The Open-To-Work green ring can help recruiters find you. LInkedIn said.

It can also affect the offer you receive.

Apparently, switching it on can roughly double recuiter messages.

And personally, I understand why someone would use it to signal availability.
​
But...

The shortlist Meeting

I have seen what happens when that profile comes up in a shortlist meeting.

And before you get upset, no one was told to judge the ring, and no one said they were doing it.

Someone would see it around the photograph and say a version of: “Still on the market, then.”

What nobody said out loud was just as important.

How long has this person been looking?

Why hasn’t someone already called them?

Where is the network their years of experience should have built?

The candidate heard none of it.

They had no chance to explain how long they had been looking, who they had spoken to, or what they wanted from their next role.

The ring had already given people something to interpret.

Why does it matter at senior level?

Someone can have twenty years of experience and a strong record.

Yet a visible sign of availability can lead a hiring manager to assume they have been looking for a while.

Their experience stays the same.

The impression of how much choice they have might change, and that can find its way into a negotiation:

• An offer at the bottom of the band.
• No sign-on bonus.
• Slower decisions because there is no urgency.

No one has to legally explain those decisions as a response to the banner.

That makes the bias hard for a candidate to recognise, let alone challenge.

And age can affect the reading.

A 28 year-old with a green banner may be seen as eager.

A 52 year-old with the same banner may be seen as struggling.

The same setting can prompt a very different assumption.

My 2 cents

If you have the banner up, I don’t think you have done anything wrong.

You simply used a public feature designed to tell the market you are open to work.

The problem is what other people may decide that signal means.

You can change the Open to Work setting from everyone to recruiters only.

The green ring disappears from your photograph, while you remain flagged inside LinkedIn Recruiter.

Then put effort into the conversations that often matter for senior roles:

• A call.
• A mention.
• Someone passing your name on before a role is posted.

If you are making hiring Decisions​
​
A person can have a long career and still need to tell the market they are looking.

The green ring tells you they are available.

Their worth is a separate question.

Pay attention when the banner comes up on your screen and thoughts start flooding in.

I have heard the remark that follows it.

Someone may treat visible availability as evidence that a candidate is less wanted.

When you make the shortlist, ask what anyone actually knows about the candidate’s search.

If the answer is nothing, don’t let a guess stand in for evidence.

• Assess their record against the role.
• Ask the same questions of every candidate.
• Set the offer from the role and evidence.

And if someone says, “Still on the market, then,” ask what they mean.

Say so before that assumption becomes part of the decision.

Anca