September is International Update Your Resume Month. Update your LinkedIn profile, too. Well-written content from your resume can also go on LinkedIn.

September is recognized as International Update Your Resume Month, when professionals are encouraged to review and refresh their resumes, especially in preparation for year-end performance reviews.

Keeping your LinkedIn profile aligned with your resume ensures consistency and maximizes your visibility and impact in the job market. However, there is much more you can do to optimize your LinkedIn profile than adding content from a well-written resume.

Essential Comparisons and Considerations

• Matching LinkedIn and Resume?: While both documents should reflect your professional brand, LinkedIn allows for more narrative freedom and incorporates an authentic you using your pronouns, whereas your resume should be concise and tailored to each job application and written in first-person “implied I.”
• Which to Develop First: Resume or LinkedIn?: Starting with your resume can help you solidify your quantifiable accomplishments and career narrative, which you can then expand upon in your LinkedIn profile. On LinkedIn, write in bullet points (copied from your resume) incorporating white space in between so make it skimmable and scannable to the human eye. Don’t make people’s eyes glaze over with dense paragraphs.
• Mastering Resume and LinkedIn Considerations: Consider the unique aspects of each platform. You only have one LinkedIn profile, so you have to make it the best version of you. A resume is static but should be tailored to every job application. Therefore, you should not upload your resume to LinkedIn to make it visible to the public since it is not customized.

Technical and Stylistic Enhancements

• Formatting Tips: Read the article on 73 Formatting Tips to Optimize Your Resume to Get Hired.
• Writing for Humans and Bots: Balance keyword optimization for applicant tracking systems with engaging language and metrics that appeal to human recruiters. How did you help a company make money, or save money or time?
• How Keywords Help You Win: Keywords linked to your industry and role ensure you appear in searches and match the job descriptions, increasing your chances of being noticed. Note that LinkedIn is a database, and the keywords in your head may not be impactful in LinkedIn’s database, so engage in data-driven decision-making with a career coach who can guide you on what that looks like.

Addressing Specific Challenges

• Conquering Employment Gaps: Strategically use your resume and LinkedIn profile to explain gaps through continuous learning, freelancing, or other productive activities or personal circumstances during unemployment. I am a fan of using the term sabbatical for gap fillers.
• Preparation for Resume Updating: Encourage a proactive approach to updating your resume by keeping track of accomplishments and new skills as they happen, making updates much easier when September comes around. You will be ready to rock that annual performance evaluation if you regularly track your metrics.

Tips to Combat Age Discrimination

• Contact Information: Use dashes or dots to update your phone number by eliminating parentheses around the area code when we had rotary phones.
• Highlight Skills and Achievements: Focus on specific skills, projects, and their impactful outcomes rather than merely listing job duties or years of experience.
• Relevant Experience: Tailor your history to include only pertinent job experiences, emphasizing recent roles that align with your career goals, perhaps going back 10-15 years.
• Education Details: Omit graduation years to focus on the qualifications and certifications you’ve earned, steering clear of dates that could hint at your age.
• Technology Proficiency: Showcase your knowledge of current tools and industry trends while leaving out outdated technologies.
• Modern Email Address: Opt for a professional Gmail address over dated service providers like AOL or Hotmail.
• Active Participation on LinkedIn: Commenting on LinkedIn Can Create Visibility, Discoverability, & Credibility, so showcase your thought leadership. Don’t expect results if you are not active on the platform. You will reap what you sow.
• Networking: Expand your professional network to include peers and potential employers, maximizing your exposure to job opportunities. According to numerous resources, up to 80% of jobs are found via networking.
• Contemporary Language: Employ up-to-date terminology and avoid archaic phrases, making your profile relatable and engaging.
• Continuous Learning: Display recent training or certifications to underline your dedication to professional growth.
• Engaging About Section on LinkedIn: Write a compelling and personable summary in your About section, using concise language, bullets, and emojis to convey enthusiasm and relatability. Some of the content can come from your resume.

Recap and Encouragement

• Summarize the critical importance of aligning your LinkedIn profile and resume, using keywords effectively, and preparing your documents to reflect your current professional stature or position yourself for your future forward pivot or reinvention.
• Take charge of your professional narratives by keeping your documents ready for opportunities as they arise. Engage in career management so you don’t have to scramble if the situation arises that you need a resume fast.

Conclusion

• I cannot stress the importance of keeping your resume and LinkedIn profile updated and optimized to reflect your best version. Being minimalistic will NOT tell your story as people do not have ESP.
• Writing without metrics will NOT share your impact. What should anyone care about the accomplishments in your head that are not in writing? They don’t know what they don’t know. Include STAR, SOAR, PAR, CAR, or PARADE stories.
• If you need a resume review, book a free discovery call. See NEXT STEPS below.

Did you read the article from last week? LinkedIn Branding & Nonprofit Rebranding

NEXT STEPS

• Subscribe to my newsletter on LinkedIn™ for bright ideas on how to manage your career.
• If you need a resume or LinkedIn™ profile to get you to your next step, book a call to chat! Can’t beat a free discovery call!
• Join as a member at https://greatcareers.org/membership of the #1 business networking association on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Book of Lists four years in a row!
• To support our charity at KeepOnSharing.com and use the referral code Career
• Follow #GreatCareersPHL

UPCOMING EVENTS

Check out our Nonprofit Events Quick List Page for More

• Mon Sep 9 – Career Success Group Job Seeker Accountability & Networking
• Tue Sep 10 – Tips to Build Your LinkedIn Brand
• Tue Sep 10 – LGBTQ+ OUTstanding Careers Group™
• Wed Sep 11 – Careerland Q&A LinkedIn Audio for the Game of Life
• Thu Sep 12 – Virtual Jobseeker Support Group
• Thu Sep 12 – Cake Walk: A Fully Baked Memoir
• Mon Sep 16 – 3 Steps on the Road to Leadership in Your New Career
• Tue Sep 17 – Lehigh Valley Business Executives Networking Group (BENG) meeting
• Wed Sep 18 – Selling Yourself and Influencing Others
• Thu Sep 19 – Recruiter on Call with Jobs LinkedIn Audio
• Thu Sep 19 – Questions to Ask Hiring Managers and How to Spot the Great Ones
• Sat Sep 21 – LinkedIn Part 2 of 3 Online Workshop
• Sun Sep 22 – Tips to Optimize Your Resume
• Mon Sep 23 – Immigrant Professional Career Support Group
• Tue Sep 24 – Business Executives Networking Group (BENG) & Guests meeting
• Tue Sep 24 – LinkedIn Profile Reviews
• Wed Sep 25 – How to Figure Out What to Do Next in Life followed by Networking Introductions
• Thu Sep 26 – Career Success Group Job Seeker Accountability & Networking
• Mon Sep 30 & Tue Oct 1- GSC-SHRM Conference & Expo