Wednesday, November 24, 2021
How to Use LinkedIn's Resume Builder (and When You Shouldn't Use It At All)
lifehacker.com: There’s never a bad time to apply for a new job, but updating your resume can begin to feel like a big task (especially if you’re already overworked). If you’ve got a LinkedIn profile though, you can use what you’ve already written to build and customize a strategic resume, as well as speed up your application processes.
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Every time I start making a new resume whether it is on word or another platform, I see popups for the LinkedIn resume builder. I've always been skeptical about it, and have not tried it yet (so take all of this with a grain of salt). I see how it can be useful for sure; I try to keep my LinkedIn as up to date as possible, even more so than my actual resume. However, using boilerplate templates that auto-populate fields rubs me the wrong way. If a recruiter keeps seeing the same thing over and over again, I think they may spend less time looking at what is on the page. Contrast that with a unique resume, where they may be drawn in more by your personalized layout. Granted, go too crazy and you may make it hard to find anything at all. At this point, I have my custom template that I can adapt very quickly depending on the job/employer I am looking at, which is what I would personally recommend to anyone applying to several jobs across different fields.
I like that this article actually walks you through how to use the resume builder, and even provides visuals. I also think that this is something that a lot of people should look at even if they aren’t using LinkedIn because it seems that LinkedIn is becoming really important in the job hiring process. Companies or recruiters are probably going to at some point look at your LinkedIn profile, regardless of what it looks like or your field, and it’s important to maybe at least have a resume up. It seems that the resume that the builder makes is one that will pass online scans and it makes me glad to know that that is being talked about because often we are told to have nice and fancy resumes but in this day and age, there are bots scanning resumes and anything fancy will probably get tossed out. It was interesting that they didn’t mention canva for making resumes, but that might be a business name mentioning ordeal.
This is a super interesting function and I didn’t know linkedin could auto-populate a resume. I’ll have to play with it to find out if any of the resumes can be customizable or made more visually suitable. It’s nice too because if you keep your profile up to date, your resume will be up to date as well. The best part of this feature is the looking for keywords which as it turns out is super important. They mention specifically that there are no good designs and that it only creates very plain looking resumes. That being said, it makes sense to run the resume through the generator so nothing gets missed but then you can push it into a nicer format for print. I do find it amusing that you can totally play their game and if you know exactly what keywords to throw into your resume you can put yourself at the top of the list.
I think auto-populating resumes are a really interesting concept, and can be useful in certain situations, although not necessarily for what we do. I think if a recruiter is seeing a lot of resumes, and there are several with the same, auto-generated template, it will make them stand out less, and for jobs in entertainment, they are both unlikely to include the information in a format that is useful to us, and in my opinion look a little lazy in comparison to the ones you’re in competition with. However, I think the fact that this tool is available is great for people and jobs that don’t necessarily need anything fancy. I know some high school students and early college students who could absolutely have used something like this to turn out something more professional looking than what they currently have. I think the keyword function may be the most useful part of this, to help pass automated resume scans, which a self-made resume may be overlooking.
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