What distinguishes a CV from a LinkedIn profile?

Introduction

Although your resume and LinkedIn profile are both important job-search tools, they serve slightly different purposes and are read by slightly different audiences in different circumstances. Typically, your resume or CV writing will be no longer than two pages and can only be viewed by potential employers to whom you have specifically sent it. A LinkedIn profile can be however long you want and it is in the public eye for all and/or anyone to see.

LinkedIn profiles are mainly used for networking, while resumes are used for employment. LinkedIn profiles have headshots, whereas most CVs do not. The LinkedIn profile should provide a good overview of your professional experience, while the resume and CV should be tailored to each specific job you are applying for. Here, we explore the differences between a CV and a LinkedIn profile and outline six key ways you should differentiate these two tools to get the most out of each.

What is a CV?

A CV is short for the Latin phrase curriculum vitae, which means "course of life." This is a document that details your best qualities as they pertain to the open role. Submitting your CV is standard practice when applying for any job. From entry-level to senior positions. A typical CV reflects your professional history, academic background, and key skills. If your achievements and hobbies are pertinent to the employment, you can add additional sections to your resume.

What is a LinkedIn Profile?

A LinkedIn profile is a page that describes your career history and education and includes other information you may want to share with employers, recruiters, and other professional contacts.

The purpose of a LinkedIn profile is to make a positive first impression. Think of your profile as a summary of your "personal brand"—the experiences, values, skills, and interests that tell others who you are and that you're someone they want to meet.

Your Resume Vs LinkedIn

Many people question the need for a formal resume when they have a LinkedIn profile, as hiring managers and recruiters often use LinkedIn to seek qualified talent. Although both list your professional career achievements and summarise your work history, they serve different purposes.

Simply put your resume is designed to land you an interview so that you can get hired, while your LinkedIn profile is designed to help you find new career opportunities. Here are 6 ways your resume should be different from your LinkedIn profile.

1. Customisation

While you'll have one LinkedIn profile that effectively projects your professional character to the online community, it's best to have a different resume for each job you apply for that is properly crafted and personalised to match the needs of each role.

Profiles aren't written with a specific position in mind, so your profile needs to include enough information to appeal to a broad audience and paint a complete picture of all your various skills and strengths—after all, you don't want to limit the options by limiting your narrative too much.

On the other hand, your resume should only contain information that is 100 percent relevant to the needs of a specific position and the interest of the hiring manager. This means that you should mention any work experience or skills that are not related to what you are playing. LinkedIn will require some tailoring, as you want to tell a specific story, but not the same as your resume.

2. Length and Level of Detail

One major difference between a resume and a LinkedIn profile is depth. Your online profile is a platform you can use to tell a fairly full and colorful story – one that uncovers your passion for your work and details you in and out through the various roles you've held. You can also add additional information about your volunteer experience, published work, and involvement with organisations.

When you're writing a resume, you don't have the luxury of space. Recruiters want to quickly scan this document and have everything they need within seconds. So while you still need to present your career story, you need to do so in very few words (ideally one page) and skip the fluff and the nice-to-the-good ones. Certain details, such as all the technicalities of a major project you supervised, are to be saved for the interview.

3. Supplementary Evidence

You can add attachments, hyperlinks, videos, presentations, talent endorsements, and recommendations from previous coworkers to your LinkedIn profile. This is not possible when submitting a resume. Because you can't add physical proof of your abilities to this document, you need to weave in as much concrete, verifiable evidence of your value as possible by including numbers to quantify your impact on former employers. For example, if you helped improve a company's profits, say how much. If you can compellingly tell your story, hopefully, you'll entice recruiters to visit LinkedIn, where they can find samples of your work and other hard evidence of what you can do for them.

4. Privacy

LinkedIn is a public platform, so anyone in your network can access all the information you include here. You must therefore exercise caution when deciding which details to disclose. For example, you should never list your physical address or reveal confidential business metrics. If you are not able to understand, how to write a LinkedIn profile then you can also take the help of professional writers. However, your resume is a personal document, so there is more room to include specific facts and figures that can make a strong case for your employment. As your resume will only be seen by the recruiter and whoever he shares it with, you can be quite direct about your objectives here. This doesn't apply to LinkedIn, where you need to promote yourself more concisely and avoid explicitly saying that you're actively looking for a new job.

5. Tone of voice

The degree of formality is another important difference between a resume and a LinkedIn profile. Your resume is a professional document meant to establish you as a polite, respectful employee. Make sure this comes through in the language you use, and prefer formal words over colloquial phrases. You should also avoid using first-person pronouns you can skip personal pronouns altogether. Professionalism is also important on LinkedIn, but since it is first and foremost a networking site and social platform, some degree of informality is allowed. It would be a mistake not to use LinkedIn to showcase your personality, so make your profile language familiar, relevant, and conversational, and feel free to say "I" and "me." The idea is to give people a sense of who you are so they feel comfortable reaching out and connecting.

6. Imagery and Media

To make your LinkedIn profile more attractive, you must include a professional profile picture. Conversely, it is best not to include a personal photo in your resume to protect yourself from bias. In general, with the inclusion of additional media, documents, and clips, your LinkedIn profile can be quite colorful and dynamic. Your resume is different in that the formatting should be as straightforward as possible so that it will be accepted by screening software and applicant tracking systems (ATS). Because this document is a key job application tool, it should tell your story the way recruiters expect to receive it—that's all.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have discussed what is the difference between a CV and LinkedIn Profile. Your CV and LinkedIn profile shouldn't be identical. There are many variations in the way LinkedIn profiles and CVs are structured, written, and prepared. Major differences include content, tense, and tone. CVs should be more formal and they are usually written in the third person, unlike LinkedIn profiles, which should be less formal and written in the first person. However, both your LinkedIn profile and CV should convey your expertise and value as a professional. If you're still unsure about the difference between a resume and a LinkedIn profile, or if you need additional guidance on compiling your resume, take a look at CV writing help services. For your career advancement objectives, you need a great LinkedIn profile and CV.