Beyond The Green Banner: From #OpenToWork to Super Hireable

After almost two years of ongoing mass layoffs in tech, a sea of green "open to work" banners continues to flood our LinkedIn feeds. More green banners appear seemingly every time we scroll or refresh. They are SOS signals from thousands of our colleagues and connections who have lost their livelihoods and were thrown into the tightest tech job market in over a decade. 

To show support, we comment, react, and reach out to offer assistance or an ear.  But most of the burden remains on each person to somehow make their own way in this market, often by going above and beyond what a job search looked like a couple of years ago.

If you’re one of the unlucky ones who have been laid off, it’s easy to feel like your own pleas for help are being drowned and swallowed up in the depths of the algorithm.

My name is Kailey Trussel, and I happen to be in the same boat.

In 2022, I lost not ONE, but TWO jobs, in less than six months! Finding myself jarringly back on the job search, my initial strategy was that I had no strategy. I doom-scrolled on LinkedIn for hours, I stalked connections of connections to see if there was anyone I knew who I could quietly message to inquire about job postings. I did everything to try to bring a job to me as subtly as possible.

After eight months of unemployment, I took the plunge and dove deeper into murky waters. I publicly announced on LinkedIn that I was "open to work" and turned on the green profile banner. 

Thinking outside the circle

But why stop at just the green banner and a basic post about my job search? Was there anything I could do to make myself stand out in a more engaging way to build connections and increase my job prospects? It was time to get creative with my approach.

As Missy Elliot puts it, I put the thing down, flipped it and reversed it. I began by creating a detailed post about me and what I'm looking for in a role. Then I turned it up to 11 by pairing the text post with a complimentary visual carousel (see below - it's basically a set of interactive slides) to uniquely position myself as a Super Hireable user experience professional and bring opportunities my way. 

Here's what I ended up with! Due to the length of the post I had to break it into two screen shots for this article. You can also click through to the original post here.

And here's a gallery of images from the carousel slideshow (click to expand view).

As of the publishing of this article, my post has resulted in some exciting outcomes:

• 116,208 post impressions

• 1,218 reactions

• 1200+ followers

• 30+ informational interviews with fellow UX professionals

• 24 Super Hireable posts shared by job seekers on LinkedIn

• 1 contract UX Research role!

• And some other surprises revealed later in the article! 😁

If you’re wondering what you can do to go beyond the norm of the typical "open to work" LinkedIn post, consider giving this idea a shot. You never know where it might lead, and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain in putting yourself out there. To quote my girl Missy once again, you just might want to “Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gnaht ym tup i” your job search.

Here’s the story and process behind my “Super Hireable” post, the impact it’s had on my job search, what I’ve learned along the way, and why I’m no longer a LinkedIn Skeptic.

Long time lurker, first time poster

Prior to my Super Hireable post, I’d never really shared anything on LinkedIn before. I was a LinkedIn Lurker, scrolling and spectating and passively “liking” posts on the sidelines.

The idea of publicly telling people I needed a job and opening myself up to judgment about my successive job losses was deeply mortifying. Self-promotion can feel uncomfortable. On LinkedIn, it can seem superficial and cringey.

I was determined to find a new job without drawing any attention to myself, doing whatever it took to avoid putting myself out there so publicly so no one would know how desperate I was to find a job. But as the months went by and I received rejection after rejection, I realized that as the stakes got higher, holding back wasn’t doing me any good. Something had to change and I needed to cast a wider net.

Putting UX into practice to design my post

After going through yet another interview process for a job I was really excited about, I found out that I didn’t get it. I was devastated, but my frustration pushed me to finally share about my job search on LinkedIn. I harnessed that energy and began crafting my Super Hireable post for LinkedIn. 

To start, I asked myself some questions that would help me craft an effective positioning message.

• What’s the story I want to tell?

• What information is most important for people to know about me?

• What’s the best order in which to present this information?

• How do I make it simple and succinct? 

• How can I showcase my personality?

• What’s the best format or medium to use?

