Recall LinkedIn Notifications?

March 22, 2022 9:47 AM

I just updated my LinkedIn profile in anticipation of potentially applying for a new position that caught my eye. My boss and other people I work with are among my connections, and I realized after the fact that the switch to notify my network of profile changes was toggled to "Notify everyone." Is there any way I can undo this notification? I don't want them to know I'm looking.

I thought I had all these "notify network" things turned off by default. But this one seems to have sneaked through.

Alternately, if you are an employer, is an employee updating their profile a few years into their tenure with you an indication to you that they're searching for a job? Or is this something that wouldn't raise any flags?

posted by Fuego to Work & Money (7 answers total)

There is not any way to 'recall' the notifications. If anyone asks you about it, I don't know, I personally update my resume and my LinkedIn fairly frequently just to save doing it all at once if I ever have to do it, but you can just say you are going to be more active on LinkedIn because you want to pursue professional networking opportunities or continuing education offered through a peer group or something. Truthfully I am part of several professional groups on LinkedIn for exactly this reason, so I don't think it would be weird at all.
posted by Medieval Maven at 9:55 AM on March 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

This wouldn't raise any flags to me! Many folks update their LinkedIn profiles regularly or occasionally, without any predictability to it all. It can be a great procrastination activity. I think you are feeling a bit guilty or worried that folks will be notified and assume this means you are job searching, but I don't know that anyone will remember your profile was outdated. Keeping your profile updated is a good professional practice, so I'd take this off your list of things to worry about. Good luck with your search!
posted by bluedaisy at 10:21 AM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Are you in any way interacting with clients in an individual capacity? Based on the view notifications I get, it seems that it's fairly common for potential or current clients to pull up my profile around the time we first interact. (And I've definitely done the same.) So one plausible explanation is that you thought it looked better [for your company] for your profile to be current. (Or if you're willing to stretch a bit, you "got a notification that people were viewing your profile", and realized it was out of date -- because LinkedIn wants me to pony up for the premium features, the notifications I get are usually super vague, often only the title or company of the viewer (usually one or the other, not both), and rarely the actual name, so you have plausible deniability built in.) And obviously, it's expected that people update their profile as they progress in their career, or else you'd have a lot of high-level folks who still have their title/details from when they started at the company.

But I wouldn't do anything to address it proactively with your employer -- the update is well within the norm of business-as-usual. Plus, a pre-emptive denial followed by a resignation is going to look a lot worse than just a resignation that they may (or may not) have had suspicions was in the works.
posted by yuwtze at 10:27 AM on March 22, 2022

Might feel silly, but you could post to your LinkedIn feed something akin to, "Was just answering an invite and noticed my achievements here haven't been updated since the Dark Ages. Figured I'd spitshine it a bit and keep you all abreast of what I've been doing at WidgetCo."

I think this falls into the category of "Methinks she doth protest too much." Don't call extra attention to a very normal behavior, because that's what people will notice.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:44 PM on March 22, 2022 [12 favorites]

Best answer: I think this only raises flags if your, say, manager or someone in HR is in the subset of your connections who are active on LinkedIn AND would notice changes AND/OR you seem unhappy in your role. And even then, many people like to keep their LinkedIn up to date and polished for Reasons. I believe only recruiters can see if you use the "open to work" tag and LinkedIn is supposed to hide it from recruiters that are at your org -- at least in my experience, no one noticed or brought it up.

I would not address it pre-emptively since it is such a normal thing to do that I think bringing it up would actually trigger the flag.
posted by sm1tten at 7:08 PM on March 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you for the reassurance. I do enjoy my job, it's just that while idly browsing I saw a position that was a really good fit with a company I admire greatly and I would kick myself if I didn't apply. My employeers have no reason to think I have a foot out the door because I don't at all.
posted by Fuego at 8:01 AM on March 23, 2022

I have yet to find an organization that takes these notifications as a signal that you're unhappy.

You can literally shoot fireworks in the parking lot with a 10 foot banner that says "I'M UPDATING MY RESUME, YOU CLOWNS" and it will still be ignored.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:09 AM on March 23, 2022