Spot the Difference: How to Distinguish a Resume from a LinkedIn Profile
For businesses, the information age led them to adapt the “if you can beat ’em, join ’em” mentality, and for the majority of them, it paid off. Still, there were companies who refused to embrace technological advancements by staying true to their bricks and mortar roots through and through. The result? Such companies went the way of the dinosaur, to say the least. A good case in point is HMV, which was once Canada’s largest chain for total entertainment experience with 102 stores nationwide at one point during its height. Now HMV is extinct.
Embracing the digital age is not only for businesses, mind you. An online presence these days is also a must for everyone who is on a job hunt because, sad to say, a resume—even a well-written one—is often insufficient. These days, a resume goes hand in hand with an online profile. So how exactly do you have an online profile that you can specifically use for your employment aspirations? Simple! Create a LinkedIn Profile.
What exactly is a LinkedIn Profile?
First things first, it would help to define what a LinkedIn Profile is to avoid confusion as we go more in-depth as to how it differs from a resume. So we go straight to the source itself. LinkedIn.com says that “Your LinkedIn profile is a professional landing page for you to manage your own, personal brand. It’s a great way for you to tell people who you are and what you do by displaying a general history of your professional experiences and achievements.”
Why do you need to establish your personal brand?
You might be wondering why it’s important to have a personal brand, especially since you’re a novice to the Canadian employment statistic or maybe have not even started out yet anyway. Well, as the adage goes, it’s always good to start early. You need to build your personal brand so you can stand out from the competition by emphasizing your skills and qualifications and the characteristics that make you, well, you. Remember, the days of being in the Cookie Cutter breed are over. You need to tell the world what sets you apart from the rest, and a LinkedIn Profile can help with that.
LinkedIn Profile vs. Resume
Now that you’re caught up with what a LinkedIn Profile is and how it helps boost your individual brand, let’s get on to the main show. How exactly does it differ from a resume? Just to be clear, a resume does share a few similarities with a LinkedIn Profile. Think of them as being cut from the same vein.
For instance, both should ideally focus on your accomplishments and include an impactful summary section. Another similarity is that ideally they should be both be short and succinct. Whereas it’s more difficult to have a quintessential resume kept at 2 pages to align with brevity objectives, keeping a LinkedIn Profile brief and to the point is a lot easier because of the limited number of characters that go with the website.
Now, let’s look into the other features that distinguish the two.
A resume is target-specific, a LinkedIn Profile is general.
Perhaps you know that it’s best to tailor your resume to the role that you’re targeting. For example, if you’re aiming for a position that calls for a great deal of accounting responsibilities, highlight your accounting experience in your previous jobs, for example, at a retail store where you handled the cash register or your volunteer experience for an animal shelter where you managed donations for events.
A LinkedIn Profile, on the other hand, is not something you can customize per job or it will eat a lot of your time. So it’s acceptable that you keep your duties in previous roles in a more general way. However, if you’re set on going for a particular industry, then you can prepare your LinkedIn Profile exactly to attract employers from that field.
A resume is formal, a LinkedIn Profile is casual.
A resume is always written in a professional tone and uses more active words or phrases instead of passive. It’s recommended as well for you to drop the pronouns like “I” when writing a resume. With your resume, you want to give the impression that you’re someone who relishes to don a suit and tie or something truly dressy.
A LinkedIn Profile, meanwhile, is more casual in tone, which means you want to give off the vibe that you’re easy to go along with and like to have a bit of relaxation and fun. In addition, it’s perfectly acceptable to use pronouns, so don’t be shy about using “I.”
A resume is show, a LinkedIn Profile is show and tell.
Listing your achievements is a must for both, but hiring managers may actually want more than merely relying on your word.
This is how LinkedIn profile differs because since it’s a networking site, your previous bosses or colleagues can actually validate the skills you’ve listed through the website’s endorsement feature.
We hope you now have a wonderful idea on how you can separate your resume from a LinkedIn Profile. Now, what are you waiting for? Sign up for an account and create your profile right away!
SOURCES:
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/topics/6042/6043/15493/your-linkedin-profile-overview?lang=en
https://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/hmv-canada-to-close-all-102-stores
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