How to write an "open to work" post that actually lands interviews

JOB SEARCH STRATEGY WITH EARLY.

It was April, and Whitney had already been looking for her next role for 4 months.

She joined the Early Accelerator in month 3 of her search, and after a month of coaching, she finally mustered the courage to do something that strikes fear into the hearts of all job seekers…

Publish an Open-To-Work post on LinkedIn.

Nervously, she hit send.

And within a week, she had:

• A call with a founder who said she had an incredible reputation in the industry and that he wanted her name on the company’s pitch deck.

• A 90-minute interview scheduled with the CEO, CPO, and COO of an AI fintech startup.

• A Series A AI founder she’d cold emailed two months earlier who reached back out saying, “Hey Whitney, I saw your post. We’ve grown quickly since you last reached out, and I’d love to chat to see if there’s a role fit.”

Plus, a calendar full of networking calls and an inbox full of people from her network offering to help.

All of that from one LinkedIn post.

Here’s what she wrote afterward:

Most “open-to-work” posts produce a good amount of impressions, likes, and comments from old coworkers wishing you luck, but not much else.

Whitney’s post filled her calendar.

So this week, especially with all the layoffs happening, I want to break down what she did differently and walk through another open-to-work post that did a lot of things right but left conversion on the table.

Regardless of whether you’re just starting your search or you’re months in without sending your open-to-work post, this one’s for you.

Here’s what we’ll cover…

Table of Contents

• Why most "open to work" posts get sympathy but no interviews

• The 4-part framework every effective post hits (I call it RICA)

• A teardown of Whitney's post that landed her a calendar full of interviews

• A teardown of JB's post that got >350 reactions but could be improved

2. THE RICA FRAMEWORK

Every open-to-work post that actually converts into interviews and networking calls that move you forward in your job search process hits four specific things.

Most posts hit one or two.

The best hit all four.

I call it RICA:

• Role - the exact titles or functions you want, not just the category.

• Impact - what you want to do in that role, with numerical proof of what you’ve done before.

• Company - the size, stage, industry, and location of what would be ideal

• Ask - a specific action or set of actions you want the reader to take

When an open-to-work post hits all four, the reader doesn’t need to think.

They either know someone who fits the description and tag them, send your profile and post to a person they know who might be able to help, reach out to you with an introduction, or to schedule a call to catch up.

It’s as simple as that.

Let me show you what it looks like in practice.

TEARDOWN #1: WHITNEY (THE MODEL)

Whitney’s post is a clear example of RICA done right.

Let’s walk through it together.

Role

She didn’t just write “leadership roles in tech”. She named three specific lanes: Customer Success, Growth/Retention, and Revenue Expansion. A founder or recruiter reading her post knows in 3 seconds which of their open roles she fits.

Where this could be even better: Ideally, you get it down to one role type with different titles. If you’re going to list more than one function, they should be related to the same work, and/or you can provide a descriptor that’s relevant to the work you’ve done in the past. Otherwise, you run the risk of people looking at it and saying, “This person doesn’t know what they want.” If they think that, they’re less likely to reach out. In this case, Whitney had provided enough examples of impact-driven initiatives in each area in the post, so the three were relevant. But it would have been better if she gave some titles she’s targeting.

Impact

She stacked three examples of impact, two of which were tied to numerical values. An incremental $545M in sales as an IC, plus $1B sales driven. The numbers show the scope and scale of the impact that you were able to drive. That gives people context to understand if you’re a good fit for where they are. Anchor to the big numbers you’ve driven and your highlight reel of accomplishments and the reader will take the rest of the post very seriously.

Where this could be even better: The LTV and scaling sales bullets are great descriptors but would be even more powerful with numeric metrics attached to them. Quantify, quantify, quantify.

Company

Early-stage, high-growth FinTech or SaaS is specific enough that the reader can identify within 5 seconds whether their company or someone in their network would be a good fit for her. If you run a Series A FinTech and have an open CS leadership role, you DM her. If you’re working in a late stage marketplace company, you tag a friend who would be a good connection for her.

Where this could be even better: If you can describe the actual size, stage, and problem set the company is dealing with you can have people looking at the post saying, “How did she describe us so perfectly.” It shows you know what you want and have a clear understanding of the environment where you drive the most impact.

Ask

She gave the reader three specific, doable actions:

• Know someone hiring? Tag them

• Building something yourself? DM me.

