It has taken me 13 years and 414m people have got there before me, but last week I finally sat down to compose my summary for the networking site LinkedIn. The beauty of being such a late adopter is that all you have to do is find one person who has mastered this practically impossible form of composition and crib them.
My first stop was the summary written by a woman who I hope will soon be the most important in the world. Hillary Clinton’s effort goes like this.
“Wife, mother, grandmother, women and kids advocate, FLOTUS, FLOAR, Senator, secretary of state, dog person, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, 2016 presidential candidate.” Is this a spoof? Can the former FLOTUS really think her role as a grandmother (of which there are an estimated 35m in the US alone) is more interesting to LinkedIn members than her shot at the White House? And as for the dogs and trouser suits, I can see she is trying to seem humorous, but it doesn’t work. I shan’t be copying Mrs Clinton, but she has taught me my first two lessons: no jokes and stick to the point.