Maximize LinkedIn’s Open to Work Feature for Job Success

In this blog, we'll take a deep dive into how to get Open to Work to do more work for you on LinkedIn.

You’ve decided. You’re looking for a new job.

So you update your resume.

And you know the next place you need to update is LinkedIn.

You pop over to LinkedIn and you update your experience.

Maybe even a new photo.

Your friend told you about the “Open to work” feature.

So you click “Open to – Finding a new job”.

And it's asking for multiple job titles, locations, employment types and the dreaded visibility!

How are you supposed to answer all of these?

Today, you’ll get all the steps to get the most out of “Open to work”

Step 1. Fill out all 5 of the job title options

• Include all the different iterations of your target job title and be specific
• This will help you show up for more of the jobs that you want
• Avoid just putting up “Analyst”
• If you’re applying to “Financial Analyst”, make sure to include “Finance Analyst”, “Corporate Finance Analyst”, “Financial Planning Analyst”, and “Associate Financial Analyst”

Step 2. Select the broadest area for locations that you’re open to working

• Instead of selecting the suburb you currently live in, select the largest metropolitan area
• For remote locations, if you’re open to working other time zones, you can select United State

Step 3. If you’re looking for a role ASAP, hit “Immediately, I am actively applying”

• You’ll end up in the “More likely to respond” filter

Step 4. Click all the employment types you’re open to

• This selection will determine the types of roles you’ll show up for on LinkedIn Recruiter

Step 5. Be visible to “All LinkedIn members” if you are actively looking

• The exception is if you’re currently employed and your company isn’t aware of your search
• You don’t want to have any uncomfy conversations with your manager
• Otherwise, the more people who know you are looking the better
• Especially for smaller sized companies who can't afford the $10k+ annual subscription for LinkedIn recruiter
• The other consideration to take note of is that you may notice some more spam LinkedIn DMs or people reaching out to sell you things
• This is because more people know you're looking for work

And of course, the "does the green banner look desperate?" debate

• No, it doesn't
• It brings awareness to the fact that you are well open to work
• At the end of the day, humans are recruiting and finding candidates
• So could someone have this bias? Yeah its possible
• But what that indicates to me is that it's probably not a culture you want to work for anyways
• Here are 1, 2, 3 resources from recruiters on why its helpful

Bonus tip: Turn your Open to Work on/off every week.

• Folks who newly turned on their Open to Work are ranked higher in recruiter searches.
  

Final Thoughts:

The whole idea of Open to Work is to get more eyes on your profile and more outreach from Recruiters. So make sure that your LinkedIn profile is optimized for the role that you want next, not the job you currently have.

 
Before I became a career coach, I was a business analyst at Lyft.

My "dream job".

And leaving said "dream job" was one of the MOST difficult decisions.

Many of you know I no longer believe in dream jobs.

But in 2019 I definitely did.

So when it didn't live up to my expectations, I was so confused.

And I remember the story I told myself was that I had set fire to my whole life.

This would put me back at square one.

That I had nothing.

Now that its been 3+ years since I left, I have the benefit of hindsight 20/20.

I can clearly see now that just because you're starting over, doesn't mean you're starting from scratch.

There is so much value in life experience and applying what you've learned.

To me I can see so clearly why I had to go on my path and then change paths.

So much of what I do now as a career coach, I learned from my analytics career.

All that to say, don't write off your experiences.

Instead, look and see what invisible string ties it all together.

You finished an interview on Tuesday and followed up right away.

Its Thursday and still no response.

Is it desperate to send a follow up email?

Or will that help your candidacy?

What if you knew if and when your email was opened?

Then you could better strategize what to say. And when to send another email.

That’s where Streak comes in handy. Note: This is a referral link.

It's a chrome extension that allows you to see when your email was opened.

Make sure to have it downloaded before you send an email & you'll be able to track its status.

The more data you have, you can better decide whether to send that follow up email or not.

Try it out and let me know what you think!