• Let’s connect.

She didn’t give them a vague instruction like, “Let me know if you know of any openings”. She targeted two specific personas and let them know the action to take.

Where this could be even better: I personally like the idea of using this as an opportunity to catch up with old coworkers to kickstart your warm networking. So the “Let’s connect” bullet could be substituted for something like, “And if we haven’t caught up in a while I’d love to schedule a call to hear about what you’ve been up to.”

A FEW OTHER ELEMENTS THAT MAKE THIS A WINNER

Structure: What you don’t see are massive paragraphs describing the ins and outs of her career and job search. It’s straight to the point, simple, clean, and easy to scan.

Tone: The tone is positive, forward-looking, and confident. If you’re struggling in the job search, save that for a personal conversation. This post is designed to show that you know what you want and are confident there’s someone out there for you. It gives off the “with or without you” energy that’s infectious in the job search.

Headshot/Selfie: She paired all of these great post techniques with a photo of herself. I blurred it for privacy reasons but it’s a great shot of her smiling. Image + text posts on LinkedIn get far more reach than a text-only post and you want this post to get as much reach as possible. So, embrace the cringe of showing your face on LinkedIn and attach one. It doesn’t have to be a professional headshot. A selfie or a candid shot of you working or enjoying yourself in your prior role will work great.

That post is what got her three interviews booked and a calendar full of catch-up and networking calls in less than a week.

TEARDOWN #2: JB (THE ALMOST THERE)

Before I dig into this post, I’ll preface my feedback by saying a few things.

This post was written in the hours immediately after a layoff to get the word out and start building general connections. The intended goal of the post was not to jump into the job search, but rather to get some inbound outreach from friendly, familiar faces to catch up with.

Layoffs suck (I know because I’ve executed five layoffs and been laid off twice), and the process of rightsizing your life after spending almost eight years at a company with coworkers and work you enjoyed deserves its own newsletter (I know that feeling too, because I was laid off after 7 years at Uber when they sold the micromobility division during COVID). Friendly faces and catch-ups while you process what’s next are a great way to ease into your next career phase.

It’s not expected that you jump immediately into the job search or that you know exactly what you want to do next in those immediate hours.

With that said, here’s the post and the breakdown.

JB was a part of the Meta layoffs that affected 8,000 people this week.

His post is emotionally honest and well-written.

The fact that he took annual revenue of $40M in 2018 to $985M in 2026 is an insane number that shows tremendous impact.

And just two days after posting, this thing is ripping in terms of reach with over 350 reactions, 22 comments, 7 reposts, and likely tens of thousands of impressions (profiles his post was surfaced to in their feed).

JB probably has a full week of conversations lined up off the back of this post.

When you’ve managed a billion-dollar book of business at Meta and you’re a part of one of the highest profile layoffs in recent memory, your network does a lot of heavy lifting for you, even if it’s not perfectly structured.

That said, let’s go through the RICA framework and see where it stacks up.

Role

He writes that he wants to bring his “experience in sales leadership and tech to a new team.” That’s a category, not a role. A recruiter doesn’t know if they should consider him for a VP Sales, Head of Partnerships, Chief Revenue Officer, or General Manager. Specificity here would be a gamechanger.

Impact

He nailed this one. $40M to $985M in 7 years is an eye-popping stat that, if I’m a hiring manager, leaves me thinking, “Damn, this guy’s a killer, we’ve got to see if we can get him.” He could pump this even further by sharing the other impact on his highlight reel that I’m sure is there. To make the impact you share surgical, make a list of 10-20 target job descriptions, extract the responsibilities they’re asking for and make sure you share examples of all of them in the post.

Company

There’s no signal on stage, industry, or what kind of company he wants to be at next. Big tech? Startups? Series A? Series D? Public? He left it open-ended (understandably, because minutes ago, he was still working at Meta). If you don’t give specifics, readers are left to assume “anywhere,” which means they don’t recommend you to anyone in particular.

Ask

His closer is, “If you want to talk shop, talk hunting, or just catch up, I’d love to hear from you.” This is warm, human, and the right tone for the hours following the layoff, but for everyone else, it doesn’t tell the reader what to do if they actually have a role for him or someone from their network that would be perfect for him to speak with.

