As workers increasingly use online profiles, their professional information becomes publicly visible. This raises an important question: Does presenting oneself as a specialist or generalist lead to greater visibility, and does that visibility translate into better opportunities? We investigate this puzzle in a quasi-experimental setting where a platform masks occupational labels from its user list. The results reveal a paradox of visibility: Before the platform masks the labels, specialists attract more profile views but receive fewer interview invitations. Although the increase in profile views mediates the positive effect of specialist signaling on interview offers, it also alters the evaluative context, ultimately reducing specialists’ total gain in offers. Further analysis shows that the visibility gain for specialists is driven by their signaling, while their opportunity loss is linked to the skills they highlight. These differences disappear once the platform masks the labels. We discuss the implications of these findings for career development, the online labor market, and categorization literature.
