Linkedin.com — Brush Up your Resume

Posted by on May 03, 2007 in Culture, Technology | 4 comments

I’ve been looking more and more at Linkedin.com lately and I’ve found a couple of really interesting uses for it. Let’s start with the unique window LinkedIn.com is providing into people’s resumes. Generally, you really have no idea what other people’s resumes look like. Yes, you can buy a book or ask a few people — but having access to thousands of people’s resumes is a goldmine of information. What’s also very illuminating is how people choose to present themselves professionally. I know I’d like to be Rohit Bharghava, Chris Heuer, or Kristie Wells when I grow up (figuratively speaking, of course), and now I can take a look at their resumes and be even more intimidated than I was before. 😉

But seriously, now I can see what they did to get where they are and understand the training and career path that lead them there. Reading what they say now on their blogs, or having a couple of drinks with them helps too, but now I know what the benchmarks are for moving forward with my own career goals. Considering my own untraditional background, which you can see on my LinkedIn.com profile, it’s really helpful to know what kind of education and training my peers and betters have had, and look at that in context with their work now. I’m also finding it helpful to see how they explain what they do, and what they choose to highlight about their work and lives. I’ve probably updated my profile a 1/2 dozen times based on something I’ve seen on someone else’s.

So if you’ve ever wondered what the resume of someone who beat you out for a job looks like — now you can find out. Just head on over to LinkedIn.com and look them up. If you just can’t wait for my next installment, head over to LinkedIntelligence, it turns out they are running a promotion to get bloggers like me to write about LinkedIn.com, so there will be lots of interesting info about how to use LinkedIn.com. BTW — I had already planned to do several articles about the site when they brought the “group blogging, idea to my attention.

[tags]linkedin, social media, resumes, research, social networking, professionals, career development[/tags]


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4 Comments

  1. Emmanuel Deloget / May 10, 2007

    I don’t get it: who is Chris Heuer ? :)

    I’m not sure you have to feel impressed when you read these people resume. To be honnest, I tend to laugh when I see someone who defines himself as an Chief Idea Guy (don’t know why. Maybe because ideas are not worth a penny if you don’t make them happen. And making things happen means you are no more an idea guy. Oh, well, it’s a bit complicated) or a Diva of Details (what does that mean? Is Detail a club where he/she sings?). Ok, I’m a bit sarcastic :)

    More seriously, LinkedIn is quite effective to keep in touch with people you don’t see very often (provided that they update their contact information when they need to do so) and to find new contacts based on your business – that may be the first “web 2.0” website that I find really useful, both for a professional usage and a personnal usage. It’s also quite effective to get more information on job candidates – or to find people that might be interested in a position in our group. So yes, that’s a very valuable tool.

    Anyway, /me’s going to bookmark (as in, you know, not a virtual bookmark on a website that everybody knows. Something that I store on my own computer. I’m old school) your blog for future reference (and future read). That’s all interesting stuff 😉

  2. Jesse Thomas / May 24, 2007

    yeah linkedin is sweet. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jessesaves

  3. Nicole / June 24, 2008

    For what it’s worth, I used to love LinkedIn but now I am finding that other networking sites (like http://www.octopuscity.com or facebook) give you more of an ability to really connect and interact with people, rather than just “have connections”.

  4. John Dyer / December 14, 2009

    It can be helpful to see how others are presenting themselves. You can get some good (and bad) ideas and fine tune your presentation even better with that information. Just a word of caution though, don’t get sidetracked! Go ahead and smile at the cutsey titles and then be sure that YOUR profile includes the keywords and specialties that will help recruiters find you. Stay focused on what produces results! Hint: “Detail Diva” may not cut it.

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