As happens in the circle of forward thinkers and futurists, predicting the next trend is inevitable. In the careers environment, many experts feel that LinkedIn is surpassing the resume in value, and in some cases, replacing it altogether.
This likely will never happen. For one thing, the groundwork to create a career story “foundation” is always going to require much digging, unearthing and investigating before the first line is actually etched onto the page or the screen. Where people get distracted is that they think it’s about the form of the career story (or, actually, what you “call it”; i.e., resume, LinkedIn profile, Career Story, Career Portfolio) versus the actual function.
A resume’s function is to tell a career story that grabs the reader’s (hiring decision maker’s) attention, and whether you do that through a Microsoft Word document or by publishing on LinkedIn, the foundational elements of creating a rich, deep, nuanced message are the same. And cutting through them to shortcut the process inevitably short-circuits an effective job search.
With that, the debate around LinkedIn’s eventual replacement of the resume rages on. Here are five predictions on LinkedIn and the future of the resume.
1. It’s too public.
Despite certain privacy settings, you are publicly broadcasting your resume when you publish to LinkedIn. Where you might be comfortable listing specific revenue and profit gains on a resume, you may hesitate to be as explicit on your LinkedIn profile. Company colleagues or executives may frown upon this because publishing such information could disclose competitive marketplace information. It is becoming a widely understood fact that company agents are researching LinkedIn profiles of their competitors to build marketplace advantage with products and services.
As well, while your resume may employ highly charged language such as “revenues languished” or “profits tumbled” or indications that you “took over a dispirited team” or “transformed a system wrought with inefficiencies, inaccuracies and missed deadlines,” you may tread waters a little more lightly on LinkedIn. You should avoid publicly offending or otherwise throwing a prior manager, employee or leadership team “under the bus.” With a resume, you have control over who you share it with, so you can choose when to be more bold and specific in your claims, without recourse.
To read the rest of the five predictions, please visit the full post at Glassdoor: 5 Predictions on the Future of the Resume.
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