Rants

This week I saw a post from a "recruiter" who bluntly stated that using the green "Open to Work" banner on your LinkedIn profile was a no-go. She claimed the banner makes job seekers appear desperate, and that hiring managers will not consider someone with that banner on their profile. She's an idiot. I would share that post here, but she has already deleted it because the trusty army of good recruiters set the record straight on what she was claiming. She modified her post, then turned off commenting so nobody could provide their feedback.

After looking into her profile, she stated she's been a recruiter for 20 years. Peeling back the layers and looking at the companies she's worked at, it turns out she's only worked for herself. That's a big red flag, and you should always do your research on the people who are providing content to verify it is relevant.

Back to the issue at hand, the "Open to Work" banner.

• Bias exists. There may be some folks out there that are turned off when they see that banner, and they won't contact you or consider you for positions. If they don't want to consider you because you are publicly stating you are looking for work, do you really want to work for them? I wouldn't.

• When you turn that banner on, everyone who views your profile can see you are open to work, and people like me will see it. I see it when I am looking for a specific profile, I see it in comments on topics I am reading about, and I see it in the groups I contribute to. Every single time I see that little green banner, I view the profile to see if I might have an opportunity to help, or if someone in my network might. LinkedIn is a networking site after all.

• A lot of recruiters don't have the full-blown LinkedIn premium account that allows us to filter by the private "open to opportunities" tag. This subscription is insanely expensive and some of us, or our companies just can't afford it. What we do have though, is the lesser version that allows us to perform searches and find and view up to 3rd degree connections. When we find those candidates, we have the opportunity to view your public profile, where that green banner shows up. It puts a smile on our face every time because we know that we will get a response when we send you a message.

Use the damn banner. It will help you in the long run. Some recruiters may be turned off by it, but that's OK, there are plenty of us who want to see it, and I would argue we are the ones that are going to go to bat for you.