oneself aggressively.
Lack of Real-World Experience: Students who lack substantial real-world experience might feel compelled to inflate minor roles or participation in events to fill out their profiles. This can be seen in the way some students might list participation in a two-hour webinar as a significant professional experience.
It's important for students to realize that seasoned professionals can typically see through such embellishments and that honesty and authenticity often make a stronger impression. Moreover, real-world experience, no matter how humble, can often provide more valuable skills and learning opportunities than nominal titles in student-run clubs or brief insight events.
Sources: Importance of Networking in the UK?, FT recruiting timeline London, Networking in (mostly Continental) Europe, an experience, If I see another "Incoming IBD Analyst/Summer Analyst" on LinkedIn.. I'll k--l someone, Cringeworthy LinkedIn posts
At a UK target, and completely agree! This country, for decades, has sought prestige. That's all they've done. Everything from recruiters, head-hunters, politicians to people you meet on the job (Brits etc.) and that's why they're in the shit hole they're in now - not one credible experience is accounted for. No real exploration of careers, interests aren't accounted for - TMT is just sought after without thought, not realising it isn't doing "tech" deals in Europe, it's crappy telecoms. Or "BREDS" at Blackstone because it's BlaCkStone but having zero - and I mean zero interest - justified because it's "not a bad thing" apparently. Almost every Brit tries that team because it's one of the only ones that takes in non-Europeans regularly - so again, no interest, just a recruiting funnel that makes people suddenly "super interested" bro. Everyone follows the crowd here, and 0 sense of entrepreneurialism or experimenting - so you isolate the corporate route as the most prestigious, and anything remotely a derivative of that (crappy insight events) is a badge of honour. At top targets, you'll hear "he was (insight event) final round, probably the best investor there is" - not saying this is wrong, but I've also seen "I'm going to put it on LinkedIn so anyone from that firm may reach out or have visibility" - again, not wrong, but without substance I think this is pure delusion. On the flip side, I've come across some truly good guys (universities, internships) and these guys keep themselves low, they know their stuff and they don't play their LinkedIn - they also generally get along with everyone really well
Think about the poor incoming analysts in BREDS having to read this post
breaking news: 18 year old kids are cringe. more at 11
Most ironic thing about this is OP isn't even older or anything. He's a freshman trying to act all high and mighty amongst his peers.
@OP, you know nothing. Seriously. Nothing.
Let people do what they're gonna do. Do you realise that banks and HR encourage this LI stuff? And people do it because there are actually people who get opportunities from it?
Also, Pre-uni and during uni insights and experience days are important recruitment gateways for banks. There are people who attend one insight session which snowballs into a summer internship offer if they make the right moves. We, internally, are encouraged to look out for such people and flag them.
You laugh at people exaggerating their experiences but you're here exaggerating what you've seen on LinkedIn using either fake anecdotes or singular data points to make your point.
That said, I will agree that there are certain concentrations of extremely weird hardos in the UK (LSE) but I've often found the overlap between the hardos and those who post on LinkedIn isn't really that big...
Congrats on EY Belfast Diversity Insight Day
Nah, this is the wrong take. Just because OP is young doesn’t mean he can’t make an accurate observation. Saying seniority = insight is a stupid mentality. And these LinkedIn warriors he’s talking about are absolutely cringeworthy.
Also, just because HR likes these kinds of kids doesn’t mean their behavior isn’t cringey. HR also likes diversity hires who have no business being at the firm. There’s nothing wrong with having an accurate LinkedIn that shows what you’ve done. But having “Ex-Bain” in your bio after spending four days during a spring break touring the office and eating snacks is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen.
What hurted you? The UK part? The LinkedIn essay one?
agree w the fact that it's cringe, but just an alternative perspective - networking isn't big in the UK the way it is in the US, so in the US you can much more intimately explain your accomplishments while in the UK it's literally off of your cv and LinkedIn. + insight days are pretty competitive. for the ones i did i was told i was chosen from 2000+ applicants for a spot on a 3 individual insight team. insight days are stupid as shit though. but some insight weeks (a full 5 days) are pretty decent with very competitive processes (2-3 rounds of interviewing + tests).
also. I actually see this more with European students from semi-targets like Bocconi, so i feel like your comment about indians, Nigerians is uncalled for.
