Why Your Executive Resume and LinkedIn Profile Should NOT Be Identical
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It's such a commonplace mistake, and it is one that is incredibly easy for job seekers to make. After all, LinkedIn looks like a great site for inputting your resume data. Yet, if your LinkedIn page is just a copy of your resume, you are actually making a huge miscalculation. Your LinkedIn page is your opportunity to stand out to a recruiter who already has your resume in his or her hand. It's also a place to network with like-minded career executives—and it can even be a place to find your next position. The key—don’t turn your profile into a carbon copy of your resume.



GIVE THEM MORE



There are many reasons to differentiate your resume from your LinkedIn profile. As I mentioned before, recruiters already have your resume, so when they visit your page, they expect to learn something new about you. But that isn't the only reason to make things different. Think about your own browsing habits. Do you read every word of every page you visit, or do you skim the content, looking to see if it is interesting and relevant? Recruiters are the same way. This means that they are going to go through your profile much more quickly than they went through your resume—so condense what you have to say into concise but powerful phrases.



OPTIMIZE YOUR PROFILE



Another difference between your resume and your LinkedIn profile is search optimization. While you might pepper keywords into your resume here and there for the purpose of coming up when recruiting software is used, your LinkedIn profile needs to be packed with keywords. Essentially, every qualification and experience you have needs to be written in a way that it contains a keyword. After all, you want your profile coming up in as many relevant searches as possible, so you need to make sure that you are using the right language. It's a critical part of getting noticed on LinkedIn—and you simply can't ignore it and hope that your profile still gets seen.



If your LinkedIn profile looks like a copy of your resume, you certainly have some work to do. The basic categories may be the same, but everything about the way you answer the prompts should be different. Remember to use short, powerful phrases and to utilize keywords to the best of your abilities. Hire a professional who understands keyword and SEO optimization if it’s not your strength. Just make sure you have a LinkedIn page that really sells you as an executive candidate and engages others so they’ll want to connect.