The LinkedIn OpenToWork Badge
Last November I ended an assignment without having a new one. I decided to set the LinkedIn OpenToWork flag on my profile publicly to see if it would help me find a new assignment.
Here’s my takeaway. Please keep in mind that I am a freelancer, so my experience might be different from someone looking for a permanent position.
A December between assignments
As a freelancer, having time between assignments is nothing special. With your own company, you have to plan for it. You want to continue paying yourself some salary. If you do so and have the chance to build up some buffer, a time between assignments can be pretty nice.
This was the first time I had December off, and it was great! I never enjoyed pre-Christmas time as much as I did this time.
But I was also super productive. I made progress on many ongoing side projects and enjoyed learning new things. Additionally, I spent much time outdoors during the few daylight hours. That makes a huge difference in a dark country like Sweden!
Not being in the office constantly but distributing the production hours over the day significantly increased my productivity. And the overall feeling improved so much. A key takeaway! I probably should dedicate an extra post on this topic.
Using the LinkedIn OpenToWork Badge
The LinkedIn advertising for this feature is:
You can let recruiters and your network on LinkedIn know you’re open to new job opportunities with the #OpenToWork feature.
The keywords are: recruiters and network.
Recruiters
Don’t count on them. If there are a lot of job opportunities, they will contact you, no matter if you have the flag set or not. And if there are not many opportunities, they will not contact you.
Additionally, you will be contacted by bots and fake accounts (data collectors). If you set the flag and get new connection requests, check the profile first. Does the profile exist for a while? Does it look real? Have there been posts and activities? Do you have mutual connections? If not, don’t react.
The only recruiters I had useful contact with were recruiters I already knew.
Network
Network is the important part. You let all people in your network know that you are open to new job opportunities. And this can have an impact.
The question is, do you need the profile badge for that? Probably not. You can also write a post about it and ask your network to share. On the other hand, the badge might work as a reminder for people in your network. So probably yes.
Summary
There are, of course, different kinds of people. Some need a job. If they don’t have one, they don’t know what to do. But others always have work. I, for example, do open-source work, create new experimental projects, learn new technologies, write blog posts, etc. So probably 'open to income' would be the more accurate wording, but it is as it is.
I also noticed: Some people who are not happy at their job became even more unhappy seeing how many people have the flag set. But anyhow.
Did it help?
In my case, not directly. I found a new assignment via my network outside of LinkedIn. But don’t forget, I am a freelancer; I have a network of consultant brokers and other contacts. For people who are searching for employment, it might be different.
Do it again?
The network effect can be helpful. If people know you are open to a new job, they might think of you. And when they see the badge they might remember you better when they hear about a new opportunity. So probably, I will.