Turning your LinkedIn profile into a resume is a great way to leverage the professional information you’ve already built. LinkedIn provides a feature to easily export your profile into a resume friendly format. Here’s how to turn your LinkedIn link into a resume in just a few steps.
Why Turn Your LinkedIn Profile into a Resume?
There are several advantages to using your LinkedIn profile as the basis for your resume:
- Your LinkedIn profile already contains much of the professional information needed for a resume, such as your work history, education, skills, and accomplishments.
- Keeping your resume updated becomes easier since any changes made to your LinkedIn profile will be reflected in your exported resume.
- Your LinkedIn profile serves as a master list that can be tailored for each specific resume you need to create.
- Formatting stays intact when exporting from LinkedIn to a resume document. The resume will maintain LinkedIn’s formatting and structure.
Additionally, many recruiters and hiring managers now expect to see a LinkedIn profile from candidates. Providing your LinkedIn profile link alongside your resume gives them instant access to view your full online professional presence.
How to Export Your LinkedIn Profile to a Resume
Exporting your LinkedIn profile into a resume is simple. Just follow these steps:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile page and click on the down arrow next to your profile photo in the top right. Select “View profile” from the dropdown menu.
- On your profile page, click on the three dots icon next to the “Edit public profile & URL” button on the right side. Select “Export to PDF”.
- On the Export Profile popup, choose the option to download “PDF Resume”.
- Click the blue “Export” button at the bottom.
- Your LinkedIn profile will download as a PDF resume document to your computer.
The resume PDF will contain all the key sections of your LinkedIn profile formatted for a resume, including your work history, education, skills, and summary intro.
Customizing Your Exported Resume
The default LinkedIn resume export provides a solid basis for your resume, but you may want to customize it further for each job you are applying to. Here are some tips for customizing your exported LinkedIn resume:
- Review the summary and make tweaks to fit each job description. Emphasize different skills or experience for each target role.
- Reorganize sections of the resume if needed. You can move education above work experience for recent graduates, for example.
- Make sure your most relevant skills and accomplishments are high up on the resume where they will stand out.
- Edit job position titles and descriptions for clarity or focus. Remove extraneous details.
- Add, remove, or reorganize specific projects and accomplishments under each position to highlight the most relevant.
- Adjust resume length and content if needed. Remove early positions to shorten or add more detail for relevance.
- Update fonts, colors, margins, and spacing to polish formatting and appearance.
You’ll want to tailor each resume while preserving your LinkedIn profile as the master professional record.
Extra LinkedIn Sections to Include
Your exported LinkedIn resume will contain your profile overview, work history, education, and skills. However, there are additional LinkedIn profile sections you can include if they are relevant for a specific resume or job:
- Volunteer Experience: Include any noteworthy volunteer roles if applicable to the target job.
- Projects: Project examples, especially those done through LinkedIn, demonstrate skills and experience.
- Courses: Relevant online or offline courses certifications boost qualifications.
- Test Scores: Standardized test scores like SAT help for recent grads or students.
- Publications: Published articles, research, and links build credibility.
Adding one or more of these extras can round out and strengthen your customized resume, depending on the types of roles you are seeking.
Inserting a Profile Link in Your Resume
It’s a good idea to include your LinkedIn profile link prominently on your resume. This gives hiring managers a way to quickly view your full online presence and credentials.
Here are some ways to include your profile link on your resume:
- Put it in the contact section, underneath your email and phone number.
- List it along with your other social media handles or personal website links.
- Include it in your resume header or letterhead above your name.
- Add a “LinkedIn Profile” section with your photo and profile link.
Make sure to use the unique profile link and not just the standard LinkedIn homepage URL.
Alternatives to Exporting Your Profile
Exporting your profile into a PDF resume document is the simplest way to convert your LinkedIn presence into a resume. However, there are a couple of other options as well:
- Copy and paste: You can copy profile text and paste it into a Word document or Google Docs. This allows full editing freedom but is more time consuming.
- LinkedIn Resume Builder: LinkedIn offers an online resume builder that syncs with your profile. It offers templates and customization options before downloading.
The PDF export method usually provides the cleanest conversion since it maintains all LinkedIn’s design formatting. But the other options work too if you need more flexibility or prefer building your resume another way.
Should I Delete the LinkedIn Default Resume Sections?
The resume document LinkedIn exports includes all the main profile sections: summary, work experience, education, and skills. You may be wondering – should I delete or keep the default sections?
Here are some guidelines on managing the default LinkedIn resume sections:
- Keep the summary section, but customize it for each resume you send out. It offers a great overview intro. Just tweak it to fit each job.
- The work experience section should remain as well. Expand or remove individual position descriptions as needed to tailor to the target role.
- Generally keep education. Remove it only if your school or degree is not relevant. Recent grads should leave education at the top.
- Skills are helpful to leave in too. Just edit the list to match the required and preferred skills listed in the job description.
The main LinkedIn resume sections make a solid base. The key is to mold them into a customized resume for every job application.
