AIBU to think that describing yourself as ‘competitive’ and an ‘overachiever’ on LinkedIn is really offputting?

[Clytemnestra4]

A colleague and I were chatting about this and disagreed, so I was wondering what others thought. We were discussing a woman at another organisation who we both work with. I’ve always liked this woman - she is friendly, efficient, sensible etc.

But I happened to look at her LinkedIn profile and in her bio she describes herself as competitive and as someone who always tries to overachieve in the workplace. This immediately put me right off her, these are not qualities I’d want or look for in a colleague! And don’t sound particularly healthy behaviours to me. Plus even if you were like this surely you wouldn’t advertise it on LinkedIn? But chatting with my colleague she thought highlighting competitiveness and a desire to overachieve was fine as it demonstrates a healthy level of ambition.

For what it’s worth this is not a cutthroat investment banking type scenario. We all work in higher education admin/managerial type roles, and at similar levels (earning between £40-50k).

So am I being unreasonable? Or would other people also run a mile from someone who described and marketed themselves in this way?

She’s not intending applying for the next series of The Apprentice is she?
That’s the sort of bollocks they come out with.

YANBU

I work in sales and marketing and see loads of that kind of bollocks. It’s like Facebook these days.

I was on a recruitment panel at work recently and one of the candidates described one of his strengths as being "mild mannered". Not sure why that is a strength.

Mild mannered = not a drama llama causing trouble everywhere. It’s a good quality, but not sure It’s a ‘strength’ in an interview context.

LinkedIn is full of shit anyway.

I have to use it for work and trawling through the corporate speak makes me want to tear my hair out- pure cringe.

If you like her then yeah YABU to ‘run a mile’ because you don’t like the way she words her profile. If that’s how she sees herself then I don’t see the harm in it, different recruiters look for different things! As a side note you no people can see when you’ve looked at their linkedin profile right? She might think your just as odd for snooping.

Very The Apprentice!

I saw it in a covering letter during a sift and it put me right off. There was nothing particularly overachieving about their CV, so it gave an impression of 'makes a huge deal out of a normal workload'.

Overachieving would put me off.. competitive less so, ie. On a Cv or in an interview.. but on your LinkedIn bio? It's a no from me.

I think “competitive” is OK, “over-achiever” not so much. In a corporate role it’s more or less seen as a given that you be competitive. Being an over-achiever makes you sound desperate, vain and arrogant.

LinkedIn is completely full of this crap though. It would barely pass notice amid the sea of shite.

I mean this with respect, but most people don’t get to pick their colleagues. And the fact it puts them off is totally irrelevant. Would it attract employers, undoubtably yes.

Her LinkedIn isn’t meant to appeal to folks who fancy working with her. It’s meant to attract employers who can give her a job.

I'd be reluctant to employ someone like that.

Very few people are over-achievers. Just sounds conceited.

Sure being an over-achiever is something other people judge, not yourself. “High performer” maybe, if you are in a field with obvious achievements (ie sales targets).

“Competitive” just makes you sound like a backstabbing arsehole/apprentice candidate.

Just put your actual, tangible achievements on there without the running commentary, thanks.

@Changechangychange Yes- I think that’s why it struck me as out of place. Being an overachiever shouldn’t be a label someone gives to themselves, it’s much more a way of describing someone else.

YABU

It doesn’t really matter what you’d look for in a colleague, it’s what many hiring managers in certain sectors would be looking for

@Clytemnestra4

A colleague and I were chatting about this and disagreed, so I was wondering what others thought. We were discussing a woman at another organisation who we both work with. I’ve always liked this woman - she is friendly, efficient, sensible etc.

But I happened to look at her LinkedIn profile and in her bio she describes herself as competitive and as someone who always tries to overachieve in the workplace. This immediately put me right off her, these are not qualities I’d want or look for in a colleague! And don’t sound particularly healthy behaviours to me. Plus even if you were like this surely you wouldn’t advertise it on LinkedIn? But chatting with my colleague she thought highlighting competitiveness and a desire to overachieve was fine as it demonstrates a healthy level of ambition.

For what it’s worth this is not a cutthroat investment banking type scenario. We all work in higher education admin/managerial type roles, and at similar levels (earning between £40-50k).

So am I being unreasonable? Or would other people also run a mile from someone who described and marketed themselves in this way?

i understand your perspectives but lets say you were recruiting and you had two profiles to choose from for argument sake, both profiles identical in what you wanted from the candidates, apart from candidate one says they just want to clock in and out, just complete the tasks set.

profile two says

i like to arrive early i am competitive and want to surpass expectations set and because i consider myself an overachiever i prefer to complete more tasks than just the ones im set and if needed happy to stay later than necessary to complete urgent projects.

who would you choose any why ?

The problem with things like Linked In is that you have to pick ‘one brand’ ie a single way of presenting yourself, when actually you might need to show completely different faces to different groups of people, even within the same company…

I suppose for some industries it's desirable to be competitive ie sales, overall though it sounds like someone I'd hate to work with! I expect like a lot of social media it's largely a load or crap anyway.

@Clytemnestra4

If I saw that, the first thing I'd think, would be; conceited back stabbing snake, who'll get your current employees backs up over trivial things regularly.

I would ask someone what made them an over achiever.

On a scale of 1 to 10.

Most people over estimate their ability and skills. Because they don't know who to compare themselves to.

Mozart wrote his first symphony at the age of 8.
That's over achieving.

Same for when you see skill based CVs and people put 4 or 5 out of 5. So they have nothing else to learn about programming, communication, marketing as they are incredibly skilled at it?

@Hawkins001 that sounds more like the kind of thing you would say in interview, not your CV, and it would be just as compelling if you took out the words “competitive” and “overachiever” - focus on the tangible things like arriving early and completing more tasks than are set (though even those may not be positives if the finished result is rushed and sloppy).

Honestly, “competitive” and “overachiever” are generally seen as negative traits, and usually said about other people to slag them off. If you mean hardworking, conscientious, or high performing, just say that (or better still, demonstrate it by listing out your achievements - if you can’t, maybe you seem an overachiever after all?)

We’ve all met people who thought they were the bees knees and were actually arrogant dangerous little shits, and shy people who were fab at their jobs. If you base your hiring decisions on somebody’s self-assessment, you’ll run into problems.

[quote Changechangychange]@Hawkins001 that sounds more like the kind of thing you would say in interview, not your CV, and it would be just as compelling if you took out the words “competitive” and “overachiever” - focus on the tangible things like arriving early and completing more tasks than are set (though even those may not be positives if the finished result is rushed and sloppy).

Honestly, “competitive” and “overachiever” are generally seen as negative traits, and usually said about other people to slag them off. If you mean hardworking, conscientious, or high performing, just say that (or better still, demonstrate it by listing out your achievements - if you can’t, maybe you seem an overachiever after all?)

We’ve all met people who thought they were the bees knees and were actually arrogant dangerous little shits, and shy people who were fab at their jobs. If you base your hiring decisions on somebody’s self-assessment, you’ll run into problems.[/quote]
i understand your points, all valid and good perspectives.