We've all seen hundreds of "open to work" posts throughout the tech job downturn—they’ve become a new normal. I wanted to be intentional with my post and make it stand out, so I considered several important storytelling factors. I thought about what kind of posts generally seem to “pop out” on LinkedIn due to the content and presentation, and how I could stand out and be memorable.

Who is my audience?

• My connections, who would be likely to engage with my post. 

• Recruiters, who need a quick summary to gauge my experience and skills. 

• Hiring managers and what information would best give them a sense of what it’s like to work with me. 

Optimizing efficacy and impact

• A post from Mark America Smith discusses the importance of specificity and context in requests for help, and proactively giving people the information they need about my background, skills, interests, and goals.

Being specific about my experience

• In her presentation titled “I’m not your typical candidate, and that’s ok”, Jiaorui Jiang observes that her mentees can get trapped in unhelpful thought patterns based on common experiences they shared with her. She provides inspiration for how to describe previous work experience and how to write a compelling story to really stand out.

Serious self-reflection

• I took some time to seriously think about what a company wants from me as a candidate, and more importantly, what I want from a company! Documenting work values, accomplishments, skills, and vision for the future gave me some much needed clarity on my ideal role.

On LinkedIn, you can create posts using text, video, a single image, or a visual carousel. I decided on a hybrid format of a detailed text post plus a carousel. My thinking for using both formats was to give folks an option on how they’d like to read what I had to share. Having a detailed text post also gave me the option to tag the companies that inspired me, with hopes that they may see it (which some of them did!).

Launch time!

After several iterations and valuable feedback from trusted peers, I composed the draft and clicked “Post”. To quell my anxiety, I stepped away from LinkedIn for 30 minutes before checking on it. To my relief and surprise, it was getting quite a response.

For the next few days, I was glued to my feed as comments, reposts, connection requests, and messages came pouring in. It felt like the entire internet came to support me in my search. 

It felt so great to have my efforts validated by peers, hiring managers, recruiters, community leaders, and so many others.

One of the most meaningful comments I got was one from Canva, the app I used to create the carousel!

Brittney is a Senior Staff UX Researcher at Miro who was kind enough to reach out. She offered some help with my resume and gave me some specific and insightful feedback.

The Ripple Effect

Overwhelmed with appreciation, I wanted to contribute some value back to the community and support other job seekers. I created free templates in Canva and Figma (with help from my friend Jonathan Wilcox) so others could easily tailor the template for their own post. 

In the past 8 months, at least 24 job seekers have posted their customized Super Hireable posts using the template! I’ve linked them at the bottom of this article. 

After sharing her own version of a Super Hireable post, Savannah Buswell got 4 interviews and 2 job offers! One of the offers was from someone she knew, while the other was from someone with whom, by several degrees, she had no connections. In both instances, the owner of the company saw her post and reached out directly. One said they were drawn to her design, having never seen anything like it before, and were impressed by everything in it. 

Takeaways from going beyond the green banner to Super Hireable

Becoming more active on LinkedIn and putting myself out there with my Super Hireable post has shown me the power of engaging with the community and letting people know I am open to work.

1. LinkedIn is an incredible community if you want it to be: So many people view LinkedIn as a cesspool of competition and comparison (no lies detected!). But it doesn’t have to be that way. If you get intentional with how you engage and curate your feed, it can be a valuable tool for your job search and professional development, and a way to find and build a supportive and helpful community full of interesting conversation. Having a broad social reach can help you be in the right place at the right time and increase the chance of making your way in the feed of a person looking for someone just like you. And it feels less cringey and more natural over time.

2. Have your professional materials in order before ramping up your LinkedIn presence and content. You want to have your resume, portfolio/website, and LinkedIn profile taken care of first. People who see your post will want to know more about you, so you want to have a clear and compelling story, and accurate, solid materials, ready to go at any moment. If I could do one thing differently, this would be it. 

