There is a failure in LinkedIn’s new resume builder that converts your experience, education, and related profile keywords into a printable document.
By following these directions…
…you can achieve this sample result.
The failure lies in LinkedIn’s belief that every job seeker should use the same resume. As Lauren Randa Hasson, Julie Walraven, and other career coaches will tell you, a resume should be customized, tweaked, or otherwise tailored every time it is used.
LinkedIn doesn’t give you that editable option (without starting the process all over again). LinkedIn doesn’t want you to have a word processing option. Choose your design, convert your data, and, well, if you try this you may lose out on that job opening to a competitive candidate who made his or her resume stand out.
About Ari Herzog
Hi Ari,
Thanks for mention in this post. My biggest complaint with this process is that it assumes you have a great LI profile to start with. If your profile is not filled with value-rich information and isn’t accomplishment-driven. I have seen far too many LI profiles with barely anything filled in and many more that are filled with nothing that a hiring manager needs to know. There have been templates around for years and books that you could emulate but a real resume is written with considerable self-reflection and using a professional to sift out those golden nuggets can make the process much less painful.
It’s been a couple of months since I tried to import my resume into LinkedIn, but it was not able to do it. Mine is actually a c.v. and is quite long, so perhaps that was the reason.
From my profile people can click my website links to get to my resume/c.v.
I could not agree more. I write LinkedIn profiles for clients based on their resumes (with the keywords embedded to allow recruiters to search on them) – however, I also add personal verbiage which does not belong on a resume – since I believe a LinkedIn profile, although similar to a resume, is really a networking document and introduction to a person – not a resume, which is a more formal document.
In addition, I recommend folks list more jobs, for a longer period of time then belongs on a resume on LinkedIn, so folks can network easily with all people in their past – you never know when one of them will have a lead or connection that will get them closer to getting an interview for the job they want.
This is only the beginning there may be improvements to come.
Ari,
I cannot agree more about Linkedin wanting every resume to look the same. It cracks me up when I go on Linkedin and every profile is some variation of “I have excellent interpersonal skills and am proficient in MS Word and Powerpoint.” The people that choose to stand out and have interesting, unique resumes and Linkedin profiles are going to reep the rewards because everything else looks the same!
Good advice Ari
I agree 100% Ari. It’s like communism – all the same. lol
I hope that LinkedIn guys fix this error. Now it is not usable.
Hi Ari, This such a glaring omission that I’m wondering if there’s something underlying this – how does it serve LinkedIn to have you recreate each time you want to edit? I can only come up with it making it more attractive to advertisers – but this would backfire as LinkedIn rely on the site being useful and user friendly to users.
The only possible plus I can see is that if your resume is available for all to see at all times then it allows you to promote your core – without distraction. Monster etc are a better bet for passive CV placement in my book – Linked in should be focused.
Baby.
LinkedIn doesn’t want you to edit your resume every time you send it off. They want you to edit it once. That’s my take.
I agree that the only good resume is customized one and like you take LinkedIn to task for failing to add this option. Hopefully LinkedIn will correct this oversight. Thank you for the post
I agree, and echo Robin’s point that LinkedIn profiles and resumes have different goals, so while creating one from the other seems like a neat idea, it is a disservice to people who don’t know any better. In general, templates are not useful, because job seekers are unique and shouldn’t try to squeeze themselves into someone else’s idea of how to demonstrate their expertise.
Fully agree with this. An ability to customize would really help along with a public/private feature enabling one to have multiple resumes with your choice for public visible. In fact, what they need is a resume management application, not just a resume creator.