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Timebound

How To Convert Your LinkedIn Profile into a Fine Looking Resume

One of LinkedIn’s true hidden gems is the free resume building service launched last year, which I have just been testing out. At first I thought it would be very basic and not all that useful. I was wrong.

The resume builder was developed by LinkedIn labs, meaning it’s an experimental tool but still developed in-house by the LinkedIn team. We can safely say that there is a need for a resume builder function on LinkedIn and I assume this is the Beta testing of it before they integrate it fully on LinkedIn proper.

 

How does the resume creator work?

 
Very simple. First off make sure you are logged in to LinkedIn. Then click on to the LinkedIn resume tool and sign in with your LinkedIn passport. The next thing you know you’ll have an auto-generated CV which mirrors all the information on your LinkedIn profile. This obviously means that the better that’s been filled in, the better the CV.

How do you edit your resume?

 

There are eleven different templates that you can play around with to suit your industry, seniority and purpose of the resume. Just like with your LinkedIn profile, you can shuffle the sections of your resume around and even hide the ones you think are irrelevant to your new resume.

The one thing you cannot do in the resume builder tool is to change specific details like job titles, dates and so on – this is done on your regular LinkedIn profile and updated automagically to your resume or CV.

Benefits of using the resume builder

 

As we all know it’s a bit tricky to keep your LinkedIn profile and resume completely synched. On top of that, it’s a slog to have to update stuff in two places. You can easily change the template, style and decide exactly what goes up on the resume as opposed to the LinkedIn profile.

You can choose to share the resume straight from the application or you can set it to private. Finally, you can download your new CV as a PDF and email or print.

  

Is this the kiss of death for resume writers?

 
I don’t think so, whilst the LinkedIn resume creator does churn out pretty good looking resumes it doesn’t customize them at all. A resume writer’s main role in my opinion is to write excellent copy and lay things out in a compelling fashion for your target audience.  LinkedIn’s new tool does provide the average job seeker with a nice template resume but this has never been the be all and end all when there is any competition for a particular vacancy.
 

Final thought

 
LinkedIn know that their platform is the place to be for all things career and professional networking. By giving the world this free resume and CV feature, they ensure that everyone that uses the resume builder will keep their LinkedIn profile up-to-date and perfectly crafted for success.

Have you tried the tool yet? Please let me know your feedback!
 
Further reading about LinkedIn at 10 LinkedIn Tips To Get You the Job.

Categories
Workplace

How to Find Graduate Jobs and Internships on LinkedIn

A new career portal was introduced a few months ago on LinkedIn: LinkedIn for students and recent graduates. Apparently, it has been quite popular in the US, but hasn’t really been known enough here in the UK and Europe just yet! The platform enables its users to search for internships and many entry-level jobs, offered…

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Employer Branding Workplace

6 Ways to Prep for Your Salary Negotiation

You can never underestimate the importance of having a plan. By that I mean doing some simple salary calculations so you go into an interview with a range in mind. Negotiating salary during the interview process can be very overwhelming. You don’t want to sound greedy or too high on yourself; but on the flip…

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Workplace

Top 5 Most Commonly Misunderstood Interview Tips

If not unusual if you find yourself scouring the web for advice the day before a key job interview, even if you’ve successfully interviewed previously at other jobs. We consult advice blogs and ask ridiculous questions on Google as if we’ve never before had the experience of speaking to another human being about ourselves. There’s…

Categories
Talent Acquisition

How to Use Facebook for Recruiting

Facebook is tipped to be THE place to recruit people in the next year or two. Social Recruiting has already started at some companies as we can see below. Take a look at this infographic to learn more about recruiting on Facebook. Do you have a social media recruiting success story? Is it as effective as traditional recruiting? Let us know in the comments.

In this infographic we learn that Facebook is of course the second most trafficked website in the world, only trailing Google. No less than 85% of internet users have Facebook accounts and this is why it’s high time to start building a Facebook talent community now.
 
Three quarters of internet users (74%) use Facebook daily, 57% of internet users have more than 100 friends on Facebook. And 58% of Facebook users have liked a brand on Facebook – the idea here is to get future employees to like your brand now.
 