A FEW OTHER ELEMENTS THAT MAKE THIS A WINNER

Written Like A Human: This is such a weird sentence to write, but in 2026, you know what I mean. There’s no contrastive parallelism (it’s not X, it’s Y), the sentence structure isn’t choppy with periods, it’s just… human. He weaves in elements of his personality as well (his kids, his love of bows and hunting), which are infectious and allow people to connect with him on a personal level.

Keeping It Positive: He didn’t talk about how awful it was or how terrible a company Meta is. Instead, he focused on all the positives and takeaways that he’ll bring with him about his experience. He took the high road. It may feel cathartic to dump all those emotions onto the LinkedIn text box, but trust me, it’s better to put that in your journal and not poison your external perception.

Owning The Layoff: When you’re laid off, there’s a perception that people will think it’s because you were a low performer. I’ve heard people say, “People don’t lay off their high performers,” which is categorically untrue. Especially when they cut entire divisions. That said, JB gets ahead of it, citing that it was a mass layoff of 8,000 people, and he had stellar performance reviews. Also, the results he shares speak for themselves.

JB’s post works because of the positive elements it included, the sensationalism of the Meta layoff, and his badass results.

Most of us don’t have all of those elements.

Which is exactly why most of us need all four. R-I-C-A

DON’T JOB SEARCH ALONE

If you’re reading through this thinking “I want help to do this step-by-step” that’s exactly what the Early Accelerator is built for.

Here’s what our members get:

One Early member recently landed a remote senior leadership role at a $500M startup that wasn’t even hiring.

Another went from VP to a COO role less than 90 days after joining.

These are the result of the playbooks, mentorship, coaching, company research, and community we provide.

It’s the best way I’ve found to cut through the noise and land a role at the next generation of world-changing startups.

Learn more and apply today (click here).

3. THE TAKEAWAY

If you’ve been on the job search for a while and haven’t published an open-to-work post, I know it’s scary, but do it.

If you posted an open-to-work post immediately following a layoff, but now you know what you’re targeting, post another one.

Here’s the short verison of what makes an open-to-work post work in 2026:

1. Use a recent headshot, selfie, or candid of you. People trust faces and they get more reach on the platform.

2. Hit all four parts of RICA. Role, Impact, Company, Ask.

3. Stack 2-3 numerical proof points. Numbers earn the reader’s attention. Bonus points if you pull the case studies to match target job descriptions.

4. End with one specific, doable ask. It’s ok to give three different specific asks for three different reader types. The key is for it to be specific and low lift.

5. Post Tuesday-Thursday between 8:00-8:30 AM ET. This is when I’ve seen professional LinkedIn traffic peak.

6. Write it yourself. By all means, use AI to outline or to pull out highlights, but please, please, please write it in your voice. There are enough AI slop posts on LinkedIn, don’t make your open-to-work post one of them. It’ll achieve the exact opposite of what you’re hoping for.

That’s it.

The post itself takes 20 minutes to write if you’re clear on what you want and, if done right, can lead to a calendar full of interviews, networking calls with new connections, and catch-up calls with people looking to help.

That’s a hell of a way to start a job search.

The “if you’re clear on what you want” is where most people get stuck - and it’s exactly why I built the Early Accelerator.

That’s it for this week.

Two open-to-work posts.

Two teardowns with ways they could be even more effective.

One framework (RICA) to use for your post.

If you take one thing from this, please let it be that the reader isn’t going to do the work for you. Be specific about your Role, your Impact, your target Company, and your Ask. Make it easy for them to help you.

Then publish, reply to every comment, DM the people who reacted, and let me know how it goes!

Let’s go get you that job! 🏆

Kyle

Founder of Early

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are the three ways I can help you most this week:

1. Download the Clarity Playbook (FREE) - the exact process I walk every Accelerator member through to lock in their Role, Impact, and Company before they ever write a post or send a resume. Start here!

2. Download the Master Interview Prep Playbook (FREE) - the 47-page playbook full of prompts covering everything from behavioral prep to case study panels, used by Early members landing roles at YC, a16z, Google Ventures, and Sequoia-backed startups.

3. Apply to join the Early Accelerator - Get coached directly by me, surrounded by a community of hundreds of badass startup operators. This is everything I learned when landing my role as Uber employee 250 and transitioning post-layoff to a Series A with top VC investors. We give you everything you need to make your startup job search a success. Structure, accountability, strategies, investor-grade company data, target company lists, negotiation assistance, everything to help you win.