Posting a job anonymously on LinkedIn can be useful for a variety of reasons. You may want to quietly explore the job market without signaling to your network or current employer that you are looking to fill a role. You may also want to post a job without having the job tied directly to you or your company’s LinkedIn page. While LinkedIn does not have a built-in “anonymous” option for posting jobs, there are some workarounds that allow you to achieve a similar effect. Here are a few options to consider if you want to anonymously post a job on LinkedIn.
Use a personal account instead of a Company Page
The easiest way to post a job anonymously on LinkedIn is to use your personal LinkedIn account instead of posting it through an official Company Page. When you post a job on your personal profile, the job listing will not be attributed to any particular company – it will just show up as posted by your name. This can be a good quick fix if you simply want to float a job opening quietly without attaching your name or company brand to the posting right away.
However, there are a few limitations to this approach:
– You won’t get enhanced distribution and reach for the job post that official Company Pages receive.
– You won’t be able to showcase your company culture, branding, and reputation to candidates.
– Serious candidates may wonder why the role isn’t posted through official company channels.
So while posting from a personal account works, it may not be the best long-term solution if you want to attract high quality candidates. But it can be a simple short-term workaround.
Create an alternate “job search” profile
A more robust solution is to create a separate, alternate LinkedIn profile specifically for posting jobs anonymously. This profile would not be associated with your real identity or company in any way. Here are the steps to make it work:
1. Sign up for a new LinkedIn account using an alternate email address not tied to you. Do not use any real personal details when setting up the profile.
2. Build out the alternate profile as a realistic professional persona – add a profile photo, fill out work history and details reflecting the type of roles you want to hire for.
3. Use this alternate “cloaked” profile to post job listings and communicate with applicants.
The advantage of this approach is it allows you to fully utilize LinkedIn’s job posting capabilities while remaining anonymous. You can post multiple openings, interact with candidates, and even build out an anonymous employer brand identity over time.
Downsides are this takes more effort to maintain a fully-fledged secondary profile. And serious applicants may still wonder who the actual employer is if they can’t find information on the company. But overall this can be an effective way to anonymously list openings and make connections.
Use a third-party anonymous job board plugin
If you want to simplify the process of posting jobs anonymously, there are third-party platforms and Chrome extensions that enable anonymous job posts on LinkedIn. Some examples:
– **Noon ATS** – This applicant tracking system has a “Cloaked” job posting feature that allows companies to post roles on LinkedIn anonymously. All applicants respond through Noon’s platform.
– **Workable** – Popular ATS that offers an “Incognito Job Posting” feature to post openings on sites like LinkedIn without revealing company name.
– **Anonymous Job Postings** – A Chrome extension that allows anonymous job posts directly on LinkedIn from your Company Page. The extension hides all company details.
These tools handle masking your identity and anonymizing the applications. The main drawback is applicants will be responding outside of LinkedIn’s messaging system. But for a quick and easy approach to anonymous job posts, a third-party service can do the heavy lifting.
Use a third-party recruitment agency
You can also achieve anonymity by partnering with an external recruiter or staffing agency to post and manage job listings on their own LinkedIn profiles or Company Pages. This removes any association with your company. Applicants will contact the agency directly about openings.
Some benefits of this route:
– Complete anonymity for your organization.
– Recruiters screen candidates and only pass along the best fits.
– Agency has dedicated resources for promoting openings.
– Flexibility to convert listings to public later.
The main downside is the added cost and reliance on a third party. But for confidential executive searches or initial market testing, agencies can be a turnkey solution for anonymous LinkedIn job posts.
Evaluate whether anonymity is needed
Before pursuing an anonymous job posting strategy on LinkedIn, be sure it aligns with your goals and employer brand. Some aspects to consider:
– Anonymity excludes many passive candidates since they won’t know your organization.
– Transparency in hiring builds trust and credibility with candidates.
– Your employment reputation can attract great applicants.
– Hiding details might raise red flags about culture or work environment.
For hard-to-fill roles or confidential searches, anonymity could make sense. But in many cases, transparency is better. Weigh the pros and cons based on your specific situation.
Use LinkedIn’s privacy settings
LinkedIn does offer some built-in privacy controls that stop short of full anonymity but can help limit visibility:
– **Only show job to targeted members** – When posting a job you can limit visibility to only connections or LinkedIn members meeting certain criteria.
– **Turn off profile branding** – Disable showing employer name/logo on postings. Generic “LinkedIn Member” shows instead.
– **Private mode** – Prevents your network from seeing your job application activity.
While not completely anonymous, these settings allow you to selectively promote openings just to relevant audiences. This balances marketing a job broadly while limiting associate with your company name.
Conclusion
Posting LinkedIn job listings anonymously requires some creativity and workaround tactics. But with the right approach – like using an alternate profile, third party service, agency, or privacy settings – you can achieve the discretion and candidate access needed. The ideal solution depends on your specific goals. But using these tips, you can explore anonymous job posts in a careful yet effective way. The key is weighing the benefits of anonymity versus showcasing your employer brand. With some strategic thinking, you can anonymously source great candidates and give your organization a confidential hiring edge.