How to add new position on LinkedIn without notifying contacts?

LinkedIn has become an indispensable tool for professionals to build their online presence and networks. With over 722 million users worldwide, it is the largest professional social media platform. Most professionals actively use LinkedIn to connect with colleagues, showcase their skills and achievements, and explore new career opportunities.

One of the most common activities on LinkedIn is updating your profile when you take on a new role. However, sometimes you may wish to update your profile quietly without broadcasting the change to your entire network. Here are some tips on how to add a new position on LinkedIn without notifying all your connections.

Understanding LinkedIn notifications

By default, LinkedIn sends notifications to your connections whenever you update your profile, including adding a new position. This helps your network stay updated about your latest career moves. However, constant notifications about minor profile edits may seem intrusive and promotional to some connections.

Here are some common LinkedIn notifications that are auto-enabled when you add a new position:

• Notifications on LinkedIn home feed and notifications tab
• “X has a new position” email alerts to your connections
• “X updated their profile” notifications on your connections’ LinkedIn apps

You have the option to turn off or limit these notifications when adding new positions. Here are some ways to update your profile discreetly.

Update position without sharing on feed

The easiest way to add a new role without notifications is to opt out of sharing the update on your LinkedIn feed. Follow these steps:

1. Click your profile photo and Edit Profile
2. Add your new position details under Experience
3. When prompted “Share with network?”, uncheck the box
4. Click Save. Your new role will be added without a feed post

This prevents the position update from appearing in your connections’ feeds and notifications tabs. However, the change will still be visible to anyone viewing your profile. The update also gets indexed by search engines.

Limit email notifications to your network

Another approach is to keep the profile update shareable but limit the email notifications. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Communications
2. Under Profile Updates, toggle off “Let connections know when you…”
3. Save changes before updating your new position

This stops LinkedIn from sending mass emails to your connections whenever you add a new role. The update will still appear in your connections’ feeds who actively use LinkedIn. If you want to announce the update, you can manually share the news with your close network connections.

Customize notifications by member type

LinkedIn also allows customizing notifications by member type. You can send update emails to only your closest connections. Here’s how to configure this:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Communications
2. Under Profile Updates, click Customize
3. Select the groups who should get email alerts, such as 2nd degree connections or Group members
4. Save settings and add your new position

With this approach, you can limit notifications to connections who likely appreciate knowing about your career updates instantly via email.

Temporarily disable notifications

You can also pause all notifications temporarily while adding the new role using these steps:

1. Go to Me icon > Settings & Privacy > Push notifications
2. Toggle off notifications for your LinkedIn app and website
3. Add new position on profile
4. Re-enable notifications in Settings when done

This prevents position updates from appearing as in-app notifications. Remember to turn notifications back on later for regular LinkedIn alerts.

Use old position name variation

Another hack is to add your new role using a slightly different position name variation. For example:

• Existing position – Marketing Manager
• New position – Senior Marketing Manager

When you update using a naming variation, LinkedIn considers it as an extension of the same position rather than a new role. So it does not trigger notifications for your connections.

Update position without dates

LinkedIn triggers notifications whenever you add start and end dates for work experiences. If you want to update your new role without notifications:

1. Add position name under Experience
2. Skip filling out duration dates for the role
3. Save profile update

Without dates, LinkedIn does not consider it as a new position and so does not send notifications. You can add durations later after some time has passed.

Add new position as a project

You can also avoid notifications by initially adding your new role as a project rather than a formal position. Here’s how:

1. Go to Add profile section > Accomplishments
2. Click Add project and fill out the new role details
3. Mention this under Experience later without notification

This approach helps avoid triggering notifications about a new permanent job change. After some time, you can move it to your Experience section as an established role.

Wait for LinkedIn recap notifications

LinkedIn sends weekly or monthly recap emails summarizing profile changes over a period. Instead of updating in real-time you can:

1. Add new position within a timeframe
2. Wait for the periodic recap notifications to connections

This bundles your new role with other profile updates. So connections get a consolidated digest rather than instant notification.

Manually control visibility

You can manually control visibility when adding a new role using these steps:

1. Add new position within your profile
2. Go to Update preferences under the role
3. Select if you want to share with Everyone, Connections only, or Only you
4. Save settings

This gives you granular control over who can view the new position update. You can change the visibility settings later as needed.

Wait before sharing update

Here is another option to avoid an immediate blast of notifications to your network:

1. Add new position update without sharing
2. Wait for a few days or weeks
3. Manually share the update later if needed

This creates a lag between your profile update and notifications sent out. The new role will still be visible on your profile if connections proactively visit.

Disable position from profile

You can also add a new role but disable it from appearing on your profile using these steps:

1. Add new position within Experience
2. Click Three dots icon next to role
3. Select Disable position from profile

This adds the role in your employment history but hides it from your profile view. You can toggle it back to visible later when needed.

Remove new position after update

A drastic approach to avoid notifications is to quickly remove the new position after updating your profile:

1. Add new role under Experience
2. Save profile to record change
3. Immediately edit profile and remove new position

This briefly adds the role to your LinkedIn history without alerting your connections via notifications. You can re-add it normally after some time has passed.

Update profile using LinkedIn API

For developers, you can update your LinkedIn profile programmatically using the LinkedIn API instead of the website interface. This allows you to tweak visibility settings and disable notifications.

Here are the steps:

1. Register as a LinkedIn developer
2. Generate an access token
3. Use the People API to update your new position
4. Configure just-in-time notifications as needed

Updating your profile using API calls avoids triggering notifications. You get more customization control over visibility and sharing.

Conclusion

Adding new work experiences is an integral part of maintaining your LinkedIn profile. However, constant notifications about minor profile edits may irritate some connections.

The various options discussed above allow you to discreetly add new positions without blasting updates to your entire network. Choose the approaches that align with your use case – whether you want to temporarily delay notifications, limit visibility of the role or selectively notify close connections.

With these tips, you can keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date for recruiting and networking needs without annoying your connections with constant updates.