Do you include your musical experience on your Linkedin profile?

[FormerlyBassred]

I have listed my musical experience along with my day jobs, just curious if anyone else does this?! Thoughts? Concerns?

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jon-wolske/16/ba2/89b

[SpaceNorman]

Like most every question posed on the forum - I suspect the correct answer to this question is "It depends".

 

Is your LinkedIn account a "I've got a LinkedIn presence too!" sort of thing ... or are you actively trying to use your LinkedIn account to upgrade your day gig? If it's the former - list whatever makes you feel good. If it's the latter - you best think it through a little deeper.

 

Is the industry you're trying to market yourself in one in which working "side jobs" is common and/or one in which you perceive there's a significant benefit to calling out your artistic side - by all means list it.

 

However, if not - I'd leave it off. I work in the financial services industry where it's with staid and stodgy banker types making staffing decisions. Unless you're a musical "A lister" (which is rhetorical question - since if you were a musical "A lister", you wouldn't be looking for work in the financial services industry!) - listing your experience as a gigging musician type will NOT be perceived as a plus!

[StratGuy22]

I only signed up for linked in to find the person who had made my road cases. I special ordered them, and we were nearing the 90 day PayPal limit. I found him there and was ready to hunt him down if I needed to. I got my cases and it worked out. My profile there is a ghost from that time period.

[FormerlyBassred]

I come at it (the whole approach to corporate life) a little differently. As a speaker who focuses on organizational culture, and working for a company that is looked to by others as an example of what companies can be doing to set themselves apart/keep good talent/drive a motivated and engaged workforce that will produce great results without focusing on the results and aligning yourself to an organization based on the values you carry and the values of the organization, I see the world changing. I see that employers want to know more about what drives employees before they even bring them on board. Companies are actually trying to figure out how to market to candidates based on stuff they do in their off time ( "Candidate Experience" they are calling it - calling out that they are looking for people who do stuff outside of their work that tells the company that the individual is creative)

 

I think that the forward-looking companies of the future will value information like this. I also think that Linkedin and the traditional resume are going to need to change just like the business landscape is changing.

 

I also still play, both in a band situation and on-call, so it is actual work experience that, in certain situations, I want people to be able to access if they should need to see it.

 

I also use linkedin to connect with people I have interacted with in a business environment, because you never know when a contact you've made and kept will help you in the future. I am in the process of writing a book, so you never know who you'll need to call on!

[Blackbird013]

I don't have a LinkedIn profile, but I can't imagine NOT listing it! Seriously....

 

Sales and booking/scheduling

Video editing and production

Website design

Social media marketing

Advertising and design

Human resource and personnel management

Negotiation and contracts

Public speaking/media interviews

Audio production

Driving

 

.. and that isn't counting anything I've done onstage. You'd be hard pressed to find any white collar job where none of that experience is relevant.

[SpaceNorman]

I can easily understand the rationale for including music/band experience on a LinkedIn profile that has been laid out here. Just keep in mind that the folks reading your LinkedIn profile may have a radically different interpretation of what musician/band experience means.

 

Things like ... "I see he's got a second job that has him hanging out in bars until the wee hours on nights and weekends" .... What impact will that have on his ability to fulfill the requirements of the position that I'm trying to fill. Will this person be unavailable for "after hours" support calls? Will his "band gigs" mean I'm going to have to deal with an employee who's chronically late? Will they constantly dead tired after late nights? Will he regularly be looking to "leave early" because he's got a gig? ... and obviously those questions don't begin to touch on dealing with the common stereotypes about musicians (think drinking, drugs, etc.) that also have the potential to taint a job candidate.

 

Blackbird's list of experience sounds great on paper. But keep in mind, if you list it - you may be called upon to deliver. If your band based experience with "website design" doesn't include using current development tools - they'll discount the value of your experience in that space to about "zero" in a heartbeat. Same thing with "Social Media Marketing" ... the fact that you've "shared" your band events on FB does not a "social media marketing" campaign make. Again, discounted value of such experience hovers at or near "zero". On one hand, you might get a few points for trying to "spin gold out of straw" ... on the other hand, trying to oversell what may be very limited experience in those areas could easily be considered a black mark depending on the nature of the position you're looking for and/or the industry you're hoping to work in.

