Why you shouldn't use your LinkedIn profile as your resume

You list all of your past jobs, skills, and achievements on LinkedIn. So why not just copy it all and use it as your resume? Because doing so will pretty much guarantee you don’t get the job. How’s that? Chances are, your LinkedIn profile is an overview of everything you’ve done. It’s an inviting buffet of skill sets that’s designed to show recruiters and professional contacts that you’re up for whatever job they have in mind for you, and to encourage networking opportunities, it may be written conversationally. Or, your profile is a thin construction of your work history, with details spared, so that you keep a low Google footprint and don’t get pigeonholed when, say, you juggle multiple types of jobs/career paths (like an aspiring writer who's an assistant at an agency). Either type of profile is fine...for LinkedIn.

​But when employers review your resume, they don’t want to see the whole smorgasbord, and they certainly don't want to see an empty bread basket -- they want to see if your skills align with what they’re looking for. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Tailor your resume to the job posting. Even if all the companies you’ve listed on LinkedIn are relevant to the job at hand (a rarity!), in your resume, take the time to edit out the unnecessary bullet points or descriptors, and abandon the headline. LinkedIn is the salad bar, with choices upon choices. Your resume should be the curated chef’s menu.

---

--Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan