Here’s a situation for you, one that perhaps you or someone you know might be in. You’re looking for a job – you don’t necessarily want your boss to know but you would like to make recruiters aware via LinkedIn that you … just might … be available and interested.
There have always been some very obvious methods open to us – adding “currently looking” in your professional headline or prominently in the main body of your profile would be one such way. That’s a little bit in your face though and certainly something that could be seen by your current employer.
Now, however, we have another – one that is only visible to users of the full Recruiter package on LinkedIn it’s true, but one that I’d recommend adding in any case to any active job seeker on LinkedIn.
So what does it do?
Essentially it allows us to add and share certain pieces of specific information and makes them available via one of the advanced search filters in the LinkedIn Recruiter package.
To tap into this, you’ll need to head over to the Jobs section of the site and you’ll see a horizontal menu which has ‘Discover’, ‘My jobs’ and then ‘Preferences’ – this is really your dashboard into the world of jobs on LinkedIn and the part that is holding my attention currently is the “Preferences” option (also accessible via https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/home/preferences).
The main information that you can share with recruiters – over and above what they already have access to via your profile – will be:
- The ability to flag that you are open to hearing about new opportunities
- Show what job titles or types of roles you’re interested in
- Whether you are open to full-time or contract opportunities
- The date you flagged yourself as open to new opportunities
As you can see from the type of information that is being asked for, this will particularly valuable for contract and interim professionals who are able to give very salient pieces of information relevant to finding their next opportunity.
How does it work?
LinkedIn has put a bit of a failsafe in place as they will stop sharing the information you have provided with recruiters after 90 days. If you want them to continue then you can opt in for a further 90 days or just restart the process which will have the same effect. You can of course also turn it off ahead of time if you wish.
Now – I hear you ask – that’s all well and good for people I want to see this information, but what about my current employer? Will they also be informed about my intentions to look for pastures new? Well, the theory is no, they won’t. So long as your profile is correctly connected to your employer’s Company Page then LinkedIn will ensure that even those with Recruiter accounts in that and associated companies will not have access to that particular piece of information. And of course it won’t appear openly on your profile at all.
So, all in all a nice addition to the job seeker’s bag of tools and one that is well worth activating if you are erring towards the active rather than the passive side of the job seeking spectrum.
