I’ve been writing about and working in the HR and recruiting industry since 2008. That’s the year I was hired at Monster.com to be their first social media manager. This was the tail end of the golden years at the job board where they were still doing Super Bowl campaigns and dominating the industry for job search traffic. My job was to create content and engage with job seekers. 

I spent most days writing tweets and contacting career coaches to find some new advice. I was laid off for the first time before I took that job. I knew what it felt like to open those job listings every day and to end your day with a pile of disappointment. Looking back on the content I created - both on my own blog and for the company - each of these posts was genuine and earnest despite having very little experience job hunting then.

Writing wasn’t at the center of my job again until I became a Managing Editor of a recruiting blog. Funny enough, I got that job because of someone I worked with at Monster. He was well known for his writing, but not because it was heartfelt and helpful. He got clicks, at least in part, because he wrote the kind of headlines that made people wonder who would dare say that out loud. 

In pursuit of my own success, I followed in his footsteps and tried to learn which rage bait topics and one-liners would drive the most clicks. It was an early version of the algorithm social media uses to provide just enough dopamine before it turns to things that make you really mad. That’s all the sponsors cared about at the end of the day: how many views they got on their logo at the end of the post. Poke the bear just enough and, win or lose, you’ll get some views. 

It took me too many years to realize how bad that strategy is. How bad it was for me. How bad constant negativity is for all of us. 

Every day I see another post trying to piss people off enough to respond and it is exhausting. You want a bunch of views? Go for it. Post half thought out, half-baked, rage bait. Get a million views. Congratulations. But what do you get for all those views besides a little dopamine from your notifications for a few days? There’s no reward for making people mad or getting the wrong kind of attention. It doesn’t make the right people like you or want to buy from you. 

As headlines get more negative every day, I’m thankful that many years ago I leaned all the way into being me and sharing what I actually think. Not for clicks, views, or to piss anyone off. Just because it might help someone and that was kind of the point all along. Someone told me once that vulnerability is kind of my “thing” and I’m ok with that. The perspectives I share simply because I want to help have given me a gift: a village of people in my life that deeply care about me. People that cheer me on no matter what I do. People who I cheer on, too. That includes you if you read this far. 

That? That’s worth way more than a million views.