If you're looking for a new job, there's often no way around LinkedIn, which continues to play a central role in career development.
Berlin-based career coach Esther Kimmel says it's a great place to get noticed by consultants and headhunters, but also for in-house recruiting. "So I advise my job seekers to make themselves easy to find and to set the inhibition threshold for making contact as low as possible."
She also advises applicants to focus on their own profile. "It should be about what I want more of in the future and not draw attention to what I want to leave behind."
This is where a banner with the words #OpenToWork comes into play for some people. LinkedIn offers to put this on your profile photo so that recruiters and potential employers can't miss it.
However, its use is controversial among HR experts, and Kimmel, for example, does not recommend it: "Good candidates will always be found, the banner seems a bit needy in my eyes."
Nolan Church, former recruiter at Google, told US broadcaster CNBC that this symbol for job seekers is "the biggest red flag on LinkedIn."
In using this sign on their profile picture, job seekers are signalling that they would accept any job - no matter what, Church says.
According to Church, recruiters want to get the feeling that a person really wants to work in their company and not just anywhere. The banner, however, conveys the opposite.
However, not all recruiters share this opinion. Peter Nollido, Senior Recruiter at Volkswagen, for example, thinks the feature is useful. "As recruiters, we are informed directly when a candidate from our network has made this setting," he says.
If you're considering adding this sign, it helps to know that you can restrict who can see that you're actively looking for a job. LinkedIn then won't allow all LinkedIn members to be informed, but only a certain group of people.
To do this, you can pick the "Recruiters only" option. As LinkedIn explains, only recruiters who use LinkedIn Recruiter will be informed. The #OpenToWork sign will also not appear on your profile photo in this case.