Why am I talking about this? It is because I was thinking that Open to work never helped me, and doesn’t seem to change the rate that recruiters contact me.
I did a search and tried to find some evidence that having Open to work helps people get a job. The problem is that recruiters find this is mixed signal. For some they perceive it as desperate while others find that people are more responsive. The facts show that people who have this respond more to recruiters, and those that don’t have a very low response rate.
So on one hand you may get more recruiters contacting you if you have the Open to work. However on the other, some recruiters who may have contacted you otherwise won’t contact you because they see it as a negative. I think that a reasonable thing is to not have it for the first week and then maybe try it off/on for rotating weeks to maximize the randomness of recruiter perceptions.
Now what is even more interesting is when you have skills. Research clearly shows that adding skills to your LinkedIn profile results in more contact by recruiters. I noticed this as well. The same day that I redid my skills sections I got more recruiter contact and that has continued. I think recruiters first search by skills and then read profiles.
I have detailed all of these in past LinkedIn optimization posts I have written. Now if you are in demands, deleting the Open to work doesn’t make any difference. I did that a month ago and I am still getting contacted by recruiters at the same rate. It is flattering, but recruiters will contact you even if it shows you are working and don’t have the Open to work done.
So here is the bottom line: rotate between weeks having it on and off if you aren’t getting recruiters contacting you. Fill out all of the skills and focus them on what you are really good at. Try to get skills that aren’t easily offered by others and if possible respond to every recruiter even if you don’t want the job. Recruiters will mark in their company recruiting database you were responsive and that will get you more recruiter contact from that recruiting agency in the future. Good luck!