I do not think nationalities is the way to explain it, I go to LSE and have seen a fair amount of linkedin cringe and it's always wannabe hardo's in general who do this stuff. Tbh with how competitive it is you gotta stick out some how ig. When you meet some of these hardo's in real life they are just normal people who are not really stuck up, just a online persona if anything.
Spotted the Nigerian
Your name is Nigerian.
Tell me you have never stepped foot in an investment bank without telling me you have never stepped foot in an investment bank.
bro i literally go to a top target in the UK and have a summer offer
Is Bocconi a target then?
Bro, I hate to break it to you, but insight/spring weeks' recruiting is heavily focused on diversity. They've become a streamlined way to recruit diversity and female candidates, with a particular emphasis on UK universities. You'll realise that the average European master's student from the "semi-target" you mentioned, is miles ahead the average UK spring week candidate.
Now be proud of your summer offer, but fly down my boy.
Hate to break it to you kid but the springs solely for diversity thing is absolute cope. If the banks want a spring week for diversity they will just do a separate one (citi, Rothschild etc) or only do ones for diversity (pwp,pjt). Quite frankly spring recruiting is done purely to try get as many domestic candidates as possible and make it easier to compare them. This is because once summers open, these domestic uk kids frankly wouldn’t stand a chance technically, experience-wise, and pedigree-wise against the continental Europeans who have a culture which encourages several internships and masters. Simply would just be too hard to pick the uk kid in most of these cases so we get them first through the spring where we can compare them to their age mates (who also may be continental European). The case above is especially true for your top BB/EB.
From my experience, rich Europeans (especially Italians) at schools like UCL and LSE think they’re hot shit and make a ton of pretentious posts using unnecessarily long words. The Italians have a special knack for sharing non-profound things in a profound (but truly corny) way
can't speak of Italians but LATAM guys are masters of making cringey LinkedIn post saying how thrilled they are with enhacing their precious knowdledge on X while in reality they listened to a 30 min course on LinkedIn Learning
I see LSE A&F students writing 5 paragraphs about how they really enjoyed attending a Blackstone WEBINAR on Zoom and tagging all of the panelists and thanking them...
HAHAHA this made me chuckle.
Tbh this behaviour already happened back in my day.
Honestly its cringe and I detest it. I hate seeing these interns post on linkedin thanking everyone for their spring week. It's disingenuous.
However, social media is just people seeking validation and virtue signalling, Linkedin is no different. Social media is the worst thing that has happened to society, it's created huge issues for our younger generations around self image, promoted the wrong types of people as role models and pushed a liberal leftist woke agenda.
Rant over. Apologies.
It's definitely not Bocconi students, more like Nottingham, UCL students
This is objectively false, and I really do hope you are enjoying your time in Milan. British students at schools like Nott will take the absolute piss out of blokes who make cringey posts. They have very little tolerance for smugness and self-absorbed behavior. Brits are generally very self-deprecating. As it goes -- an American would boast about how they are an excellent writer and proud of their creative expression, when they write a journal every week. An Englishman that tells you that "he dabbles here and there" may just be the most recent Nobel Prize winner. The Italians are the worse than the Americans in this regard.
Agree at places like Notts which are full of normal Brits then they would take the piss out of that. Places which are full of hardos and internationals will have more of it (think LSE)
False.
Its actually a culture thing. The wannabe Euro bankers are the ones who do this. Brits as a culture hate this behaviour.
Also based in UK, but it's completely like the norm now at targets. Every single kid is posting this cr*nge stuff, saying they are MD at some random student fund with 4 people...
Don't get me started on the thank you posts to each bank for holding a 1 hour info session on zoom... at least in the U.S. it seems they aren't so shameless and post this stuff too often, from what I've seen.
UK is bad but India is worse…
I have seen people posting pictures with CEO/ president on LinkedIn saying that the interaction is insightful but what they actually did is attend an event and ask for a picture zzzz
These profiles reflect the corporate culture in the UK: a lot of eloquent fluff backed by 0 technical skills. They start at a very young age.
UK Semi-target here, how / when should you post on Linkedin in your opinions?
there is no need to. most people don't
The countries you say are bad? They are not real! No where in map
My favorite is when some PhD from Mumbai comments on some major corporations posts and just says he is ready for the challenge and gives his contact info
LMFAO LITERALLY. i saw a comment on goldman's IG post a few days ago of some Indian FX dogshit scam page saying they will "manage GSAM's money for them". how kind and thoughtful of them.
Lol
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