LinkedIn user goes viral for creating a #Desperate banner while job hunting

It’s not uncommon to see an #OpenToWork circle around a profile picture on LinkedIn, but one hopeful hire is standing out with a new banner choice that sends a strong message.

Courtney Summer Myers, a graphic designer and illustrator based in the UK, went viral on the professional networking platform when she introduced a #Desperate banner on her page in September.

“There’s been a lot of discourse about how the #OpenToWork banner puts off recruiters and hiring managers, because it makes you come across as desperate,” Myers, 28, wrote on LinkedIn. “Frankly, as a victim of redundancy, I am desperate, and I don’t think that’s anything to be ashamed of.”

During a conversation with TODAY.com, Myers said the discourse she is referring to stems from a “hot take” that former Google recruiter Nolan Church shared a year ago, who said the #OpenToWork symbol on LinkedIn was the “biggest red flag” when it came to hiring.

“Recruiting is like dating,” Church told CNBC in October 2023. “You have to make the other side feel like you’re exclusive.”

“It actually feels to a hiring manager like desperation,” Church continued in regard to the banner.

Myers, however, disagrees with Church’s analysis, arguing that being “desperate” for a job is not a bad thing.

“I just thought that was sort of a bit ridiculous,” Myers tells TODAY.com regarding Church’s comments. She also clarified that her now-viral post isn’t literal in suggesting the #Desperate banner should be used, but takes a stand against that “kind of attitude.”

Myers was laid off from her job in November 2023 with two months of severance pay and says she has applied to around 700 jobs since then. She said she has received less than a 10% response rate from companies.

“Essentially, I posted a little rant, and I didn’t think anything of it really, and it’s sort of blown up,” Myers explains.

One month later, Myers’ LinkedIn post has over 400,000 reactions, and she’s received over 10,000 LinkedIn connection requests and around the same amount of direct messages, with words of encouragement and tips on opportunities.

Many users have publicly expressed their support under her post, too, which has now accumulated nearly 10,000 comments.

“Being laid off or becoming otherwise unemployed is nothing to be ashamed of,” one person wrote, in part, under her post.

“I completely agree with this! Being #OpenToWork doesn’t reflect desperation, but rather resilience and determination,” another said. “It takes strength to put yourself out there, especially after something like redundancy, which is often beyond anyone’s control.”

“I just love this post. Thank you for be so honest and for telling it how it is,” a third penned, in part.

Myers said some people have expressed disagreement with using the #Desperate banner, but she believes the pushback comes from users not reading her entire post, as she encourages others to use the #OpenToWork banner shamelessly.

“So many people see something and then before even thinking, they’re typing a comment and they’re not really engaging with it properly, and they’re not sort of empathizing,” she says.

However, Myers says most of the feedback has been positive, and many users have asked where she got the banner. Myers, who made it herself, uploaded another LinkedIn post with a transparent PNG version of the banner so others can use it, too.

“There have been a lot of people using it, because I asked people to tag me if they did use it. So yeah, it’s been really nice to see people from sort of all over the world really get involved, even though it’s not even their native language,” she says. “It’s resonating with a global audience, which I think is quite sad because it shows that this isn’t just sort of a UK-based problem. This is a global thing, which is a problem.”

Myers says she hasn’t received any concrete offers in the graphic design sphere yet, but in people’s efforts to help, she’s been offered positions in other fields, like copywriting. While she has turned down some roles due to not feeling “set up” to do the job with the experience she has, Myers expresses that some “really great opportunities” have come from her now-expansive network.

One LinkedIn user, for example, reached out and gave her a free ticket to an entertainment attractions design conference in Amsterdam so she could network, an opportunity England-native Myers snatched up.

“So, I’m here like networking in-person with all of these people,” she says. “And, yeah, it’s just really, really crazy how like things in real life have sort of happened from something on the internet.”