The Top 5 Brands with career pages on Facebook are:

 
Starbucks – 27 million fans
Red Bull – 26 million fans
PlayStation – 19 million fans
McDonald’s – 14 million fans
Levi’s – 10 million fans
 

Job hunter Facebook stats:

 
84% of job seekers have a Facebook profile
48% of all job seekers have done at least one social job hunt activity last year
1 in 5 job seekers added professional information to their Facebook profile last year
16& of all job seekers received a job referral from a Facebook friend

More on social recruiting at How Companies Use Social Media to Recruit (Infographic).

Source: HireRabbit

Categories
Talent Acquisition

How Social Media is Changing Recruitment

Whether you like it or not, hirers are using social networks to screen job applicants. This video infographic from Reppler sheds some light on how recruiters are using social media today to screen prospective employees.
  
Reppler spoke to 300 hiring professionals to map out their behavior on social networking. The results were that more than 90% of employers and recruiters have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. 

If you like this, be sure to check out How Employers Use Social Media to Screen Candidates Infographic.

Categories
Talent Acquisition

How to Search for Directors and Executives Online

Are you using the internet to try and recruit staff? Or perhaps you are simply looking to research the competition? In today’s economy everyone is clamouring for recognition online be it through a Twitter account, using Facebook, LinkedIn, or through search databases. It is much easier for you as an employer to get the dirt…

Categories
Talent Acquisition Workplace

The 7 Rules of Effective Personal Brand Statements

I will assume that you have already crafted a personal brand statement and you may even have used it a few times. Before you spray every social media outpost with it, take a few minutes to go through this checklist to make sure it does you justice.

Here are seven hallmarks of an effective personal brand statement: 

 

1. The length of one out-breath

 
You should be able to take a deep breath and then comfortably deliver your statement. If it’s any longer than this, you risk not making that impact you were looking for so chop it down.
 

2. The WOW-factor

 

Just like any performance, your personal brand statement should be received with a mixture of surprise and delight. If this isn’t the case, you are probably saying something very similar to your peers. Make it unique and you’ll evoke the WOW on people’s faces.
 

3. An eight-year-old understands it

 

Or a four-year-old if you are really tough on yourself. Your statement should never contain any technical terms or jargon, it should be in plain English and touching on the lowest common denominator. Test it on your children and see how you fare, can they tell you exactly what benefit and value you add?
 

4. Yours and only yours

 

Can you be sure that your statement is unique? Well and easy way to test that is by asking colleagues, peers and competitors what they use. Or you can go to an industry event and do some eavesdropping to see what NOT to say. If you find that your statement is similar to others, try harder to really make it stand out by examining exactly what you do uniquely and how to present this.
 

5. Delivered with confidence

 

The delivery is equally important to the content. You must be able to put on your best story telling voice and really mesmerize your new found acquaintant. Great delivery comes with practice so get in front of your mirror and get rehearsing today.
 

6. Leaves them wanting more

 

A classic trick in show business is to dazzle the audience and have them begging for more. By only giving out a teaser that is interesting enough, you are likely to be asked to elaborate and that’s when you go into selling mode.
 

7. Catchy, memorable and repeatable

 

To cover a lot of ground you are going to need others to spread your statement via word-of-mouth marketing. In order for them to do this, you have to stay punchy and memorable enough to get repeated over and over.
 

Final thought

 

Remember that your personal brand statement will always be a work in progress and you should update it as your career or business changes over time. Revisiting the statement every now and then is great for introspection and give you great direction in your professional life.

Would you say your statement cuts the mustard?

For more on this topic, check out Personal Branding from the Inside Out, a workshop series in the UK.

Image credit Kevin Lallier

Categories
Workplace

6 Ways to Improve Your Job Search Success

Since the job marketer continues to get tougher, jobseekers need to evolve. Unless you really focus your energies in the right direction, you can never expect to achieve success with your career. You need to be smarter than ever, smart enough to beat out the competition. You need to use a well-planned job search strategy…