Should you announce you're job hunting on LinkedIn?
Post publicly if you are out of work or your employer already knows you are leaving. A post reaches former coworkers and contacts who may know of a role or can refer you. If you still work somewhere and your manager doesn't know, skip the public post and use quieter options instead.
The reason is privacy. A post set to Anyone is, in LinkedIn's words on post visibility, "visible to anyone on or off LinkedIn," and that includes your coworkers. Even the recruiters only setting for Open to Work comes with a caveat. LinkedIn's Open to Work help page says it tries to hide that setting from Recruiter users at your company, but "we can't guarantee complete privacy."
People in your network are often willing to help. In an October 2020 survey for LinkedIn, run by Censuswide during the pandemic, 84% of respondents said they would help a contact who had lost a job due to COVID-19 find a new role. LinkedIn reported the results in a post on sharing that you're open to work.
What should a job search post include?
A good post says what job you want, where, what you have done, and how people can help. Write it so a reader can forward it to a hiring manager without rewriting anything. Keep it short enough to read on a phone, even though LinkedIn's page on posting updates allows up to 3,000 characters.
Each part has a job to do. The table below breaks the post into pieces, with an example line for each.
| Part of the post | Example line | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| The news, in one line | My role at Fabrikam was cut in last week's layoff. | Readers know why you're posting |
| The job you want | I'm looking for a product marketing manager role. | People can match you to an opening |
| Where and how | Toronto, hybrid or remote within Canada. | Rules out roles that won't fit |
| Proof | I led launch messaging for 6 products in 3 years. | Gives a reason to refer you |
| The ask | If you know a team hiring, I'd be grateful for an intro. | Tells readers what to do |
| Thanks | Thank you to my Fabrikam team. | Ends on good terms |
Leave out anything you wouldn't want an interviewer to read. A hiring manager may look at your post before a call.
What are some example job search posts?
Copy the version closest to your situation and replace every detail with your own. Each example below is a sample written for this page, with made up names and numbers. Read your final post out loud once before you share it, so it sounds like you.
Example after a layoff:
Last Tuesday my role at Fabrikam was eliminated along with 40 others on the platform team. I'm now looking for a senior backend engineer role in Vancouver or remote in Canada. Over five years I built and ran the payments service that handled our checkout traffic, and I mentored three junior engineers. If your team is hiring, or you can introduce me to someone who is, I'd be grateful. Thank you to everyone at Fabrikam for a great five years.
Example for a new graduate:
I graduated from the University of Calgary in May with a BComm in accounting, and I'm looking for a staff accountant role in Calgary starting this fall. During my co-op at Northwind I prepared monthly reconciliations for 12 accounts. If you know of an opening, or someone I should talk to, please let me know. Thanks for reading.
Example for a career change:
After eight years as a high school science teacher in Ohio, I'm moving into instructional design. I've finished a certificate in e-learning design and built two short courses in Articulate Storyline for my district. I'm looking for entry level instructional design roles, remote or in Columbus. If your company builds training, I'd love to hear who to talk to.
Example when your employer already knows you're leaving:
My contract with Contoso ends on June 30, and I'm looking for my next role as a project coordinator in Austin. I've run schedules and budgets for 15 construction projects over four years. If you know a team that needs a coordinator, I'd welcome an introduction.
Who will see your job search post?
You choose the audience before you post. LinkedIn's help page on post visibility lists three options: Anyone, Connections only, and Group. Anyone means visible on or off LinkedIn, and Connections only means visible to your 1st-degree connections. Group means visible only to members of the group where you shared it.
Choose carefully, because LinkedIn says, "You can't change the visibility option after you've shared your post." If you want to change it, you have to delete the post and share a new one. Anyone gives the widest reach, while Connections only keeps the post to people you have already accepted.
You can also control comments. LinkedIn's page on posting says you can let anyone comment, limit comments to connections, or turn them off. Leave comments on for a job search post, since comments give readers an easy place to suggest roles and contacts.
LinkedIn also says it may limit the visibility of posts if it detects excessive post creation, inauthentic activity or automation tools. One clear post works better than a series of near copies.
Should you also turn on Open to Work?
You can do both, and they do different things. A post reaches your network once, in the feed. Open to Work stays on your profile. LinkedIn's help page says choosing All LinkedIn Members "adds the #OpenToWork photo frame," while Recruiters only shows your status to people using LinkedIn Recruiter.
LinkedIn's 2020 post reported that members with a public #OpenToWork frame were 40% more likely to receive InMails from recruiters, and 20% more likely to receive messages from their community. Those are early figures from LinkedIn about its own feature, and they are now several years old. The page on whether to use LinkedIn Open to Work weighs the trade-offs in detail.
Open to Work lets you set job titles, location types, locations, start date and employment types. Match them to what your post says, so a recruiter who sees both gets the same picture.
What should you update before you post?
Fix your profile before you post, because readers will click through to it. Update your headline to the role you want, check that your most recent job has an end date if it ended, and make sure your skills match your target jobs. Do these edits first, then post.
LinkedIn has a setting called Share profile updates with your network. It controls whether your network is notified about job changes, education changes and work anniversaries. LinkedIn notes that anyone who views your profile sees your edits as soon as you save them, even if you have turned notifications off.
The LinkedIn profile optimization checklist covers each section in order. The page of LinkedIn headline examples includes headlines for people between jobs.
What should you do after you post?
Reply to every comment and message within a day or two. Thank people who share the post, and follow up on every introduction with a short note and your resume. A post works best as the start of a list of conversations, and the follow up is where most of the work happens.
Keep a simple list of everyone who offers help, what they offered, and when you followed up. When someone offers an introduction, send them a short blurb they can forward.
Example blurb to forward: Sam Lee is a senior backend engineer who built Fabrikam's payments service over five years. Sam is looking for backend roles in Vancouver or remote in Canada. Resume attached.
If someone at a target company offers to refer you, the guide on how to get a referral covers what to send them. When a contact passes you to a recruiter, the page on how to message a recruiter on LinkedIn has templates for the first note.
What should you avoid in a job search post?
Avoid criticizing your former employer, sharing confidential details about the layoff, and asking strangers for a job in general terms. Each of these can make a reader less willing to pass your name along. Keep the post factual and specific, and keep the tone you would use with a future manager.
- Don't post salary expectations. Leave that for the recruiter screen.
- Don't list ten different job types. Pick one or two.
- Don't post the same text every week. Update it with news, such as a new certificate.
- Don't attach your resume to the post itself if it shows your home address or phone number.
How do you get ready for the calls a post brings in?
Be ready for questions about why you are looking and what you want next. Write a two sentence answer to each before you post. If you were laid off, the page on how to explain a layoff in an interview has wording you can adapt.
Tailor your resume to each role a contact sends you. The free resume optimizer checks each line against the posting. If you want to rehearse, Prept's Mock room lets you answer out loud on a clock and scores each answer out of 10, and it is part of the free plan. For a full plan after a job loss, see the guide to a job search after a layoff.