How to signal to recruiters that you're open to a new job (without alerting your employer)

LinkedIn's "Open to Work" feature is designed to let recruiters know you're interested in exploring new job opportunities.

Most people think that “Open to Work” means having that notorious green frame on your LinkedIn photo. However this is not true. The green frame is optional, and the feature itself is broader and much more discreet.

Is “Open to Work” actually helpful? 

Yes, recruiters love this feature. 

When they approach candidates on LinkedIn, the response rate is frustratingly low - about 5%. But for people who have the “Open to Work” feature activated, the response rate is 15% - three times higher. 

So recruiters are much more willing to shoot you a message if they see this status on your profile.

But won't my employer be able to see it?

Good question. LinkedIn takes pains to avoid your employer seeing that you are open to opportunities, but you need to set up your privacy correctly.

It’s important to remember that the only people who can see your “Open to Work” status are the people who have a LinkedIn Recruiter License.

I will repeat: 

The only people who can see your “Open to Work” status are the people who have a LinkedIn Recruiter license.

What is a LinkedIn Recruiter license?

It is a premium, separate product for recruiters to help with hiring. General public do not have access to it (unless they pay $4,000 - $5,000 a year for a single Recruiter license). Because of the prohibitive cost, LinkedIn Recruiter is mostly used by recruitment agencies and companies with significant hiring needs.

No one (!) without a LinkedIn Recruiter license can see that someone is “Open to Work”.

The ability to filter by this status is simply not included in any other LinkedIn product.

Two ways to set up “Open to Work”

The “Open to Work” status is designed to be used in two ways: 

- Openly: for example when you are not employed and you’d like all of your network know that you are looking for a new job

- Discreetly: when you are employed, and only want the recruiters to know 

When you activate the "Open to Work" feature, LinkedIn gives you the option to select who can see your job-seeking status. Selecting "recruiters only" is a key step in keeping your search discreet.

LinkedIn specifically aims to hide your "Open to Work" status from recruiters at your current company. This is done by excluding your current company from the list of recruiters who can see your status.

LinkedIn advises that it cannot completely guarantee your current employer won't find out, however the measures it puts in place significantly reduce this risk.

Here is how you can set up your “Open to Work” status discreetly:

If you are currently employed:

Make sure your current position on your profile points to your employer’s LinkedIn Company Page: check that your current role has no finishing date and that your employer’s logo is displayed against your current job. This ‘assigns’ your profile to your employer and excludes recruiters at your company from seeing your “Open to Work” status.

Tell LinkedIn only to display it to users of the LinkedIn Recruiter product.

Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.

Click View profile.

Find and click the Open to button.

Click Finding a new job.

Provide the requested information in the pop-up window that appears. 

You can specify:

• Job titles you’re interested in

• Location types: on-site, hybrid, remote

• Locations for on-site jobs

• Your start date

• Employment type: full-time, part-time, contract, internship, temporary

• Visibility: recruiters only or all LinkedIn members

You can select up to 5 desired job titles, and I believe up to 20 location options. 

If you are open to working abroad, there is a little known trick.

Instead of listing all countries one-by-one, but can simply specify the broader region, for example: Europe, European Union, EMEA, Latin America, APAC, APJ, North America etc.

That way you can ‘catch’ opportunities across several countries and get a feel for where someone with your profile may be in biggest demand.

Select who can view if you are open to work - Recruiters only or All LinkedIn members.

Remember - if you select “all LinkedIn members” for your visibility, your current employer and colleagues will be able to see you’re open to work.

Click Save and Add to profile.

What happens next?

From now on, when recruiters run a search on LinkedIn for someone with your profile, they will see that you are open to work, and will be more encouraged to message you with suitable opportunities knowing that they are 3 times more likely to get a positive response.

Bonus suggestion: check a few times a year that your “Open to Work” status is on. 

If LinkedIn notices that you stop responding to InMails from recruiters, they will try to email you to confirm that you're still open to work.

And if they don't receive confirmation, the “OpenToWork” feature will be removed from your profile until you manually enable it again.

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Thanks for reading and see you next time.