How LinkedIn Can Hurt Your Job Search

How LinkedIn Can Hurt Your Job SearchHow LinkedIn Can Hurt Your Job Search12If youre like many job seekers, you probably have a LinkedIn profile. And if youre like most, you try to keep it updated with new information about yourself in an effort to catch the attention of a hiring manager or prospective employer. You might also follow companies that you want to work for on LinkedIn. But did you know that by modifying your LinkedIn profile, or following companies of interest, you might actually hurt your job search? Heres why.When you make a change (in fact, any change) to the profile field directly underneath your name (the space LinkedIn calls your Professional Headline), LinkedIn will send out a message to your professional network encouraging them to congratulate you. The reason why is that LinkedIns algorithm views the edit as a new job or title (even if it isnt) and will blast a Congratulate message to your network. In fact, if your contacts are on LinkedIn, their activity feed w ill also prompt them to Say congrats on the new job, too.And when you follow a company on LinkedIn, it automatically tells your network youve done so. In their LinkedIn Pulse feed, theyll see that Joe Smith is now following X Company.Why These Features of LinkedIn Can Hurt Your Job SearchThis can be especially problematic for job seekers for a variety of reasons. For one, it makes it seem like youve been recently hired for a new job. On the other hand, it can draw attention to the fact that youre updating your LinkedIn profile- which might tip off your current employer to your job search activities.For example, lets say that youre studying to get a new degree. If you want to add your education or new workplace skills to your profiles headline, this can activate the congratulate email. Or, if you are looking for a freelance job and update your profile to remove your previous freelance job, LinkedIn will still congratulate youand invite others to do so as well.How to Stop LinkedIns Ac tivity BroadcastsDoes this mean that you can never update your LinkedIn profile? Of course not, but be careful what you write and where you write it on your profile. After all, you dont want to be congratulated on a job that you dont have or be potentially passed over by a hiring manager who erroneously assumes that youre gainfully employed.Right now, the only remedy for this issue is to shut off all your activity broadcasts while you update your profile or job search. You can do this by hovering over your photo in the upper right corner of the page, going to Privacy Settings, and then choosing Turn on/off your activity broadcasts.When youre ready to let your network know of an actual success (like finding a perfect part-time job within your industry, for example), you should then turn your activity broadcast back on. The thing is that youll have to remember to do this each time. Otherwise, you might receive lots of congratulatory emails- or suspicious looks from your current emplo yer- and have a lot of explaining to do.LinkedIn Can Hurt Your Job Search, but It Can Also Help- A LotLinkedIn is still a wonderful resource for creating new contacts, finding a network of like-minded industry professionals, and making connections with potential employers. If you remember to take control over your profile, you can safely post all of your job search successes- and relish all of the well-deserved congratulatory emails youll get.Readers, have you ever had this situation happen to you on LinkedIn? Let us know about your experiences in the comments section below