LinkedIn Open to Work, and who actually sees it
LinkedIn Open to Work is a profile setting that shares what you are looking for. You pick who sees it: all LinkedIn members, which also adds the green photo frame, people using LinkedIn Recruiter only, or nobody. LinkedIn takes steps to keep it from your employer but says it cannot guarantee that.
The 3 visibility settings, and who sees each one
| Setting | Who sees it | Photo frame | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| All LinkedIn Members | Anyone on LinkedIn, which LinkedIn says includes recruiters and people at your current company. | Yes. This is what adds the green #OpenToWork frame. | Your manager, your team and your clients are all LinkedIn members. |
| Recruiters only | People using LinkedIn Recruiter, and only those LinkedIn treats as unaffiliated with your employer. | No frame. Nothing changes on your public profile. | LinkedIn says plainly that it cannot guarantee complete privacy. |
| Visible only to you | Nobody else. Your preferences stay on your side of the screen. | No frame. | It is not a dead end. LinkedIn uses the preferences to tailor your job recommendations. |
What LinkedIn Open to Work is
Open to Work A LinkedIn profile setting that tells recruiters and your network you are open to new opportunities, and lets you specify the types of job opportunities you are interested in and your preferred location.
You open your own profile, press the Open to button under your headline, and choose Finding a new job. You fill in what you want, pick who can see it, and save. It is 1 setting with a visibility choice, not 2 separate features.
Will my current employer see it?
If you choose Recruiters only, LinkedIn tries to keep it from them. Its help page describes comparing Company IDs between your profile and the recruiters on the network, so that Recruiter users at your current and affiliated companies are excluded. The Recruiter help page says the same thing from the other side: the feature shares your interests with Recruiter users who are not affiliated with your current or related companies.
Then LinkedIn states the limit itself, and this is the part almost nobody quotes. It says it cannot guarantee that every company is accurately identified, or that affiliated companies are accurately mapped, or that every recruiter has a correct Company ID, so there is a small chance your preferences are visible to a recruiter at your current employer. Treat Recruiters only as quieter, not invisible.
How to turn on LinkedIn Open to Work
- Open your own profile Click the Me icon in the top bar, then View profile. You need your own profile, not the feed, because the button you want sits under your headline.
- Press Open to, then Finding a new job The Open to button offers more than 1 thing. Finding a new job is the one that shares job preferences with recruiters. The others are separate features.
- Fill in job titles, locations and location types Enter the titles you want next rather than the internal title you hold now. Add the locations you would work in and whether you want remote, hybrid or on-site. "Product Designer" and "Senior Product Designer", not "Design IC3".
- Set your start date and employment types Say when you could start and whether you want full-time, contract or something else. These are the fields recruiters end up reading, so vague answers cost you. Members in India can also add a notice period and an expected annual salary, visible to recruiters only.
- Choose who can see it, then save Pick 1 of the 3 visibility values. Choosing All LinkedIn Members is what puts the green frame on your photo, so make that choice deliberately rather than by accident.
If it went quiet
LinkedIn can remove it for you. Its help page says that if you stop responding to InMails from recruiters, LinkedIn emails you to confirm you are still open to work, and without that confirmation it removes the #OpenToWork feature until you enable it again.
The LinkedIn Open to Work banner, and when to skip it
Do
- You are between roles and want every person who lands on your profile to know it
- You are openly looking and your employer already knows
- You want your own network to see you are available, not just recruiters
- You are ready to reply. The setting can lapse if you go quiet on recruiter InMails
Do not
- Your employer does not know. LinkedIn says this option includes people at your current company
- You work with clients who read your profile before a call
- You want the signal without the announcement. Recruiters only carries it without the frame
- You have not filled in the preference fields yet. The frame alone tells a recruiter nothing
What to fill in so recruiters actually find you
- Job titles you want next, in the words a recruiter would search for
- Location types: remote, hybrid, on-site, or more than 1 of them
- The locations you would genuinely take a job in
- A start date you would actually honour
- Employment types. Full-time or contract is among what LinkedIn shares
- Your current role and dates, accurate, because the search reads those too
- Confirm when LinkedIn emails to ask whether you are still looking
- In India only: notice period and expected annual salary, shown to recruiters
What a recruiter sees at the other end
In LinkedIn Recruiter, which is a paid product, the indicator turns up in 3 places: on your profile picture if you shared it publicly, on your profile card in search results, and in the profile summary dropdown. A recruiter can also run a search and then click Open to work under Spotlights at the top of the results, which narrows the list to people showing the signal.
What they read is narrower than most people assume. LinkedIn says only recruiters using the Recruiter product get your preferences, and names the fields shared: the job titles you are interested in, whether you want full-time or contract work, and the date you indicated you were open to new roles. Nothing about why you are looking. Members in India are the exception, and can add pay expectations.
