That Green Banner

I was having a really interesting discussion last week about all things LinkedIn and the green banner came into the conversation. For those who are not familiar with this, it is a small green banner that can be added to your LinkedIn profile picture indicating that you’re open to work. This is just one of the great tools to have come about during the pandemic. Personally, I think this is a great idea; I think it is an option for those who find themselves actively looking for work and want to make themselves really easily identifiable in the industry.

It seems as if opinions on this are divided and a few people have suggested that it doesn’t come across well or may harm your chances of being contacted. I personally disagree with this.

In a similar way, the purple banner can now be applied to show that you are ‘hiring’.

There are a few ways of showing your network and/or recruiters that you are open to hearing about opportunities. If you select ‘Share with recruiters only’, then only recruiters who have a specific recruitment license will be able to see that you are open to hearing about new roles. The other option is ‘Share with all LinkedIn members’ which will then put the green ‘Open To Work’ banner on your profile picture, making this visible to everyone.

Finding yourself looking for work can be both stressful and daunting and, therefore, I think you should do whatever you feel most comfortable doing. If you really want to make yourself stand out as active in the market, I think that you should be able to use the green banner if you want to. If you are looking to be more discreet then the ‘Share with recruiters only’ option will be best for you.

I would be really interested in getting your opinion on this. What do you think to the green ‘open to work’ banner?