Pemo TheodoreAs 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
