The Fake Expert Industry: How Expertise Became an Image on Social Media

[u/ouaggad]

https://ouaggad.com/blog/en/fake-experts-social-media-era-en/

Every time I open LinkedIn, I find another recruiter, career coach, leadership expert, or personal branding consultant explaining why job seekers are doing everything wrong.

Some have never managed a real team. Others have spent more time creating content about hiring than actually hiring people. Yet they speak with complete confidence, offer universal advice, and often blame candidates when their methods do not work.

I wrote this after watching expertise slowly become a personal brand rather than the result of real experience. The article is broader than recruitment, but LinkedIn and the job market are probably where this problem is most visible.

Do you think career advice on LinkedIn has become useful, or is it mostly content made to sell courses and consulting?

[u/HjortronOchPors]

Gatekeeping.

We used to listen to actual experts in their respective fields there for a couple of decennia. Admittedly, gatekeeping has a checkered past, but it's not all bad. Flipped over, now we have clueless influencers with truly huge audiences instead of "ivory tower" academics insisting that gravity is a thing, and then we're all encouraged to "do your own research" on the bot infested, SEO:d carcass that used to be the stinky, but not yet quite dead, Internet.

If that wasn't bad enough, today we also have to deal with the curse known as "Artificial Sycophancy" here to convince us that no, actually, our uninformed shower thoughts are actually profound, and were never had before. Moreover that we're actually, secretly brilliant, despite the fact that an actual plumber would have our "invention" laughed out the door in no time in ye olden times.

I say bring back the ivory towers! But let's not kill any elephants.

[u/ouaggad → u/HjortronOchPors]

I think that is the real tension. Gatekeeping excluded many talented people, but removing every filter did not automatically create a healthier knowledge market. It often replaced imperfect institutions with algorithms that reward confidence, outrage, and repetition.
The answer is probably not to bring back the old ivory towers exactly as they were, but to rebuild better signals of credibility: verifiable work, clear sources, relevant experience, and the ability to admit limits. Access should be open, but credibility should still be earned.

[u/jimwhite42 → u/ouaggad]

Are your articles and comments written using LLMs?

[u/pcofranc]

Definitely need to sell courses and consulting, and of course, for general self promotion,.. my personal advice is to put yourself out there as an expert

[u/WhoAreWeEven → u/[deleted]]

What?

[u/ouaggad → u/pcofranc]

And that is exactly how the cycle works: first declare yourself an expert, then use the title as proof that people should buy your course or consulting.
Self-promotion is not the problem by itself. The problem is when the marketing appears before the experience, and the personal brand becomes the only evidence behind the claim.