LinkedIn will let you hunt jobs without letting your boss know

Remember those times when you would resist updating your LinkedIn status - which ends up becoming the highlight of your profile - just to avoid direct questions from the boss or HR department? However now, if you want to switch a job, LinkedIn will help you quietly look for new career opportunities, without letting your boss know.

Linkedin's latest feature, Open Candidates, is a service that enables keen job-switchers to signal external recruiters that they're looking for another job. In turn, recruiters who are looking for such candidates will get a signal that a particular candidate is looking to change job and is open to getting contacted about new career opportunities.

The signal will be viewable only to recruiters who use LinkedIn’s premium (paid) tier of service (prices begin at $8,000 and vary depending on the number of licenses).

The awesome part is LinkedIn won't share this information with recruiters from your own company, or firms that have a known affiliation.

It will be initially available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia and will get rolled out to more markets throughout this year.

According to a Business Insider report, LinkedIn says this feature idea came from an episode of HBO's "Silicon Valley," where the character wanted to leave the fictional startup. Within seconds, he was hearing from recruiters. LinkedIn says, "This is exactly the experience we want each and every one of our members to have."

As the name suggests, the process to update your status is very simple. Just go into your LinkedIn preferences and select the "Let recruiters know you're open" option. You can also choose what kind of opportunities you're looking for.

The new feature from LinkedIn can be considered as one of the weapons to stay competitive in the market, that is getting crowded with competitors like Indeed, Monster, and Glassdoor.