Thought about posting your executive resume directly on your LinkedIn Profile?
You might assume this will save a few steps in the hiring process and make it easier for employers to vet your qualifications.
However, it doesn’t quite work that way. There are good reasons to use LinkedIn as your personal marketing platform and your resume as a powerfully tuned branding tool.
Read on for the 4 main reasons to NEVER post your resume on LinkedIn:
1) Uploading your resume to LinkedIn could alert your employer of your job search.
Are you in the midst of a confidential job search? Posting your resume on LinkedIn could convince your current employer that you’re looking around for a better opportunity.
You’re probably aware that your employees could be avid users of LinkedIn. If your team sees your full resume posted online, they might become concerned – and start their own job search, if they haven’t done so already.
Rather than making it obvious that you’re looking for a change, it’s best to simply keep your LinkedIn Profile UPDATED with changes in skills, new positions, and promotions for a more subtle message of leadership and capability. This strategy is far less likely to indicate that you’re abandoning ship.
2) Publicly posting your resume makes it difficult for recruiters to get paid for sourcing you.
The basis of a recruiter’s business is to identify ideal candidates for their client companies… finding hidden gems, if you will.
When you post your resume on LinkedIn (or on a job board), recruiters lose the ability to claim a fee for finding you and presenting your resume to employers. See 5 Common Myths About Working With Executive Recruiters.
After all, another recruiter could easily send your resume directly to the same employer – or the client company could simply find your resume on LinkedIn themselves!
In order to work successfully with recruiters, you’re best off keeping your resume private until you’ve established a strong relationship with a recruiting firm – enabling you to customize your document (see point #2) and guaranteeing that no other recruiter will be forwarding the same credentials.
3) Uploading your resume to LinkedIn might leak confidential data.
Here’s the BIGGEST reason most executives should refrain from posting their resumes online: it discloses too much insider information about your company.
If your executive resume is well-written, it should contain compelling, SPECIFIC details of how you’ve rescued a challenged operation, set new pricing, tightened network security, restructured a division, or gained back market share, as well as the metrics involved.
These stories are crucial in your job search, but NOT for public consumption. Why? They show outsiders how your employer’s business is growing, stagnant, or possibly even facing shutdown.
If your Board or shareholders see this data (and your resume) on LinkedIn, there’s a good chance you could be dismissed or at least questioned about your intentions. Rival companies might also be able to use the data in your executive resume to predict your company’s corporate strategy or rush a competing product to market.
Instead, ensure your LinkedIn Profile is regularly updated with a high-level summary of your accomplishments, plus a robust mix of keywords… all toned down to refrain from disclosing corporate secrets.
4) Your resume should be customized to EACH job.
You already know this; an executive resume works much harder when you use it as a tool to show alignment between employer needs and your skills.
Your LinkedIn Profile, however, will often be more “general” in nature – and therefore NOT identical to your resume.
For example, you might have broad skills that let you pursue either a COO and Finance Director role. Your LinkedIn Profile should show BOTH capabilities, but your resume must showcase accounting skills for a Finance position (or operations strategy for a COO job). Otherwise, employers hiring for these positions will see you as a “weaker” candidate.
In addition, resumes must be adjusted to satisfy both Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) systems and hiring managers. By tuning your resume to reflect the phrases used by your target employers or job postings, it will score higher when reviewed by employer ATS systems.
When you post your resume on your LinkedIn Profile, you won’t get the chance to emphasize specific skills sought by target employers.
As you can see, the risks of posting your resume on LinkedIn far outweigh any benefits.
Use your LinkedIn presence to promote your skills and maintain engagement – and reserve your resume as a direct, finely tuned job-search tool.
