About showing the “open to work” badge

I just came across a post on X that stated “nothing makes me want to hire someone less than this”, with a picture of the “open to work” badge LinkedIn offers job seekers.

This being X, I thought I answer using appropriate voice:

This, albeit succinct, is not very enlightening, so let me elaborate…

Like any other developer, I have a complicated relationship with LinkedIn. I do get about 10 job offers a month and 25 connection requests a week. During my peak time in Microsoft or during my tenure at Mozilla attending 35 conferences a year this was upped by a factor of 3. I’m also frustrated with tons of bots, growth hackers and professional connectors.

But, as X circles the drain and attracts only bots, engagement baiters and the worst of society, LinkedIn has become an alternative where you can have professional conversations and keep connections. I’m a LinkedIn trainer and have done some courses for them. Many of the people I source for my company events and podcasts start with a LinkedIn message.

Now, to the matter at hand: the open to work badge. Lord Coolentrepreneur of 10xdevistan on X and his inanely clapping choir see it as a sign of desperation and blatant begging for a job. I see it differently…

The reason might be that I do use LinkedIn professionally and that I’ve been both recruiting and being hired by large corporations. I’ve also been part of reorganisations, companies going bust and was on the wrong spreadsheet when mass layoffs happened. So I know how it feels to not have a job even when your performance was great.

And guess what? It sucks. You still feel like shit and you don’t want to look around and call in favours. So maybe telling the world that you are open to a new challenge is a way to be able to take a breather and let things come to you.

I also have a lot of friends who are incredibly talented freelancers whose services I like to use. As they are great at what they do, they are also booked out. And those people use the badge to show the world when they are available, thus saving me a frustrating back and forth via email.

LinkedIn is noisy. This badge helps me find potential people and discard others. I don’t see this as a sign of desperation, I see it as a sign of clear communication. Poaching someone from a current job is always messy and takes time – especially in Europe. When I see this badge, I know the person is immediately available, which often is a need people who hire have.

Nobody should feel desperate using this badge, and people who flat out discard people who have them as desperate are very likely to be really shit bosses anyway. So, keep showing the world what you want it to offer you. There’s no shame in that.