Self-presentation in professional networks: More than just window dressing

Online professional networks become more and more important for professional self-presentation, for recruitment processes, and job hunting. While previous studies determine that individuals present themselves authentically on rather privately used social networks, self-presentation on online professional networks is still unexplored. This study examines how validly individuals present themselves on professional networks. It investigates whether an individual's online self-presentation is idealized or rather authentic. 63 owners of a profile on the German professional network XING had to describe themselves twice - first authentically and then idealistically. Both self-descriptions were compared with the ratings of five independent observers who received the participants' XING profiles. Results reveal that observer ratings correlated significantly with some of the profile owners' authentic personality and job-relevant characteristics, but none of them correlated significantly with the idealized self-descriptions of the profile owners. This shows that individuals present themselves rather authentically on XING.