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Does using ‘Open to Work’ on LinkedIn make me look desperate?

As you probably know, LinkedIn introduced the ‘Open to Work’ badge earlier in this year of coronavirus and ever since, there’s been heated debate over its merits.

It’s been a long-held view by the recruitment industry that a passive job-seeker is, paradoxically, more attractive than an active job seeker, on the basis that parading your availability to the world, smacks of desperation. Whether the same view can be applicable to the contract market is debatable, as one would think that a contractor being ‘open to work’ is actually a good thing.

As you probably know, LinkedIn introduced the ‘Open to Work’ badge earlier in this year of coronavirus and ever since, there’s been heated debate over its merits.

It’s been a long-held view by the recruitment industry that a passive job-seeker is, paradoxically, more attractive than an active job seeker, on the basis that parading your availability to the world, smacks of desperation. Whether the same view can be applicable to the contract market is debatable, as one would think that a contractor being ‘open to work’ is actually a good thing.

Luckily, there is a way to circumnavigate this issue which renders the debate almost moot. When you explore the Open to Work feature on your LinkedIn profile through the blue ‘Add profile section’ button (go to the Intro section and click ‘Looking for a new job’), it gives you the option to ‘Choose who sees you’re open’. If you choose to ‘Share with recruiters only’ opposed to ‘Share with all LinkedIn members’, it will notify recruiters who are using this filter in their LinkedIn Recruiter searches – but, importantly, it won’t add the green badge to your profile and broadcast your availability to the rest of the world!

This may be a better option for those who want to promote their availability without the stigma of looking desperate for work.

While you are exploring this functionality, you may also notice that LinkedIn gives two options – the afore-mentioned ‘Looking for a new job’ setting, and the ‘Providing services to clients’ setting.

Unfortunately though, this isn’t what recruiters and hiring managers (clients) in the contract market will be filtering, when doing their searches, so this poses a juxtaposition – do you optimise your LinkedIn profile for your channels to market or do you pander to the tax man, doing your utmost to project a ‘true business’ status? Read more via ContractorUK

Pemo Theodore

Pemo Theodore is a Media Publisher and a great people connector. She was Founder Silicon Valley TV which has served the San Francisco Bay Area for 10 years! She has produced Silicon Valley Events for Investors & Startups for 10 years. Pemo loves to video interview venture capitalists & founders to engage the human behind the success stories.. She has been Executive Producer of FinTech Silicon Valley for 6 years, organizing twice monthly FinTech talks & panels in San Francisco & Palo Alto and audio podcasts. She believes in learning through a great discussion with experts in the domains. Pemo has a talent to bring the right people together and is an incredible networker. Pemo's events have been seen as supporting Venture Capitalists & Angels in sourcing great deal flow from startups who attend her events. Many founders have received funding through meeting investors at her events. Her favored medium is audio & visual media and she has built up a great body of work of videos of panels & interviews and podcasts in Silicon Valley startup ecosystem. She has lived & worked in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, London, Northern Ireland & Silicon Valley. Bio https://pemo.one

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