Monday, January 31, 2011

“Marry an American”. Is this serious career advice?

A LinkedIn group of which I was a member (until today), had a discussion post from a young man in Europe: a serious inquiry. What advice did other group members have for the pursuit of a career in the United States.

The first response came from someone who advised him to “marry an American”. I responded to this by writing “Tacky, tacky, tacky” and then went on to give the inquirer a serious answer.

The group’s moderator just came back to me with:

I was just looking over our Linked In group page to see how it was going, and I noticed a comment you had written on Mr. XYZ’s post. Thank you for giving lending him your advice, but I am worried about the comment you then directed toward Mr. “first commenter”. I’m sure you meant the “Tacky, tacky, tacky” in a playful manner, but that is not how it comes off and I must ask you to refrain from such type of comments. From the outside looking in, it would look as though we allow our group members to treat each other with disrespect and I cannot tolerate that. Please be mindful of how your messages can be interpreted moving forward. Thank you for all of your positive engagement otherwise in the group. We appreciate your input.

Yikes!

Goodbye, group!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Dear Atlanta Biz Woman,
I saw the thread in the group you mention and unless the first commenter didn't change his comment after your blog post, you might have misunderstood what he meant. He writes "nothing better then to fall in love with an American lady!" and replies with that to the original statement of the job seeker who wants to live and work in the U.S., just because he fell in love. It might not be a great career advice, but I don't find it tacky when people share their personal love stories.
Respectfully,
Andi