Penelope Trunk, a Broken Vase and Honesty Online

Penelope Trunk, a Broken Vase and Honesty Online Penelope Trunk, a Broken Vase and Honesty Online Penelope Trunk is one of my favorite bloggers. Not just one of my favorite careers bloggers, but one of my favorite everything bloggers, up there with the very best writers.If youve never read her blog, it can be a shock at first. Its a shock because Penelope is honest. Brutally honest, all the time. She gives career advice good career advice but always in the context of her own life and her personal problems. Some people are uncomfortable with that. I love it because she always makes me think.In her last post, she describes a marital fight. In commenting later, she added thisI guess what I want to show here is that the people who give advice - the bazillions of them - have problems too. Its just they dont write about them. And I think its weird. I think lots of marriages have broken glass on the floor. But people dont write about it. And I think lots of people who give great career advice find themselves totally lost at times.Shes right of curse and her comment made me think, because one of the key pieces of advice I give people when they start using social media is be yourself and be honest. I think that fakery is impossible in our new hyper-connected world, and that ultimately lying or pretending will hurt you and your career. Recruiters do read what you say online now, and theyll only do it more and more in the future.But when I say be honest I dont really mean it do I? Because for most people, total honesty would be an utter disaster. Its not a disaster for Penelope for one reason she is such a good writer that she has been able to build a career around her totally honest blog persona. What she writes wont hurt her career because what she writes is her career. Chances are that you wont be able to do that. I know I cant. If I filled my blog with my personal problems, youd all leave soon enough. For one thing theyre not as interesting as Penelopes and for an other, I couldnt possibly describe them the way she does. And besides, thats not why youre reading my blog youre reading here for career advice, not to learn about my life and thats the difference between Penelope and the rest of us careers experts.So what do I mean when I say you should be honest online if Im also saying you shouldnt share your innermost thoughts with everyone (unless youre Penelope)?I guess I mean that you should be authentically the best, most competent, most engaging version of your professional self online. In the same way that if you attended a breakfast networking meeting you would wear a nice suit and be polite to everyone you met. Were all feeling our way in this new world where so much of what we say is available for others to read and discuss and form opinions on. I used to think I believed in honesty online but now I realize that what I really believe in is edited honesty unless your name is Penelope Trunk.