LinkedIn Open to Work

If you are Open to Work, do you truly want to advertise that? Just a thought. Everyone has their own opinion about this. Mine is that it is better to share that type of information in a more private type of message or a post rather than have a “photo frame” on your profile image. I still feel there is a bias against interviewing or hiring someone who is not currently employed. If you are open to work and employed, with that photo frame, do you feel 100% secure that your current employer is not going to find out (unless you are part of an approved layoff). Unfortunately, I feel that recruiters look at having a current work history shows as making you more stable.

The settings in LinkedIn for the job preferences allow you to enter five job titles, pick multiple job locations, start dates, a variety of job types, and last but not least add a photo frame on your profile image of #Opentowork to share with anyone on LinkedIn including your current employer if you have one.

To me, the more subtle way of approaching this is by selecting the Recruiters only option.

Additionally, I recommend that you never use the words Looking for (insert word related to jobs or work), Open to New Opportunities, or Currently seeking at all in your headline or summary. If you are working at a part-time or fill-in job, you can use the phrase “While waiting for an opening in my career field” I am doing X, Y, or Z. But make someone search for it.