LinkedIn is the leading professional networking platform. It’s a way for professionals, job seekers, and businesses to connect, and it’s a virtual space that gives you the ability to curate your professional identity. Through LinkedIn, you can build a contact network, share information about yourself and your industry, and connect with job opportunities.
Initially, you create a profile on the site, like other social platforms. Your profile will usually include an overview of your education, work experience, skills, recommendations, and a professional headline.
The concept of LinkedIn is structured around connections, where you’re building out your professional network. It’s also an incredibly popular platform for job seekers, recruiters, and businesses looking for talent. Through LinkedIn’s platform, you can not only search for open job opportunities but also apply for positions directly and receive recommendations.
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LinkedIn is one of the most popular ways recruiters and companies find candidates. According to Jobscan, 87% of recruiters turn to LinkedIn to source and vet candidates for positions. If you have at least five skills listed on your profile, according to LinkedIn reports, you’re 33 times more likely to have recruiters contact you, and your profile will get an average of 17 times more views than people with fewer skills listed.
When job seekers and professionals are using LinkedIn, creating their profile for the first time, or updating it, they’re often left wondering if they should also include a complete resume. They might also question the relevance of adding their resume in its entirety to their profile.
The following are some of the key things to know about including a resume on your LinkedIn profile.
Should You Include Your Resume on LinkedIn?
Including a well-written summary on your LinkedIn profile mirroring your experience is recommended on LinkedIn. When you have a resume uploaded, it’s going to give a more detailed overview of your skills, qualifications, and experiences than your profile alone would. Still, it’s not always necessary or advisable.
Potential benefits of including your full resume as an upload on LinkedIn include:
A well-documented resume adds credibility to your profile and creates a sense of trust in the information you’re providing.
You’re more likely to show up in search results with a full profile.
If you have a comprehensive resume uploaded on the site, other people will be able to understand your background more thoroughly.
Having your full resume added somewhere on your LinkedIn can give context to your profile summary information.
How Is Your Resume Different from Your Profile?
Your LinkedIn profile is similar in purpose to your resume, but they’re not the same. Some of the differences include:
Format: Resumes are concise and formatted specifically to have clear sections such as your contact information and a summary or objective, as well as your work experience, education, and skills. Some resumes will have other sections like awards or certifications you’ve earned. Your LinkedIn profile has a more dynamic and flexible format.
Audience: A resume is targeted or tailored to your industry and often a particular job application. It’s very much focused on a specific position and sent directly to an employer or recruiter. Your LinkedIn profile is intended for a broader audience, and it’s more about having an ongoing professional presence than it is about being a targeted application document.
Customization: Your resume can be customized for each application, meaning you can change the content, keywords, and format depending on the requirements of the employer and position. Your LinkedIn profile will tend to be more of a comprehensive overview of who you are professionally.
Privacy: While you can upload your resume directly to LinkedIn, it’s often viewed as more of a private document sent directly to a potential employer. Your LinkedIn profile is public by default, although you do have some control using privacy settings. Still, your overall objective is to have an online presence discoverable by a wide audience on LinkedIn.
Interaction: A resume isn’t an interactive document. It’s part of a job application. LinkedIn is a dynamic tool for building relationships.
Searchability: It’s generally not easy to search for your resume online unless you’re submitting it through specific channels, whereas anyone can search for your LinkedIn profile.
Uploading Your Resume vs. Pasting It Directly
You can technically paste your resume directly into LinkedIn, but it’s often better to upload it. If you paste it, it does make it simpler for people to see everything there, and you can incorporate relevant keywords, making it easier to find. At the same time, you can still incorporate those keywords into your LinkedIn profile without directly pasting your resume into your profile.
There are quite a few cons of pasting a resume directly versus uploading it. For example, there are formatting issues that can occur. If you’re just using LinkedIn to paste your resume, it’s going to make your profile more static and less engaging because you aren’t taking full advantage of all the platform’s features.
The biggest reason it can be better to upload your resume rather than pasting it word-for-word on your profile is because of privacy concerns. You might not want every detail of your resume shared publicly. You could also be limiting yourself as far as what recruiters and hiring managers see versus what you could showcase on a tailored resume.
When you upload your resume on LinkedIn, you can attach it to certain sections of your profile. That means that while everything isn’t immediately available, as soon as someone views your profile, if an employer is interested, they can take the next step and download your resume.
You can upload your resume in the “About” or “Media” section of your profile, and in that way, it is visible to anyone who visits your profile, but again, it must be downloaded.
Ultimately, many professionals find the best option is to fully utilize the capabilities of LinkedIn by filling in their professional information but reserving their resume for situations where they’re applying for specific positions.
You can do this by using your LinkedIn profile to apply for jobs and then uploading your resume as an attachment.
The main takeaway? Use your resume as a framework to optimize your LinkedIn profile rather than directly copying and pasting it.
In order to use your resume as a framework, it’s a good idea to utilize a resume writing service. Expert Writing Pros provides free resume reviews and a range of resume-writing services that will help you stand out in your specific industry. Your resume is tailored to the role you’re seeking, is custom-designed, and is optimized for search.