Movin' On Up Resumes

Warning: New LinkedIn Feature Could Out Job Seekers to Their Current Company

October 16, 2012 at 3:25 pm 2 comments

LinkedIn is at it again. They’re messing with their secret sauce to… well, who knows why. But it could have unintended consequences for employed job seekers trying to keep their search on the down-low.

Savvy job seekers know to turn off the alerts on their LinkedIn profile. A bunch of notifications of profile changes can let people at your current company know that you are on the hunt.

But LinkedIn has released a new feature to some accounts that overrides the general “no notifications” setting. Some users, when updating experience, have reported a pre-selected box that announces a change in company or roles to contacts.

Look carefully before you click “save.” Make sure to un-check any box that might broadcast your changes.

Thanks to Rosa Vargas, Norine Dagliano, and The National Resume Writers’ Association for bringing this to light!

What should you do if you’re “caught” updating your LinkedIn profile?

While it’s not ideal to reveal a LinkedIn revamp to your colleagues, it’s usually not the end of the world either. There is no professional whose on-the-job performance would not be enhanced by having a strong network to draw on for ideas and potential partnerships. Just practice talking about your updates comfortably. If a breech happens, you might even want to proactively mention your LinkedIn activity to your boss. One innocuous way is to share a good idea or article you found on LinkedIn and mention what a terrific resource it’s been in helping to achieve a specific goal your boss has set for you.

Entry filed under: Confidential Job Search, Job Search, LinkedIn, Uncategorized. Tags: Confidential job search using linkedin, confidentially update linkedin profile, Job hunting, job search, linkedin.