[amy_petrik]

Well it's a couple things - Expectation to be "successful" i.e. social media presents extreme conceptions of success, similar to a supermodel body expectation vs. real life. To say, "I'm looking for work" is to publicly admit failure against such a standard. The fear is that for every potential employer, 10 people you know will see the post and say, "tut tut, what a failure" and then call their 10 friends to share the news of your failure - some people think advertising for work is sleazy (as others mention) - annoying people only to be told no, a sense that you're being annoying

It parallels something like the idea of being say 45, never married, and looking to marry, or being recently divorced at the same age. There is a sense of having failed, or being judged by people as having failed. For men, the sense of being a pickup artist or overly aggressive.

That's why some people struggle with it. And it ought not be shameful, in either case. But it's probably more wise to point out those feelings and work through them, process them, than it is to just say "I do not recognize any valid shame here, does not compute"

[aaronbaugher]

Right. All my family and friends see me as some kind of genius wizard because of my school grades and because I do stuff with computers that they don't understand. And they hear about all the fancy new stuff happening in the industry all the time, not the negatives. So the idea that I would have to look for a job just doesn't compute for them. They expect me to be headhunted, not sharpening up my LinkedIn page.

Of course, I shouldn't let their misconceptions bother me, but there it is.