Turn the feature on and set it to recruiters only if you’re currently employed. Use the job preferences to specify remote, not just your city. That’s the setup that actually works for a remote search. Here’s why, and what to watch for.
What the Feature Actually Does
Open to work adds a signal to your profile, telling LinkedIn and anyone viewing it that you’re searching. You list the job titles you want, your preferred locations including remote, and roughly when you’d start.
LinkedIn uses that to surface your profile in matching recruiter searches, and to send you closer job alerts. It doesn’t rank you higher for skill or fit. It just makes you easier to find.
That matters more for remote roles than local ones. A recruiter filling a remote seat often searches for candidates across several countries, with no local network to lean on. Being findable in that search carries real weight.
How to Set It Up
Go to your profile:
1. Click “Add profile section”
2. Then “Intro,” then “Looking for a new job.”
3. Choose who can see the badge: everyone or recruiters only.
4. List the two or three titles you’d actually take a remote offer under.
5. Add “Remote” directly in the location field.
6. Set a realistic start date.
Revisit these every few weeks, especially the titles. One that pulls nothing after two weeks is worth swapping.
Who Should See the Badge
Between roles, public is usually fine, no employer to worry about, and wider reach. Employed and searching quietly, use recruiters only.
I had a client turn the badge on in public, forget it was there, and then be asked about it by her own manager a week later. That’s the exact situation recruiters-only exists to prevent, and LinkedIn’s version of it genuinely restricts visibility to recruiter accounts. It isn’t cosmetic.
What to Weigh Before Turning It On
More visibility to recruiters actively searching. Alerts closer to what you actually asked for, a faster route into a recruiter’s pipeline than cold applying alone.
The downside is smaller, but real. A handful of hiring managers still read the badge as a sign of being out of work for a while, and let that affect their first impression before they’ve read anything else.
I had one client who turned it off after two recruiters asked, unprompted, why she’d been searching so long, even though the badge had only been up for a week. She wasn’t wrong to be annoyed, it’s a bias worth mentioning, not one you can manage from your end.
Is It Worth Using for a Remote Search
Yes, with the settings above. For remote roles, the visibility gain outweighs the downsides. You’re competing in a pool a recruiter has never met in person, and being findable in that pool is worth more than it would be for a local job with fifty people applying from down the street.
It gets you found. It doesn’t get you hired. Turning it on won’t change whether your resume holds up once someone actually clicks through.
If applications are still coming back with silence, my guide on why your remote job application isn’t getting interviews covers the more common reasons.
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