You’ve no doubt heard it before: The best time to look for work is when you already have a job.
The problem, of course, is not tipping your hand to your current employer as you look for your next one. You might take an interview on your lunch break or even use a sick day for it.
But well before that point in your search, you have to make yourself visible to recruiters without appearing to do so to your current boss. It’s a delicate dance being visible to the right people in your job search — and invisible to everyone else.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to keep your job search discreet on LinkedIn, one of the most popular sites for job seekers, experts told BI.
While your manager and coworkers probably “aren’t going to be studying your profile,” you can still take some steps to stay under the radar to them, said Beth Granger, a consultant who focuses on networking and building your professional brand on LinkedIn.
“You might not post about being on an interview or if somebody shares a post about a job, you might not comment publicly about that,” she said.
Putting your company’s corporate logo in your banner is one way to maintain the outward appearance of loyalty to your employer, said executive résumé and LinkedIn writer Virginia Franco.
In your headline, you might “go with the one the company gave you just to be on the safe side,” she added. Then you can use what remains of the character limit to “pump up your headline with some keywords” to help surface your profile in recruiters’ searches.
For those who’ve let their LinkedIn profiles collect dust, suddenly overhauling them can clearly indicate you’re job-searching.
“If you’ve never done anything on LinkedIn, to all of a sudden have a robust profile might make your employer nervous,” Franco said.
In settings, turn off notifications of changes to your Experience section so LinkedIn won’t broadcast to your connections, some of whom are likely your coworkers, that you’re sprucing up your profile.
And make your changes gradually.
“Start from the bottom; add skills one week,” said Franco. “Then the next week, you add the older experience, and so on, so you’re slowly building it up, versus all in one fell swoop.”
If you want to turn on the Open to Work banner, make sure it’s set to recruiters only, though be forewarned that’s not foolproof either. LinkedIn says, “To protect your privacy, we take steps to prevent LinkedIn Recruiter users who work at your current company from seeing your shared career interests, but we can’t guarantee complete privacy.”
Another setting to keep an eye on is Connection Visibility, according to Meg Guiseppi, an executive job search strategist.
If you’re suddenly connecting with recruiters galore, you can turn this off so that only you can see your connections list. Keep in mind your connections will still be able to see mutual connections you have and connections who have endorsed you.
Guiseppi also suggests being mindful of what you post in LinkedIn groups. Groups can be a great place to share your thought leadership and expertise in an area, but remember that people in your network might also be members of the same group and privy to what you share there.
