So let’s discuss. I’m curious for what you guys say here, but here are my thoughts for why a link to your LinkedIn profile does not supersede your resume:
- A LinkedIn profile is not easily printable. Admittedly, almost everything is online and via Zoom calls lately, but I think that a lot of interviewers (particularly when there is a group reviewing resumes!) would rather look over printed resumes in their hand versus online profiles.
- LinkedIn is not customised. One of the big suggestions I have for people who are considering different career paths is to create more than one resume to emphasise different aspects of your experience and skillset — even just to make small changes in the wording or order of items. But particularly if you’re applying to a new potential career path, I don’t think a LinkedIn link would be helpful at all.
- LinkedIn is public. I may be in a slightly odd situation because I own my own business, but I absolutely think that any future resumes of mine will include numbers that I would not include in a public arena, whether they’re regarding traffic or revenue.
- There’s a very real apathy/competency check with resumes (vs LinkedIn). Do you care about your resume? Are there typos? Have you formatted your resume properly so it prints well? Is it as brief as possible, or are you that 23-year-old who thinks you need three pages?
The beauty of a LinkedIn profile is that it can do things your resume cannot. And trust me, you want to take advantage of these features, both to stand out from your own resume and from other profiles.
For instance, on a resume you’re limited to your employment history and professional items from the past. On your LI profile, you can share both your professional past AND your future professional goals.
Your future professional goals can be incorporated in your headline, summary section, and interests section (i.e. exemplified by the companies you follow and the groups you join).
The headline and summary sections are also a good place to show a little bit of your personality and work philosophy.
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Another great feature of LI is you can include a digital portfolio in your profile. You do this by adding media, files, and links of samples of your work in both the summary section and in each job entry. This keeps your profile from feeling “flat” and gives viewers an idea of the type of work you’re capable of.
If you choose to only list your job title, company name and dates of employment, you’re leaving a huge, gaping hole in your LI profile. Especially if a recruiter decides to save your profile to a PDF, which is an option available to them directly from your profile (see screenshot below).
When your profile is saved and downloaded as a PDF, it pops up in a resume format. Not having all of your profile filled out, especially all your job descriptions / duties / accomplishments, will make the PDF look like a very sparse resume.
Don’t believe me? Go to your profile and click the “More” button under your headline. When you “save to PDF” and the downloaded PDF pops up, are you happy with how it looks? If not, you need to go back and fill out your profile more thoroughly.
