So today let’s talk about LinkedIn.  No, don’t run back to Reddit.  This won’t be boring and it won’t take long.  Besides you need to let a little time go by for more blue links to appear.

It used to be, in days gone by (that aren’t coming back, by the way) that your resume was all you needed.  It was far and away the most important weapon in your job search arsenal.  The world has moved on, my friend.  The poor resume has taken a backseat to LinkedIn.  But this is actually a good thing.  A really good thing.  And here’s why...

Your resume is a laundry list of your skills and accomplishments squeezed into a small space where you probably aren’t even writing in complete sentences to make everything fit.  And your font is very, very tiny.  Don’t be offended. It is, and you know it.   Most hiring managers take a very short time to glance over your resume.  Hopefully it’s got bullet points because that’s about all they’re going to read.  

LinkedIn, on the other hand, has loads of space.  Great, wide open ranges of space that you can use to expand your laundry list and actually go into detail on what you’ve done with yourself.  Instead of trying to figure out how to communicate a major career accomplishment in one line you can take your time.  Go into detail.  Really talk about it.  On LinkedIn you can use whole sentences, and lots of them to show what a major deal your accomplishment was.  So if you’re just copying and pasting your resume into your LinkedIn profile, you’re missing a huge opportunity.

You know all that time you took shining up your resume?  You need to do the same thing with your LinkedIn profile.  Recruiters and hiring managers are looking at your LinkedIn profile before they decide if they want to talk to you.  In fact, a survey found 93% of recruiters are looking at LinkedIn to find job candidates.  You can read the article here:  Heads up, LinkedIn users: 93% of recruiters are looking at you.  

In today’s hyper-competitive job market hiring managers are getting hundreds of resumes for each job posting.  They had to figure out a way to narrow their search to just the candidates they were looking for.  So they turned to LinkedIn.  And they’ll find you there if you make your profile exceptional.  The good news is, there’s help for that.  At Career Dragon we’ll write your entire profile for you using the latest SEO techniques to help you show up in searches.  We’ll even make your profile interesting so people won’t fall asleep reading it.  

You can also do it yourself, just like you can do your resume yourself.  Whether you decide to get help or stoically go it alone, the important thing is that you do it.  Seriously.  A great resume doesn’t mean anything anymore if your LinkedIn profile sucks.