LinkedIn has become an integral part of modern job hunting. It’s a great platform to showcase your skills and experience and lets recruiters find you, giving you access to roles you might not have find otherwise. You can apply for job through it, using the information stored within it to build a CV tailored to that role. Does that mean it has replaced, or become more important than a CV? Should you focus your time and attention on one more than the other?
Importance of a good CV
While you can apply for many roles via LinkedIn Easy Apply for the vast majority of vacancies you need a good CV to be in with a chance. It is still the main way to apply for a role and should give the recruiter a quick, easily digestible snapshot of your skills and experience.
Your CV should be a living document, something that isn’t solid, something that changes depending on the role you’re applying for. This is the CV’s strength, you can tailor every element of it, from your personal statement to the achievements you wish to highlight. You can streamline or expand certain aspects to best show why you’re suited to the role in question.
Importance of LinkedIn
LinkedIn has now become and integral part of any recruitment process. Even if you’ve applied for a job with a CV, a recruiter is still going to check out your LinkedIn profile. The advantage LinkedIn has over a CV is space. While a CV is generally constrained to 2-3 pages your LinkedIn profile is limitless. You can use is to bring your CV to life, tell more of a story about you, your career and your aspirations. It is easier to showcase previous projects and the achievements you’ve made. You can upload reports, articles or link to information online to give more substance to your achievements.
A good LinkedIn profile also allows you to be found by potential recruiters/employers. Having a well- rounded profile that details your skills and experiences makes you more likely to be approached about new roles.
To answer the original question, no you can’t rely on just a CV or a LinkedIn profile, you need a both. The good CV is still needed to get you over the first hurdle and be selected for interview. But it needs to be supported by a strong LinkedIn profile. One that mirrors but expands upon the achievements on your CV.
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