LinkedIn is the best social network for your career, whether you want to use it to find a job or boost your potential. It’s not without its annoyances, however. If you’re prepping your profile for the job hunt especially, you’ll want to head to this setting on LinkedIn first, before everything turns to hell.
The setting is related to the “Say congrats on the new job!” notices that pop up on LinkedIn and your email inbox all the time. If you don’t change it, every time you tweak your title (say, to be more specific to the kind of job you’re looking for next), LinkedIn will tell your network, and everyone will assume you’ve just landed a new position. That’s not really great if you’re in the midst of looking for a new position and interviewing with companies while you adjust your LinkedIn profile.
Donna Sapolin writes on Forbes that even her mother congratulated her for the “new job” and “promotion” because she changed the field under her name. To prevent this, you have to turn off activity broadcasts completely under Settings > Profile > Privacy Controls > Turn on/off your activity broadcasts.
That way, no one else in your network will mistake editing your profile with a new job. Turn it back on when you’re done so the status updates and whatever else you do want to share get seen.
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4 responses to “The Most Important Setting To Change In LinkedIn Before Your Job Hunt”
I think having your mum endorse your various IT skill when she isn’t the most computer literate person in the world is also another thing I wish I could prevent.
Yeah. I was a bit worried when my mum endorsed me for “git”. After asking about it, she said she thought it had something to do with computers, but I’m not so sure.
Click on the picture of yourself [currently top right], you get a dropdown list “Account and Settings”.
From there, find “privacy control” and select “review”
Actually the most important thing you can do before starting a job hunt is either remove your picture (so you’re not discriminated against), or ensure it is a professional looking picture (suit, tie, etc). Dress for the job you want in that picture.
The linked article states that recruiters spend the majority of their initial vetting time looking at the candidate photo. I’m thinking that the photo is a critical part of your job hunt. If you don’t have a photo you’re unlikely to progress.