How Does Verification Work on The League?

You verify on The League by proving your education and your work. It prefers LinkedIn, and if you would rather not use that, you can verify with an edu email, a work email or Doximity if you are a medical professional. The League says verified applicants are more likely to be drafted from the waitlist, so verifying is not a formality.

The League calls LinkedIn its preferred method, and says it is the fastest. LinkedIn authenticates your education and profession in one step.

The League says it never sees your LinkedIn username or password, and that it does not contact your LinkedIn connections. If those were your worries, they are answered in the company's own words, and you can hold it to them.

There are three. An edu email proves you studied somewhere. A work email proves you work somewhere. Doximity is for medical professionals.

Email verification sends a one-time code to that address, and you enter the code to finish. You can also use more than one method. If your LinkedIn is thin and your work email is strong, use both, because each one adds evidence.

Verification does not mean publishing your whole career. With LinkedIn verification, you can hide past jobs. You can hide all but one education entry. You can hide your current workplace.

Two things must stay visible: your current job title and your most recent school. That is the line The League draws. A man who wants privacy about where he works can still have a real, verified page, as long as he is fine with the title and the school showing.

The League's application guide tells you to verify your account when you apply. Submitting places you on the waitlist for review, and verified applicants have a higher likelihood of being drafted.

So verifying is the one lever you control. You cannot speed up a human review. You can make sure your application arrives with proof attached, instead of a promise.

• Verifying late. Applying first and verifying later means your application sits unproven. Do it in one sitting.
• Using a stale LinkedIn. If your page lists a job you left two years ago, the check proves something that is no longer true. Update it first.
• Hiding too much. The hide controls are useful, but a page with almost nothing visible gives a woman little to go on. Hide what you need to, and leave what helps her picture your life.
• Treating the badge as the pitch. Verification gets you a place in the room. It does not give you anything to say once you are in it.

Verification ties your account to a real work or school record, and that is what lets the app say it is built around real people. Your job title and school stay visible, so a woman reading your page can see the same facts the app checked.

It still leaves everything else to you. The message you send, the plan you suggest and the way you ask her out all do the actual work. A verified man with a dull opener loses to a verified man with a good one.

If none of the methods fit you, for example because you are self-employed with no work email, ask yourself which one comes closest. A self-employed man can still have a LinkedIn page that names the business. If nothing fits, start with the one that gets you closest and see what the app tells you when you try.

Verify with LinkedIn if you can, use an edu email, a work email or Doximity if you cannot, and combine methods when one is thin. Keep your current job title and most recent school honest, hide what you must, and verify when you apply, not after.