Anybody else super annoyed when people on LinkedIn…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:…list Harvard or Wharton as their alma mater and when you scroll down, you realize they’ve just taken one of those online classes but claim to have gone to that school.

It has happened more often than not. Recently, we had a new hire who is telling people he went to Wharton when he only did a Coursera course!

It really irritates me because it is simply misleading and not reality!! I can’t even imagine how people who have gone to one of those schools and gotten an actual degree feel when they see that.

You really need to get a life. seriously

No, OP has a point. If this was Facebook, sure. But the entire point of LinkedIn is to share your professional history. This is incredibly misleading, and people who do it are intending to mislead others.

I've never looked up someone's academic life on linked in

[Anonymous]

That's genius. Thanks for letting me know OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:…list Harvard or Wharton as their alma mater and when you scroll down, you realize they’ve just taken one of those online classes but claim to have gone to that school.

It has happened more often than not. Recently, we had a new hire who is telling people he went to Wharton when he only did a Coursera course!

It really irritates me because it is simply misleading and not reality!! I can’t even imagine how people who have gone to one of those schools and gotten an actual degree feel when they see that.

I don't feel annoyed, but when I see this sh!t on a resume, it goes straight into trash.
Harvard Extension School is my favorite.

+1

Harvard extension school and Harvard executive programs are the worst!

Repeat after me - going to Harvard Extension School or attending one of their exec programs IS NOT the same as attending Harvard College or one of the grad programs. You are NOT an alum!

[Anonymous]

In all seriousness, who uses LinkedIn, at all, ever, in 2023?

[Anonymous]

I think that’s something LinkedIn does. I went to Cornell and 9 times out of 10 when LI says a fellow alum works at a company, it will turn out that someone took a weekend certificate class instead. Very annoying, but I don’t fault the person for listing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to school in Boston.

I always ask people who do this why they are ashamed to say they went to Harvard.

[Anonymous]

My husband got a masters from UMGC. It was great for him as we were moving during those years and he was working full time. Should he not say he has a masters Degree? It is accredited. He wrote papers and took tests. He does not say he went to UMD...though for people out of the area they might assume it is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that’s something LinkedIn does. I went to Cornell and 9 times out of 10 when LI says a fellow alum works at a company, it will turn out that someone took a weekend certificate class instead. Very annoying, but I don’t fault the person for listing it.

+1

I went to another Ivy and have had the same experience. It’s super irritating because it defeats the purpose of that LI feature. As you said, the majority of people didn’t really go to the school, just did a certificate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband got a masters from UMGC. It was great for him as we were moving during those years and he was working full time. Should he not say he has a masters Degree? It is accredited. He wrote papers and took tests. He does not say he went to UMD...though for people out of the area they might assume it is the same.

I think this is different. OP was referring to people who spend 10 hours doing an online course and/or attend a month long executive program. These don’t lead to master’s degrees. Of course, your husband should list it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to school in Boston.

I always ask people who do this why they are ashamed to say they went to Harvard.

I don’t think it’s shame. I think it’s a defense mechanism - you don’t want to deal with the feelings, assumptions and biases that saying “I went to Harvard” will trigger in others.

[Anonymous]

It was funny to me as a Stanford and Chicago law alum, but I've begun to see some real value to certificate programs for upskilling. I actually find some of the programs to be impressive if they are tied to concrete skills like natural language processing, linguistics, or something where an in-depth skill set is needed but a master's degree isn't (health care compliance for example - no MBA program teaches the ins and outs of billing but it's a real skill one needs for some jobs).

I guess I am saying it is job specific. Also, I'm not a snob about education. I went to school with idiots and the overwhelming bulk of people who were either connected in industry due to the lottery of birth (i.e. their families) or were serious hustlers. People who worked retail or had random jobs in high school didn't get into Stanford for example. Kids were innovative hustlers or their parents had the cash, access, or power (sometimes all) to differentiate themselves from the other thousands who all had good grades, perfect scores, STEM prizes, etc.

[Anonymous]

Many of these executive programs require recommendations and admission. I did one at Stanford, and I’m proud of it. I spent 15 days on campus. But also, Linked In forces your latest education up to the top of your title so it’s not always bragging, it’s the algorithm and the fact that it’s the most recent education for most people.

Now stop being a jealous person, bad juju.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:…list Harvard or Wharton as their alma mater and when you scroll down, you realize they’ve just taken one of those online classes but claim to have gone to that school.

It has happened more often than not. Recently, we had a new hire who is telling people he went to Wharton when he only did a Coursera course!

It really irritates me because it is simply misleading and not reality!! I can’t even imagine how people who have gone to one of those schools and gotten an actual degree feel when they see that.

I posted a nearly identical thread about this earlier this year. It’s maddening and misleading. LinkedIn is pretty psycho overall so no surprise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:…list Harvard or Wharton as their alma mater and when you scroll down, you realize they’ve just taken one of those online classes but claim to have gone to that school.

It has happened more often than not. Recently, we had a new hire who is telling people he went to Wharton when he only did a Coursera course!

It really irritates me because it is simply misleading and not reality!! I can’t even imagine how people who have gone to one of those schools and gotten an actual degree feel when they see that.

The new hire telling people he went to Wharton, sure - that is annoying and misleading.

The others, not so much. Like you say yourself in your post, it's clear on their LinkedIn profile what course/program they actually took. The icon that appears up top is more driven by LinkedIn functionality. If they took an online Harvard program and their LinkedIn says they took that Harvard online program, I'm certainly not bothered by anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In all seriousness, who uses LinkedIn, at all, ever, in 2023?

I have a business and use it for business development. Since I’ve earned more than 100k from connections made via LI, I use it. That doesn’t even include what I earned from pay raises when moving to new jobs over the years.

If you are in a job and W2, then you might not need it.

Don’t disparage what you don’t understand.