Ex-Google, Amazon recruiters tell job seekers: Don't use 'open to work' badge on LinkedIn

Ex-Google, Amazon recruiters tell job seekers: Don’t use ‘open to work’ badge on LinkedIn

Two former recruiters from Google and Amazon have a piece of advice for job seekers–don’t use the “open to work” badge on LinkedIn. While the platform had introduced the feature to help recruiters connect with possible candidates, using it may keep job seekers from getting better opportunities and better pay, they said.

“It is the biggest red flag” in a job candidate, Nolan Church, former Google recruiter and current CEO of salary data company FairComp, told CNBC Make It. “There is a truism in recruiting that the best people are not looking for jobs,” he said, adding that recruiters perceive that such people would not be advertising that they’re looking for work.

Church, who spent almost three years at Google, told the publication that the green “open to work” badge on profile photos suggests that the individual would consider taking any role whatsoever.

“It actually feels to a hiring manager like desperation,” he said, adding that “recruiting is like dating” and that “you have to make the other side feel like you’re exclusive.” In a post on X, Church also called it “the worst social media feature ever pushed to production”.

Agreeing with him, ex-Amazon recruiter and current career coach Lindsay Mustain said that when it comes to recruiting, it’s all about a power dynamic.

Recruiters want to want you, not the other way around. With the “open to work” banner activated on LinkedIn, “because you need something from me, that means that I have the power in this conversation,” she said, adding that the banner can be a turn off.

Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal had voiced similar sentiments at a podcast last November where he said that the food delivery company does not hire people who are looking for jobs because the kind of candidates they want to hire are usually not unemployed.

“The kind of workforce that we hire is very different. Ideally, we don’t hire people who are looking for jobs, because the kind of people we need, they don’t search for jobs,” said Deepinder Goyal, who launched Zomato in 2008 along with Pankaj Chaddah. “We look for good people. Then we work on them… at least the mid to senior level. Our hiring process is very long.”

Zomato and its rival Swiggy are the two major players in the country in restaurant aggregation and food delivery service.