People occasionally ask me why in the world would I include dates on my education in my LinkedIn profile. Or why I’m so public about my brain injury experience.
“Aren’t you worried about age discrimination?”
“Aren’t you worried about invisible disability discrimination?”
Answer to both: NO.
I’m proud of the experiences and opportunities I’ve had. And let’s face it - anyone who reads/listens to my content and depth of experience can figure out exactly how old I am and what struggles I’ve had, even if no dates were attached. As a creative nonfiction writer, that’s all part of the territory.
And yes, I have experienced discrimination on both counts. That discrimination only serves to highlight who I DON’T want to work with and reaffirms who my perfect companies, colleagues, and clients are. I’m grateful for it helping me to clarify my professional dreams and goals.
It’s always a balancing act…figuring out what’s appropriate to share in a professional setting, but I’m pretty confident I know what I’m doing because I’ve been doing it successfully and getting paid for it for many decades.
At the beginning of this post is the 2022 anthology my creative nonfiction was published in. I’d have never done this or my 2 TEDx talks or any of my keynotes if I was worried, as some have suggested I “should” be.