Whether you are quietly seeking a new position or happily engaged in your current role, keeping a professional approach to your image is more important than some realize. We’ve noticed over the last few years that LinkedIn has become concerning and it’s worth thinking about how you project your image and personal brand on the platform.

LinkedIn has added more ‘insights’ in the professional Recruiter version, for example indicating that a candidate is open to work, but also if they are actively engaging with job postings, and sharing their resume with recruiters.

Our advice is to move out of the LinkedIn messaging app and onto your personal email when exploring opportunities for confidentiality.  While some safeguards appear to be in place, LinkedIn says that you can share that you are ‘open to work’ just with recruiters and not your HR department, outside search agencies will be able to see that and just might be part of your company’s trusted network of consulting firms.

It’s important to update your LinkedIn profile when you land a new job. Ideally you would be thrilled to land your recent role and want to advertise that.  If you’ve been with a new company for months and your profile still indicates you are in your prior role and open to new opportunities with, “Start date Immediately, I’m actively applying” still part of your preferences, it might just raise an eyebrow within your company.

Similarly, if you are moving to final stages of an offer with a new company, and you have a recruiter confidant, you might ask them how many people in the prospective company are ‘open to work’.  It’s concerning if the majority of the employees are advertising within Recruiter that they are ready to jump ship.

On another note, there seems to be an increase in what could be categorized as political LinkedIn posts and comments.  Trust me, the best companies will search your profile, and if a particular post, irrespective of perhaps your point of view, seems overly aggressive, derogatory or uses inflammatory language,  it’s a red flag.  Those comments are perhaps more appropriate for another forum, ideally with an anonymous user name, don’t confuse your social media platforms.