Did Creating Your Resume REALLY Just Get a Whole Lot Easier with Microsoft and LinkedIn?
Marie Zimenoff
Train Career Coaches & Resume Writers Globally ► Curate the New & Next in Careers ► Teach Social Media for Business Growth & Job Search (LinkedIn & Beyond) ► Professional Resume Writer Training | Career Coach Training
Writing your resume is hard, right? Today, LinkedIn and Microsoft announced the launch of Resume Assistant in Word. The claim is that this tool will make it easier to update your profile and your resume. Let's explore.
The Good: Technology that provides inspiration and reminders of content/skills you might include and connects you to job announcements that might be relevant.
The Bad: Differentiation is hard. Writing specific statements about what you did is important. You'll still have to do that work to truly stand out on your resume or LinkedIn profile.
The Ugly: Did they seriously use a resume example in their video and article where the summary includes "detail-oriented" (on every list of over-used phrases) and experience that starts with "responsible for"? Almost every resume article you read will tell you not to use “responsible for” (for good reasons that we won't go in to here – a quick search will bring up a dozen articles that explain why).
How to Make Resume Assistant Work for You
1. Use the content it provides as a jumping-off point. Never, ever copy and paste from someone else’s profile and rarely copy and paste chunks of text from a job description. Instead, tell about a time that you’ve used that skill (keyword) – including the result or value that you added.
2. Don’t consider this an invitation to make the content on your resume and LinkedIn profile the same. Your profile is conversational, professional introduction. Expand on the content in your resume, don’t copy it. Give people a corresponding, yet fresh perspective on your story.
3. Do consider the audience of your profile as you update. Will your current boss or colleagues see this? How can you include stronger content without sounding like a job seeker (which isn’t necessary for recruiters to find you anyway)? You only get one profile, so it needs to speak to all your potential audiences.
4. Avoid using a Microsoft resume template. From the videos I can't tell if you must use a Microsoft Word resume template to use this feature. Word templates are troublesome for many reasons: your resume looks like everyone else who uses that template, the formatting can make it difficult to edit, and many elements have issues in an applicant tracking system. Use the Resume Assistant features, but steer clear of the templates.
5. Take a deep breath … and realize that a quality resume or profile takes work. Sorry to break it to you, and if you want to differentiate yourself on either platform, it is going to take work. The best part is that gathering your stories, learning to tell them succinctly, and translating them into the future employer’s language gives you a great resume, an engaging LinkedIn profile, and a start at interview preparation. You can do it!
As CEO of Career Thought Leaders and Resume Writing Academy, Marie Zimenoff is on a mission to change the world one career success story at a time. She develops content and training to keep careerists and career industry professionals ahead of trends. Marie holds a master’s degree in counseling and career development and the industry’s top certifications in career coaching, leadership coaching, branding, and resume writing.
She is a contributor to career industry books and journals and serves as an expert source for BusinessNewsDaily, Yahoo! Education, major professional association publications, and newspaper and radio media nationwide – including hosting The Career Confidante radio.
Job Search Specialist Helping Professionals Go From Job Search Stress to Ready For Success in 90 Days | YCM Podcast Host | e-book author of The 7 Steps To Career Change Success
7yIt's a tool that will stand or fall by how much Microsoft make people aware of it in "what's new" kind of way. Also, it only gives users part of the process - as you've pointed out this is certainly not the 'silver bullet' for CV/resume writing. Most importantly the old adage of 'garbage in, garbage out' applies with this tool too. People struggle not just with what to write but, what is of relevance to their desired audience (if they have one in mind at all). The four resume/CV template options currently offered in MS Word are outdated and,because they are templates, tricky to manage . They are not geared towards markets outside the US either - resume format with no genuine CV options. Also, they do not show people how to condense an extensive career history into salient points. In short. Would certainly have this as a 'use with caution' option for any one seeking to do their own CV as it may open more problems than it solves.
Award-Winning Career Coach | Confidence Builder | Guiding Women to Lead Boldly, Earn Promotions & Find Their Voice at Work | Chief Encouragement Officer | Certified: ICF-ACC | CCDP® | CCTC
7yResume Assistant will have its place, but it won't take the place of a well-branded marketing document. Copying and pasting from someone else’s profile will only make a patchwork quilt resume (or LinkedIn Profile). Way back in 2012, I was prompted to write a blog post: "How a Patchwork Quilt Resume Could Damage Your Brand - http://ow.ly/TKHB30gw2iT because someone did some copying and pasting with his resume.
Calgary Artist
7yGood post - so many people just copy and paste from their resume to their LI profile - I always try to get them to make the profile different, more personal and make themselves stand out. No point giving away all the information there... get the viewer's interest so they want to speak to you
Project Management | Consultant | Certified Career Coach | Property Management |
7yGreat post! Thanks so much for sharing. I think Rick DelVecchio, CPRW nailed it when he wrote writing resumes are both an art and a science. This good place for job seekers to start (as that is typically the hardest part) but they will need to put the work in to differentiate themselves from everyone else out there who is applying for that job (and maybe also using LI's "resume builder"
Author | Trainer | Speaker @ TheQTNT. The New Book: Your Work Does Not Speak For Itself--You Do. No one can promote you like you can promote you!
7yAnd the UNIVERSAL resume is on it's way. Knew this was coming. Too much monetization in employment NOT to go for this. It will become more efficient over time. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsofts-acquisition-linkedin-has-changed-job-search-rick-gillis/