A flip side of being a frank and non- judgemental person is
people can look forward toward testing their own views and opinions with you. I
love this part of being associated with people for a good set of reasons:
firstly, I like the idea of being taken seriously at some point in time by
everyone around me and such instances; apart from stimulating my own though process on the
topic,give me an opportunity to place some arguments across that promote a
healthy discussion.
So even if my answer means nothing to questions like – how do
I look, does this outfit suit me, do you think this will work a charm or am I
dressed to the occasion; I like to be honest and spare a lot of my
uncharacteristic words in response.
I recently had a person ask me to run a check on a LinkedIn
profile (that was the 3rd such request in the last 2 months) and
though I have no real expertize in this area of building professional profiles,
it has been something I have looked into for myself development and
understanding.
Now the first time I made a ‘Resume’ (which people uncannily
pronounced in a manner suggesting a continuation), I had actually aped
something that existed in my brother’s folder and crossed it with a senior
batch topper. Well it possibly had something that worked, as it earned me my
first job as a graduate fresher in an MNC. The next one I made had a bit too
much of gimmicks and when I met a job consultant later in life, he was appalled
by how can a person with 3 years of experience have a CV running four pages.
What he suggested did make a lot of sense and has become my basis to plan every
profile I have made in future.
What I’m about to share now is something that can be applied
to every single place where you might have to put up a profile for yourself and
compete against a million others wooing the same opportunity in life. Trust me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a
professional profile, matrimonial, social media or dating- this is like a
marketing effort and rules seldom change.
The first question that needs to be addressed is what are people
seeing your profile looking out for? A recruiter is looking for domain
expertise, a marriage prospect is looking for a love, nurturing and life-long
companionship, while life is a bit less formal when it comes to social media
and dating apps. No rocket science eh? And it is actually not. The essence is
in how you make yourself appealing against other who might be in the exact same
boat as you with the same intent and persona.
So how do you make yourself the brightest star in the sky- a
simple way: Differentiate. People today work on impulse and do not have a lot
of time to run across profiles. It is all about catching the eye in 5 seconds
and keeping the person interested for the next 5 minutes.
Differentiation is the art of being a common man with an
uncommon appeal. May be being an engineer or an MBA is no longer the most
appealing, but an ambition driven professional with the moon as his destination
is the way forward. This is the place where strong and decorative words like
aficionado and expert in a certain domain becomes a smarter pitch. A title for
an achiever; especially for doctors, lawyers, PhD, Post-docs acts as the filter
to make you stand out. Bottom line- short words with big baggage are an anchor.
What is a Matrimonial sites once got me a super response-
it’s a sheep farm. Profiles and pictures are just too exhaustive and repetitive
in their appeal. Every girl is well educated, sweet and homely with at least
one pic in a saree, salwar kameez and western outfits. All guys are mature, well
settled and caring with pictures in glares, kurta and suit being a must. Every
family is open minded and modern life style compounded with a traditional
outlook. This can be further elaborated with pictures against the Eiffel Tower
with a 10% portion of the pic resembles the person in contention. Just a
thought- will a girl in denims in a bowling alley lack appeal. Or a guy in
shorts in a candid expression not ring a bell? Will use of a casual approach
hurt the institution of marriage? I don’t think so… might just set things right
I guess.
Now the most awesome profiles I find are on dating apps. The
reason they are awesome is that they seems to follow the “farm animal”
philosophy to the core. 5 pictures and an Instagram link and I’m left to wonder…
so are you a model or just crazy with selfies. They have everything: selfies
against a mirror in the ladies washroom where you can’t help but notice the WC,
selfies at an angle where the bosom and cleavage is exaggerated and yes;
selfies with dogs and kittens. People seldom realise that a dog selfie is a
turn off- especially it the dog is having some psychedelic green eyes due to
the flash and looks like suffering from glaucoma. And read the profile- “too
much to say, why don’t you discover…”- so right; I have to be the dog chasing
cars now eh?
Bottom line- I guess it’s time we did realize what we plan
to do and build digital identities with some logic and purpose which can help
distinguish people rather than making them sheep. Talk a bit about yourself to say what is the one thing that defines you. Be original and you will be
unique- being an ape is going back in evolution.
No comments:
Post a Comment