Who hasn’t thought about updating their LinkedIn profile to look for jobs, but hesitated because of connections to the boss and colleagues? Now, you don’t have to be concerned. LinkedIn has removed this worry with the launch of a new feature called Open Candidates. This feature allows you to let recruiters know you are in the job market, while keeping that information private.
What is it?
Released in October 2016, Open Candidates lets you privately convey to recruiters that you are open to information about jobs. Using Open Candidates, you can decide which companies, which industries, and which specific types of positions you are interested in without letting all your contacts know you are in job search mode.
With this feature, the thousands of recruiters using LinkedIn will find you among all the other job seekers on LinkedIn.
- From the Preferences tab on the LinkedIn home page, turn on sharing.
- Fill in the information required about type of jobs and companies.
- Indicate with which companies this information is NOT to be shared.
- Search through more than 6M jobs on LinkedIn.
- Explore company culture and learn about prospective colleagues through the LinkedIn CareerPages and the Meet the Team tools.
As of October 2016, LinkedIn’s Open Candidates tool is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. This feature can be turned on as you search for jobs and seek input from recruiters. It can be turned off once you are no longer actively seeking recruiter contact. Global access should be available in 2017.