How a search actually finds you
An example sourcing search: 1 line about the hire becomes structured filters, then a ranked list of people who never applied.
This is The Cognitive, our own product, shown so you can see the other side of the glass. A recruiter types a line about the hire. It becomes filters in 2 groups, about the person and about their current employer, and searches ~900M profiles. Nobody in that list applied for anything.
The short version
- There are 3 visibility values, not 2. Only 1 of them puts a frame on your photo
- All LinkedIn Members includes people at your current company. LinkedIn says so
- Recruiters only is quieter, and LinkedIn says it cannot guarantee complete privacy
- It can remove itself if you stop replying to recruiter InMails and do not confirm
- The preference fields do the work. An empty profile with a green frame is still empty
Why being findable beats applying
A lot of hiring for hard-to-fill roles never reaches an application pile. Someone writes down what they want and searches live profiles for it, then writes to the people who come back. That search reads your titles, your skills, your location and your dates, whether or not you have a badge on your photo.
So the order matters. Make the profile accurate first, set the preferences second, and treat the visibility choice as the last decision rather than the first. A frame on an out-of-date profile points recruiters at the wrong version of you.
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Open to Work is not an application. It is a line in a database that someone else searches, which is why what you write in it matters more than the badge on your face.
Frequently asked questions
Why do people put Open to Work on LinkedIn?
Because it is the way to tell recruiters what you want without announcing anything to your feed. LinkedIn only shares your preferences with people using its Recruiter product, and its own job search guidance tells members to enable the feature so recruiters know they are open to new opportunities. Some people also take the green frame so their own network can see they are available.
Does LinkedIn Open to Work with recruiters only hide it from my employer?
It tries to, and LinkedIn says it cannot promise it. Its help page describes comparing Company IDs so that Recruiter users at your current and affiliated companies are excluded, and the Recruiter help page says the feature shares your interests only with users not affiliated with your current or related companies. LinkedIn then states that it cannot guarantee every company is accurately identified, or that affiliated companies are accurately mapped.
What is the LinkedIn Open to Work banner, and is it the same as the setting?
No. The green #OpenToWork photo frame is one consequence of one visibility choice. LinkedIn adds it when you select All LinkedIn Members, and that option also includes recruiters and people at your current company. Pick Recruiters only or Visible only to you and the setting is on with no change to your photo.
How do I get the open for work banner on my photo?
Open your profile, press the Open to button under your headline, choose Finding a new job, fill in the preference fields and then set visibility to All LinkedIn Members before saving. That last choice is what adds the frame. If you already turned the setting on with a different visibility, edit it and change the visibility value.
Why did my Open to Work disappear?
LinkedIn may have removed it. Its help page says that if it notices you have stopped responding to InMails from recruiters, it emails you to confirm you are still open to work, and if it gets no confirmation it automatically removes the #OpenToWork feature from your profile until you enable it again. Check the email address on your account, then switch it back on.
Can recruiters search specifically for open to work candidates?
Yes, inside LinkedIn Recruiter. LinkedIn's Recruiter help says a user can run a search and then click Open to work under Spotlights at the top of the results page. Recruiter is a paid LinkedIn product rather than something every recruiter has, and pricing changes, so check LinkedIn for current figures or read our breakdown at /blog/linkedin-recruiter-pricing.
What information does LinkedIn actually share with recruiters?
3 things, according to LinkedIn's privacy help page: the job titles you are interested in, the opportunity type such as full-time or contract, and the date you indicated you were open to new roles. You also set locations, location types and a start date, and members in India can add a notice period and expected annual salary that is visible to recruiters.
Does turning Open to Work on get me contacted by tools outside LinkedIn?
Not from LinkedIn itself. LinkedIn does not permit crawlers, bots, plug-ins or extensions that scrape its site, and says members who use them risk having their accounts restricted or shut down. Separately, recruiting software builds its own picture of the market from other places, and open-to-work style signals often show on a result card there.
Can I change or delete my Open to Work preferences later?
Yes. LinkedIn lets you edit or delete the preferences from the same panel you set them in, so you can change the visibility value, update the job titles or remove the whole thing. One thing to know before you press Delete: LinkedIn says you can re-enable the feature at any time, but your previous preferences will not be saved, so you would fill the fields in again.
How does a recruiter find me if they do not have LinkedIn Recruiter?
Usually by searching somewhere else. Free LinkedIn accounts run into a monthly commercial use limit on profile searching and profile viewing, which resets at midnight PST on the 1st of each month and which LinkedIn says it cannot lift on request. Name searches from the top search box, browsing your first-degree connections and job searching do not count toward it.
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