Lifting the Lid on LinkedIn Recruiter: Open to Work - How, What, Why?

It's a tough time in the creative industries with layoffs, strikes and downsizing impacting many.

Now, more than ever, it's important to leverage the tools available, to increase the chances of finding your next opportunity.

To help recruiters identify candidates, LinkedIn supports your job search with the 'Open to Work' feature.

I will show you how to activate this status, what recruiters see in the back end when you make this change and why it will greatly increase your chances of finding work.

Why should I use the Open to Work feature?

When recruiters search for profiles in Linkedin Recruiter, Open to Work profiles are front and centre.

Searching for HR Managers in San Diego, nearly 1,000 candidates show up in the results.

LinkedIn actively encourages me to filter those 989 down to 205 Open to Work profiles.

Interestingly, recruiters are also able to filter even further, to 93 candidates that have been recently active on LinkedIn.

This is a reminder to get posting and commenting, it impacts how easily a recruiter will find your profile!

LinkedIn does the work for you!

In the background of LinkedIn Recruiter, ‘projects’ are compiled by recruiters. These are lists of profiles, with key skills/experience for current or future vacancies. 

If a recruiter has your profile in their project, when you activate your Open to Work status, the recruiter will receive an email with your profile in it!

A recruiter will also receive notifications of who is newly Open to Work, every time they log into LinkedIn Recruiter. LinkedIn really is quite keen to show us who we can hire!

The key takeaway, is that it's important to have a robust LinkedIn profile, even when not actively looking for work.

This will put you on a recruiters radar (and into their project!) so that they will be notified when you start considering new employment.

This is a much more effective approach than completing your profile when you are already looking for work.

How do I make my profile Open to Work?

Below your profile picture is the ‘Open to’ button.

Selecting 'Finding a new job' will bring up the Open to Work form where you can select your preferences.

The available preferences are:

• Job Titles
• Location Types
• Locations (on-site)
• Locations (remote)
• Start Date
• Employment Types
• Visibility

Let's go through each of these options, and I will show you how this affects recruiter searches in LinkedIn Recruiter, and what we see on your profile.

Job Titles

You can select one or multiple job titles from a predetermined list.

LinkedIn is not super familiar with the creative industry, so this may not align perfectly with your skillset.

There are common titles Animator, Compositor, Lighting Artist etc. However, for something a bit more specific such as Crowd TD, Assets Supervisor or C++ Houdini Developer you may need to hunt around for something that feels close enough.

While the job titles you select here are searchable in LinkedIn Recruiter, recruiters are aware of the limitations of this function, and will mostly search using your past and current job titles. (Disclaimer: This may not be the case for recruiters in other industries with more consistent job titles).

Therefore, you don’t need to worry too much about this section. It will be clear from your profile what your specialisation is.

This is how the information is displayed on your profile in LinkedIn Recruiter.

Location

In the example above, the artist is open to relocating to multiple cities. This is very useful information to recruiters and this profile will show up in many searches across the globe.

For more information on how to use your profile location to your advantage, please refer to my earlier post "Location, Location, Location".

Location types

You can select on-site, hybrid, remote or all above the above!

Recruiters are able to filter profiles by this criteria

Locations (on site)

This is where you are currently located, or anywhere that you would be open to relocate.

Here is an example of how a profile located in France will show up in my search for Rigging TDs in Montreal.

You can also see the recruiter's preview of your Open to Work status details.

Locations (remote)

You can select locations where you would accept remote work from.

Bear in mind time zones, and whether it’s realistic to work with a studio that comes online just as you are heading to bed.

Please note, recruiters cannot filter candidates based on this field, it's only for reference, so don't worry too much about it.

The most important thing when looking for remote work is to select YES to remote work in the Location Types section. That's all we need to know.

Start Date

This is not a filter recruiters can use, and is just for reference.

However, it may help recruiters know that you are available for ASAP vacancies or if you are able to consider opportunities that are a few months away.

Employment Types

You can select one or multiple employment types that you are open to.

Recruiters can filter profiles with this information.

This is especially helpful if you are looking for an internship or part time work, as recruiters will be able to isolate your profile from the larger group of full time profiles.

Visibility

This is the most important section to pay attention to.

Recruiters only

By selecting this option, nothing on your main LinkedIn profile will change, allowing you to discreetly look for work.

Only recruiters with access to LinkedIn recruiter will see your Open to Work status.

Recruiters may also see this blue banner on your profile, which will help them discover your profile in more passive day to day LinkedIn scrolling.

LinkedIn will endeavour to avoid showing your profile to any of your colleagues, however this is not 100% foolproof.

You can read more on this by clicking “learn more about your privacy” on the Open to Work form.

All LinkedIn Members

If you are openly looking for a new opportunity, this is the best option to select. Your profile picture will have a green Open to Work banner that anyone on LinkedIn will see.

The greatest value in this banner, is that the more people who know you are open to work, the more likely an opportunity will be presented to you. A connection in your network may have a friend who is hiring, or their colleague may have just resigned. Get yourself out there!

It’s also worth noting that not all recruiters have LinkedIn Recruiter. This is a paid tool, and therefore not universal. Using the green banner ensures that you are visible to anyone that could have a job opportunity for you.

When you activate the Open to Work status, LinkedIn encourages you to make a post to share this with your network, which I also recommend.

In Summary - Open to Work

• LinkedIn actively pushes Open to Work profiles to recruiters, encouraging filters to prioritise those candidates
• An Open to Work profile will appear higher on search results
• Having an active LinkedIn presence increases recruiters visibility of your profile
• You can select the parameters of your job search, allowing you to show up in specific searches with filters non-Open to Work people do not have access to
• Control who sees your Open to Work status with discreet and public settings
• Having a robust LinkedIn profile will make it more likely for recruiters to be notified when you change your status to Open to Work.

My next post will be all about Headlines and how a succinct but effective Headline can have a great impact.