Should I Include Everything from My LinkedIn Profile?
Your LinkedIn profile likely contains more information than can fit on a one or two page resume. The general rule of thumb is to trim your profile down to the most relevant details when converting it to a resume.
Here are tips on what to cut from your LinkedIn profile for your resume:
- Edit early positions or irrelevant jobs. Remove or condense roles not vital to telling your story.
- Cut unnecessary position details and responsibilities. Keep the most important tasks and achievements.
- Exclude courses or project examples that are not directly applicable.
- Remove publications or test scores no longer relevant. Keep recent items.
- Leave out volunteer roles or causes unrelated to the target job.
Your goal is to shape the profile into a focused, tailored resume highlighting only the most compelling qualifications. Remove anything extraneous or dated to give the reader just the most relevant info upfront.
Should I List Every Position from LinkedIn on My Resume?
Your LinkedIn profile likely spans your entire career journey. But listing every job you’ve ever held is not necessary on a resume. Instead, focus on going into more detail about the positions most relevant to the one you are applying for.
Follow these rules of thumb when deciding which roles to include:
- Always include your current or most recent position.
- Go into detail about any jobs directly related to the target role or industry.
- Include other notable companies or big brand name employers.
- List positions where you gained key skills or accomplishments to highlight.
- Remove early jobs unlikely to strengthen your candidacy. Focus on the past 10-15 years.
Following these guidelines will help you create a resume with the most compelling and important career highlights.
How Many Years of Work History Should a Resume Include?
As a guideline, aim to include 10-15 years of work history on your resume. Here are some tips on tailoring your LinkedIn work experience section for your resume:
- Always feature your most recent job first, even if not the most relevant.
- Include any positions critical to telling your career story and qualifications.
- If needed, condense early roles into fewer lines to save space.
- Once you pass 10-15 years of history, remove early jobs unlikely to strengthen candidacy.
- Recent graduates should include any internships but list education first.
The ideal resume work history gives the reader an overview of your career progression and relevant highlights, without going into too much detail or listing every job.
How to List Contract Work on a Resume
Contract roles bring great experience, but require special resume treatment since they lack company context. Here are tips for featuring contract work on your resume:
- List each contract job like a regular position with position title, dates, and details.
- Include the hiring/contracting company name if applicable, or list as “Independent Contract”.
- Describe work in context, like the project completed, client industry, or technologies used.
- Quantify achievements concretely. Focus on specific deliverables provided.
- Add context like “Contract Software Developer” or “Six-Month Contract” in job titles.
With the right descriptions, contract roles can make great resume additions demonstrating desired skills, industries, and results for full-time positions.
Should I Include My Entire Employment or Just Titles?
Only listing job titles without any details or descriptions is insufficient for a robust resume. However, you also don’t need to include every responsibility ever held. Find a balance by following these rules:
- At minimum, include 1-3 bullet points summarizing core duties for each position.
- Focus details on achievements, specialized skills used, and software or systems mastered.
- Quantifying accomplishments with numbers or metrics can strengthen details.
- Align details with keywords and requirements from the target job description.
- Remove extraneous position details unlikely to improve candidacy. Prioritize the best highlights.
The right mix of concise but compelling position details will showcase your qualifications without overwhelming the resume reader.
Should I Include the Specific Years I Worked for Each Position?
Listing the specific years you held each job on your resume establishes a solid career timeline. However, exact years are not strictly required. Here are guidelines on including employment dates:
- At minimum, list the years for each position. For example, 2017-2019.
- Adding months helps provide more specific tenure details. For example, April 2017 – January 2019.
- Exacting start and end months and years is optional. For example, April 2017 – January 15, 2019.
- Leave off months and days if tenures were very brief. For example, 2017.
- Recent graduates may list only years or semesters for education and early jobs.
Exact employment dates provide helpful context but are not mandatory. Use your judgement based on the longevity and relevance of each role.
What’s the Best Format for a LinkedIn Generated Resume?
The default LinkedIn resume export provides a solid professional format. However, making a few tweaks can further optimize the resume design:
- Use a common resume file type like PDF, DOCX, or Google Docs.
- Standard 8.5 x 11″ letter size with 0.5-1″ margins looks best.
- Font should be professional like Arial, Calibri, or Cambria in 10-12 pt size.
- Include page numbers and headers with your name and page like “John Smith – Resume – Page 1”.
- Make use of bold and italics to help key info pop.
- Increase white space between sections and bullet points to improve readability.
- Optionally change the color scheme, but keep it simple. Blue is a safe accent color.
Following standard resume design best practices will make your LinkedIn export look polished, organized, and easy to quickly scan.
Conclusion
Converting your LinkedIn profile into an impressive resume only takes a few simple steps. LinkedIn provides helpful tools to export all your professional details into a resume friendly format. The key is then customizing each version to match the target job description. Highlight the most relevant skills, experience, and achievements for every application. With some tweaking and embellishment, your LinkedIn profile can become an invaluable resume source.