By now, most professionals know about LinkedIn and have created a profile that both contacts and recruiters can easily see. Including a resume with your Profile on LinkedIn adds a level of professionalism and will increase your visibility to relevant job opportunities. LinkedIn is extremely valuable to the recruiter because they not only will learn more about you, but they can also see your contacts and whether you know anyone else in their company. However, knowing exactly how to present your information and career history onto the LinkedIn platform, in order to advance your job search, is critical.
LinkedIn has actually become one of the priority tools used by hiring managers and professionals in the business of recruiting. They will use it to validate the information they are reviewing on a resume; and they will also use it to source prospective candidates for a position requiring unique qualifications to build out their candidate pools. So it is extremely important that your LinkedIn profile exactly matches your resume and presents you as an extraordinary candidate for a specific position, while also creating your own brand identity.
A well-designed, comprehensive, LinkedIn Profile increases the potential of being seen by a recruiter and ultimately receiving an invitation for a job interview. Unlike on a resume, there is unlimited space to further explain specific details in your background experience, and enables you to add a more substantial explanation of your qualifications and career history. For example, sometimes a recruiter does not know the company where you currently work or have worked. They can access more information about specific companies through LinkedIn and learn more about those organizations - which supplements the content on your resume. It will typically show the industry, size, revenue and profitability of an organization, which puts in context the scope of your position.
There are multiple ways to add your resume to the LinkedIn website. Most professionals upload their resume onto their Profile for general visibility. It is always important that the information presented on LinkedIn exactly matches the resume you are using to apply for a given position. You can add to the content, but make sure that there are no contradictions.
In addition to uploading the resume-information to your general Profile, there are ways to also add your resume specifically to ensure that recruiters will see it, while maintaining your confidentiality and preventing your current organization from discovering that you are seeking a new job. A step-by-step guideline for adding a resume to LinkedIn includes:
When you click on “Add Link” you will insert the link for your confidential resume. Just assign a title, such as, (Name or Initials and “Resume”), and your information will be readily visible to all recruiters. Adding the resume here, as well as on your public Profile, will make you more searchable. Then, to advance your visibility to recruiters further, go to:
Once you have clicked on “Share”, the LinkedIn algorithm will scan the data and promote your resume for various ongoing searches by recruiters. So, for example, if your public Profile does not include that you have specific work experience, but it is listed on your resume, the LinkedIn scanner will find you if a recruiter is seeking candidates with similar required skills, or from a targeted company.
LinkedIn is set up so that people at your current company are unable to see that you are sharing your resume with recruiters. This is the ideal way to broaden your job search, reach more recruiters if you are looking for a job, especially if you are trying to change careers or apply to different roles, or are using different keywords.
It is always important that both the public profile and the resume include strong, actionable content, keywords and measurable achievements. Recently, LinkedIn developed a new feature that will scan your resume for Keywords - which in today’s recruiting environment are the most important components of your information. The same Keywords should be visible in your Resume, your Profile, your Professional Summary and your Achievements sections.
For example, if you earned recognition or certification for a specific project or to advance your skill set, include the skills acquired when you list it on the resume, and then repeat those same skills on your LinkedIn profile so that everything matches and enables the recruiter and ATS system to advance the application.
There is also a way to upload your resume publicly on LinkedIn, visible to all, by clicking on “Media”; but that resume will not be used to actively search for jobs. You will need to upload it again in the “Job Application” link to demonstrate that you are seeking job opportunities, as well.
Once you have added all relevant content to your LinkedIn profile, be sure to add or paste the link, or customized URL, underneath your Heading on the resume so that recruiters, when receiving your resume, can quickly click on the link and learn more about you. Please note that you can also ask Chat GPT to tailor your resume to your LinkedIn profile, which is an added benefit.
Sharing your resume on LinkedIn both privately, and exclusively to recruiters, will increase your visibility and result in many more opportunities to consider.