Oh No! You Viewed My Profile
By Michael Neubig
There's a particular kind of dread that comes with the LinkedIn notification: "Someone viewed your profile." For most professionals, it's a non-event. For someone rebuilding after a white collar conviction, it can trigger a cascade of anxiety.
Who looked? What did they see? Did they Google me afterward? Are they reading about my case right now? The digital world makes it impossible to control the narrative, and for those of us who once carefully curated our professional image, that loss of control is its own kind of punishment.
But here's what I've learned: the anxiety of being seen is, in its own way, a sign of progress. It means you're out there. You're participating. You're not hiding. And more often than not, the person who viewed your profile moved on in three seconds and forgot about it entirely.
The real challenge isn't who views your profile. It's whether you're willing to keep showing up anyway.