3. Try not to get caught up in the metrics: There is a great podcast episode by Dr. Andrew Huberman which talks about embracing a growth mindset. He shares the science behind how focusing on the effort you put into something will actually make you perform better, rather than just focusing on your results. It’s easy to focus on the number of views, likes, shares, and comments. And don’t get me wrong, these are definitely a signal of strength and value! But it’s also important to  experiment and stay consistent with sharing on LinkedIn and learn as you go along, rather than hyperfocusing on the performance of each post. They aren’t all winners, even for people with large followings.

So did it work? The Most Valuable Lesson

I wish I could tell you that if you made your own Super Hireable post, that you will get a job offer within a week from your dream company, and you will live happily ever after. 

The truth is, 8 months after my post, I am still open to work! Which is ok—and here’s why. 

After my post, several folks reached out telling me they didn’t have any openings at the moment, but they would love to keep me in mind if anything did come up. I applied to a couple of job leads, got to a second interview with one of them, but haven’t yet landed anything. Like so many others, I’m going through the doldrums of a tight job market.

I want to be completely honest when I say that once the momentum started to die down after my post, I felt the dopamine rush turn into a crash, and I was disappointed that I didn’t immediately have a new job. I never expected someone to just hand me a job, but hey! A girl can hope!

You might be thinking, “Ok…so your post didn’t work.” If your goal is to get a job tomorrow from doing a Super Hireable post today, then yes, this is a total failure. But that’s not really the point, and I consider it a great success as indicated by several measures, including everything I mentioned above. I’m also playing the long-game here, which is the most effective way to think about networking.  

Going outside my comfort zone: personal and professional benefits

My post also “worked” because that very same day, it caught the eye of a fellow job-seeker and new friend Julie Christen. She connected me with a contract role at User Research International a few months later, where I joined for a short-term project, working with some outstanding individuals on exciting new tech with some big clients.

Not only did I get some temporary employment through my post, but it helped me grow in ways that put me out of my comfort zone.

1. Understanding myself and my core values helped me adapt to a chaotic and unpredictable job market and world. 

2. Creating the post and template gave me an opportunity to put my UX skills into action.

3. With a bit of effort, I captured the attention of thousands of people and connected with wonderful folks who I deeply admire, expanding my network and community which will reap dividends in the future. I’ve built more professional relationships in this last year than I have in the last five.

4. I feel a strong sense of fulfillment having inspired others to become more proactive in their job search. 

If there is one lesson I have learned from this entire experience it is this: Be intentional with your job search and how you spend your limited time and energy. Get clear on what it is you really want from a job. Reach out and cultivate authentic connections with others. Be your own best advocate to land a job with a company you like and get what you deserve from your career.

There is so much we can’t control about the current job market and economic climate. By getting strategic, vocal, and vulnerable with my job search, this rollercoaster of an experience has been not only a little more manageable but a little more empowering as well, and also kind of fun! 

And lastly, a special thanks to Amy Santee for inviting me to reflect on the small but mighty Super Hireable movement. You gave me the nudge I needed to put myself out here on LinkedIn, so having a guest post on your super awesome blog almost a year later is special for me. Thank you Amy for helping make this happen!

Now it’s your turn!

If you are still on your job search, why not give a Super Hireable post a try? If you do, please let me know! 

Super Hireable page on my website

Original Super Hireable post

Super Hireable Canva template

Super Hireable Figma template

Check out these other fantastic Super Hireable posts!

UX Design, UX Research

• Jaloloddin Esonboyev

• Megan Drescher

• Maha Aziz

• Klarissa Ligon

• Haylie Grayson

• Morgan Laddin

• Kealie McClain

• Nikita Gokhale

• Nicole Sassi

• Danielle Latman

• Pooja Chaudhari

• Brianne Baker

Marketing

• Shelly Constantino

• Arzu Ismail

• Bren Baxter

Project Management

• Davi Johnson

• Amber Lavigne-Bulman 

• Joshua Lampman

Communications

• Liz Leavitt

Operations Management, Art Director/Junior Designer, Executive Assistant

• Savannah Buswell

Medical Communications

• Alicia K. Dietrich, Phd

People & Culture

• Sarah Carter

Customer Success

• Amanda Hershberger

Sales

• Katie Leatherman