As a big sister in STEM, I’d recommend you to limit your use of LinkedIn.
Now that internship season is just around the corner, the immense flow of misinformation
and unnecessary stress you’re going to receive from social media will hit you like a train.
If your feed is anything like mine when I was doing my Bachelor’s, you’re probably being
bombarded with STEM influencers with perfect lives, perfect grades, jobs in high-end tech
companies, who seem to have everything under control. Even when they get real and say:
oh, don’t sweat it, I also had a ton of internship rejections!, one can’t help but ask: how am I
meant to not sweat it when literally the rest of my life may depend on getting an internship?
How am I meant to be chill about the fact that, if I fail to get hired now, I will never get hired
in the future?
(Or at least that’s how my mind sounded when I was going through that stage).
The truth is, you are much more than your academic and professional self – and if you let
yourself consume you by this polished, business-casual, clean girl self that you’re presenting
to the world for job interviews and networking, you will lose sight of who you’re really meant
to be. If you define your value based on how many interviews you get, how many job offers,
or how many Fortune 500 companies you have in your CV, you’re setting yourself up for a
lifetime of disappointment and unachievable expectations. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to fall
into that trap when every single piece of content you consume is about these topics, which is
why I would say: limit your use of LinkedIn!
Not only LinkedIn, but if you’re going to use your free time to scroll on Reels or TikTok, try to
turn your algorithm into something you find joy in seeing, instead of something that
stresses you out. I assure you, you don’t need to hear a thousand times from different
sources how to secure an internship in a FAANG. You don’t need 10 different apps that
mimic Notion. Most importantly, you don’t need all the extra pressure you’re putting on
yourself by scrolling on the profiles of other successful girls in STEM who achieved their
dreams at 20 or whatever – comparison is the thief of joy, as Theodore Roosevelt once said.
How are you going to enjoy your own STEM journey, if you keep comparing it to the journey
of others, who have lived through completely different circumstances than your own?
So, now that I’ve given my big sister speech, here are some tips on how to distance your
actual self from your corporate self and not feel guilty about it.
- Set a time and place for checking your email inbox
If you’re in the application stage, you know the feeling of needing to constantly refresh your
inbox, hoping that at any minute you will receive news from any of the positions you’ve
applied to. However, think of it this way: HR most likely work from 9 to 4 pm. Outside of
these hours, it’s pointless to check your email – so why stress yourself over it?
Set a time within normal working hours, maybe once in the morning and once in the
afternoon, to check your email (even the spam folder!) and respond to anything you may
have. Other than that, don’t let nerves eat you up by refreshing.
Another tip I can give you is to make a separate email account for professional purposes,
and only have it open in your PC, so that you don’t fall into temptation of opening it in your
phone at any given time :) - Only use LinkedIn for what it’s for – no doomscrolling there!
The purpose of this infamous app is to network, look for jobs, and serve as a sort of CV for
yourself – nothing else. It was not intended to be an app you constantly open as if it was
social media, and it is not worth your time to scroll there. If you ask me, the app where
people are the most fake is LinkedIn, and so-called LinkedIn influencers are, most of the
times, straight up liars. Don’t trust everything you see there, don’t engage with questionable
recruiters or CEOs of companies that don’t exist, and don’t feel bad if your profile doesn’t
have the ‘+500 connections’ title. In real life, none of these things matter. The most
successful people I know don’t even have a profile picture in LinkedIn. - Don’t micromanage yourself
Of course it’s important to be organized, but sometimes I wonder if all the time people spend
setting up their Notion thing, writing down every single micro-task they have to complete for
the day, could maybe used in something else instead?
If it’s your thing, that’s cool, but if not, don’t let people online tell you how you should be
organizing your to-do list, your list of jobs to apply to, or anything else. You’re already getting
enough stress over your degree, there’s no need to also stress yourself about waking up
exactly at 5 am and going to the gym at exactly 5:30 am! Give yourself time and rest, not
tasks and micromanagement. - ‘Detox’ your Instagram feed if needed
This one has been covered, but I repeat: if you need to hit the unfollow button, so be it. If you
need to silence words for the sake of your mental wellness (‘STEM’, ‘corporate girlie’,
‘internship’, ‘job applications’), it’s okay to do so! No amount of reels will make your
corporate journey easier or smoother. - Don’t burn yourself out before you need to
When you get interviews (because you will, I promise!~), it’s important to be well prepared
and informed about what the company does, what the position consists on, among other
things. But what is more important is: an all-nighter to study for a job interview will most likely
be counterproductive. Occasionally, it can be helpful to stay up a bit later to prepare for
interviews, but turning it into a habit will quickly burn you out – I mean, the human brain can
only hold up a certain amount of Mission and Vision statements. Don’t put yourself loads of
work before you even begin working, and remember that job interviews are intended for the
recruiters to get to know you and understand what you know. It is unrealistic to try to become
someone else over one (or many) nights! - No crying over rejections
Harsh, but true. If you’re taking this seriously, you’ll probably apply to many different
positions: expect to be rejected from some. It is natural, it is normal, and it will happen,
sometimes due to factors that have nothing to do with you. So, whenever you get a rejection,
just breathe and get ready to do it again :) even if you get a rejection from a specific
company, most of the times you can reapply for a different position. Just be persistent ✨
Good luck on your applications! <3