 

In the industry I work in - which is chock full of staid and stodgy banker types who make the hiring decisions - touting the fact that you're a gigging musician has a good chance of being viewed as an impediment - not as a check mark in a candidate's strengths column.

 

I stand by my original "it depends" response. You have to decide just how relevant your musician/band experience is to the position you're looking for ... and have a sense of how it will be perceived by folks making hiring decisions in the industry you're looking for work in.

[MickeyKeys]

SpaceNorman, the voice of reason as always.

 

And as usual I find myself in 100 percent agreement.

 

Your arguments are the prime reason why I'm damned careful as to what I'll even allow on my Facebook timeline. The stories of people being not hired, or being disciplined or terminated for innocent disclosures seen by the wrong narrow minded idiot are too numerous to be discounted.

 

If I had it to do all over again I'd never have set up the Facebook account... but now there are too many friends and family members who are social media addicts and seem to be incapable of communicating any other way... like, geez, pick up a phone once in a while, willya?

 

I don't want to cut them off totally though, so I leave that door open just a teeny crack.

[Kramerguy]

Just like SpaceNorman, I work in a profession / industry that would see it as a negative (sysadmin, network). There is zero mention of my weekend activities outside of spending all weekend doing server maintenance

 

It sucks, but being an amateur or weekend musician is equivalent to being a man-boy who can't grow up in many peoples eyes.

[FormerlyBassred]

Welp... I did make sure that all most all of the experience listed was actual work i had done (paid engagements/situations)... , but seriously..

 

My day gig is speaking (at conferences/company trainings/etc...) to older/struggling/any industries that want to hear it... to help them understand the advantages of changing the way they think and do things, so I guess its part of why I see it differently. As businesses grow to understand the need to focus on 'who' they are (beyond the functions they perform or products they offer), the need to change the way they think about the hiring process. I've actually read quite a lot about how hobbies are a positive, as they can help the organization assess a lot about a person and how they work (having ANY is good, and team/group-based activities and creative activities are two that are actually good signs) when it comes to a team environment or problem solving.

 

Times, they are a-changing!

 

[Iamthesky]

I keep music and day job completely separate in my online presence. That is, in social media I never, ever, mention my salaried job. My "works at" on my Facebook page is my band. Companies are getting very sensitive these days about controlling every mention of them in social media, and want to control every single instance, sending out memos all the time on what is and what is not OK to say about the company -- I make that easy by simply not mentioning my employer at all. And my resume does not mention my music.

 

I haven't signed up for LinkedIn. Monster.com got me my last two contracting jobs, and this one I'm at now is the result of being hired on full time from contracting, so I haven't yet needed it. That suits me -- the longer I can put off being sucked into that quagmire, the better. My impression is it's a social network for mid-level management types who want to brag that they're better and more successful than any other mid-managers they are likely to meet, and want to change companies every year to keep them heading up to the executive washroom.

 

Now if LinkedIn would help me find a permanent bass player for the band, I'd use it in a flash. But from what I've seen, the kind of jobs you can worm your way into through LinkedIn aren't the kind that I want anyway.

[Opus Antics]

I'm like Iamthesky and SpaceNorman. I don't put my work stuff on Facebook and I don't put my music and band stuff on LinkedIn. My LinkedIn page is all about the day job. My Facebook page is all about everything else.

[Outkaster]

I keep music and day job completely separate in my online presence. That is, in social media I never, ever, mention my salaried job. My "works at" on my Facebook page is my band. Companies are getting very sensitive these days about controlling every mention of them in social media, and want to control every single instance, sending out memos all the time on what is and what is not OK to say about the company -- I make that easy by simply not mentioning my employer at all. And my resume does not mention my music.

 

I haven't signed up for LinkedIn. Monster.com got me my last two contracting jobs, and this one I'm at now is the result of being hired on full time from contracting, so I haven't yet needed it. That suits me -- the longer I can put off being sucked into that quagmire, the better. My impression is it's a social network for mid-level management types who want to brag that they're better and more successful than any other mid-managers they are likely to meet, and want to change companies every year to keep them heading up to the executive washroom.

 

Now if LinkedIn would help me find a permanent bass player for the band, I'd use it in a flash. But from what I've seen, the kind of jobs you can worm your way into through LinkedIn aren't the kind that I want anyway.

 

This.