"Open to work" says nothing. Say the Monday.

The green banner is the most common profile decoration there is, and it is nearly useless.

It says you would like a job. It does not say which one, from when, where, or on what terms. A recruiter looking at forty green banners has learned nothing about any of the forty.

Here is what a recruiter with a role to fill needs to know, in order:

1. Can this person do the job?
2. Can they start when I need them?
3. Will they take it?

"Open to work" answers none of the three. A date answers the second one completely, and it is the one nobody else is answering.

Availability is the only thing on your profile that expires

Your skills are true for years. Your job history never changes. Your availability is true for a few weeks, and it is the single fact that decides whether a recruiter calls you or the next person.

And it is the fact most people bury, if they state it at all. "Currently exploring new opportunities." From when? "On notice." Until when?

If you are free from the third of November, write "Available from Monday 3 November". A recruiter filling a role that starts in November now has a reason to call you first.

The list

• DoPut a date in your headline. "Site manager, available from Monday 3 November."
• Don’tWrite "open to opportunities", "exploring options" or "seeking my next challenge". They all mean "unknown".
• DoUpdate the date when it moves. A stale date is worse than none.
• Don’tLeave "available immediately" up for five months. After the second month it reads as a problem.
• DoGive one title per thing you can be hired as, in the words a hirer would use.
• Don’tMerge them into "Engineer | Architect | Leader | Builder | Dad". Nobody searches for a pipe character.
• DoSay what you will not do: no relocation, remote only, contract only. It saves both of you a call.
• Don’tSay you are "flexible" about everything. Flexible is summarised as "has not decided".
• DoState your rate or your range if you are freelance. People who publish a number get contacted by people who can pay it.
• Don’tWrite "rate on request" and then be surprised by the requests.

"But I do not want my employer to see it"

Fair. Then do not put it on the network your employer reads. Put the date somewhere a hirer looks and your manager does not, and keep the banner off.

What does not work is the middle path, where you are discreetly open to work in a way that no recruiter can detect either.

Several titles, one at a time

Most people can be hired as more than one thing. The iOS developer who also ships tvOS. The site manager who can run a quantity survey. The instinct is to put every title in one line so nobody misses any of them.

It backfires. A hirer who needs a tvOS developer reads "iOS | tvOS | Android | Roku | Backend | Team Lead" and sees someone who is a bit of everything. The same person shown as "tvOS developer", alone, looks like the answer.

List every title that is true. But a hirer should see one: the one they asked for. That is a matching problem, and it is the platform's job, not yours. If the place you list yourself cannot do it, keep a separate line ready for each title and send the right one.

The short version

A recruiter is not looking for someone who is open. They are looking for someone who fits and can start on a date. Say the date.