The short answer is no.
The LinkedIn profile is a digital platform designed as an additional facet of your career branding package. That package usually includes a cover letter, a resume, a LinkedIn profile, and a website or media portfolio for specific industries. These should work harmoniously together to paint a picture of your qualifications, skillset, education, work history, and even your personality and core values.
Merely copying and pasting content from your resume directly to the LinkedIn profile reduces the impact of both for 3 main reasons:
1. An employer or hiring manager is looking to learn more about you from each part of your career branding package. If they receive a cover letter, it should introduce you as would a brief handshake and a smile, while being interesting enough to entice them to read the resume. The resume should then provide a snapshot of highlights and accomplishments that further entice the reader to seek more information about you. They may call for an interview or go to your LinkedIn profile to decide whether to make the call or not. Thus, the LinkedIn profile could be the deciding factor. If it is only a carbon copy of the resume it adds no additional value and could hurt your hiring chances.
2. This becomes a wasted opportunity. LinkedIn is a platform very different from the resume format and allows you some leverage in the type of content you include and how you format it. For instance, the About section is a great place to share an anecdote (story detailing a real on-the-job experience), highlights some interesting facts about you, or summarize your qualifications while including some personal, yet professional details that could help the employer get insight into your personality and therefore interest them enough to contact you. If you only copy your summary from your resume to the About section, then you miss the opportunity to convey a positive career branding message with a twist. Also, there are searchable skills that you can add to your profile that make it easier for recruiters to find you. If you simply paste resume content for each previous job but neglect this feature then you are missing out on more exposure to hiring managers.
3. You can and should add more work history to LinkedIn than to your resume. A resume should include mainly current and relevant education and work history that goes back no more than 15 years (and that's being generous, 10 years is better.) As a result, your resume should delete education and jobs that are not relevant to the targeted role (the job you are currently seeking/applying for.) Especially these days, when many candidates are transitioning into new careers and need to streamline irrelevant or very old resume content. However, that could result in some employment gaps. By putting a link on your resume to your LinkedIn profile, briefly mentioning some additional work history in a cover letter, and having your profile updated with jobs that may fill in the gaps, the employer can get a sense of a strong work history without having to receive an overly lengthy resume.
By strategically utilizing your LinkedIn profile as part of a complete career branding package, you make the best use of this tool and increase employer interest, subsequently, increasing your chances of being contacted for an interview.
Get professional LinkedIn profile writing help by visiting: https://www.supernovaresumes.com/resume-writing-services.
Nova Yeoman-Forrestall - Writer, Consultant & Mentor specializing in Career Development and Job Search Readiness. HRM Certified professional who has helped 100s advance toward the achievement of their goals while working for a division of Manpower Group, Monster.com, and as the CEO & Owner of SuperNova Resumes.
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