As it could not be otherwise, job searching has also been affected by technological development, and nowadays submitting resumes is not done by going from business to business on the streets, but now job positions are applied for in the vacancies that companies post on dedicated job pages.
Undoubtedly LinkedIn has emerged in recent years as the most popular option, and the number of users has grown enormously, which has led to the creation of a very large community where new job opportunities arise every day.
This app, specifically designed for employment, has numerous functions and features that help companies find workers compatible with their vacancies and vice versa. From its own job board, a section for simple applications, notifications when vacancies are posted, and many more tools.
However, Nolan Church, an expert in recruiting new workers for companies like Google, believes that some of the functions that supposedly help find employment on LinkedIn are more harmful than beneficial when it comes to getting a new job.
In particular, Church points out a trend that has been quite popular on LinkedIn for a few years, which consists of the symbol that many people put on their profile picture that reads ‘Open to Work’ accompanied by a green circle.
This trend became popular during the pandemic, when thousands of people lost their jobs, as this is an indication that you are looking for work, just as companies put the Hiring symbol.
However, for this recruiter, putting ‘Open to Work’ on your profile scares off companies when they are looking for new talent, as they are skeptical because “the best people are not looking for a job,” he says.
Church explains that the hiring process is based on a power dynamic, in which recruiters have to want you, and with this symbol on your profile, it shows companies that they have power over you.
LinkedIn believes the opposite
However, the social network itself has commented in the past on this issue, and while it is true that the company cannot know for certain the effectiveness of this symbol for being hired because it cannot access private conversations between recruiters and candidates, they have seen that people who activate it are twice as likely to receive a message from a recruiter.
At the same time, they claim that this person has a 20% higher chance of receiving a message within the LinkedIn community, where they can find job offers. Currently, there are more than 33 million users on the social network with this symbol activated, and if the app continues to use it, it is because it will work in certain cases.
