How to upload a resume to LinkedIn

If you’re serious about your career (especially in an active job search), you’re probably on LinkedIn. After all, it’s become the most popular career and networking site on the internet. Not to mention it’s where most recruiters (for reputable companies) hang out and look for candidates. This is the primary place I source candidates (that’s me searching for and finding YOU).

Your LinkedIn profile and your resume are the first impressions most people make with a company. And if you don’t have your best foot forward, it could be costing you interviews and, worse, job offers.

Should you upload your resume to Linkedin?

The answer is YES! If you’re serious about getting discovered and having recruiters find you, make it easy for them. Because when we are looking for candidates, we will search by your profile first. And if we like what we see, we’ll either save you to a project folder to reach out to later and share your profile with the hiring manager, OR we’ll save/download your profile in the form of a PDF and share it with our hiring teams.

But your profile might not be the best impression you want to make. So uploading a resume helps ensure you’re making the best possible impression, even if you don’t realize you are.

In other words, make it easy for the recruiter to recruit you. Because so few people upload a resume to LinkedIn, you can stand out from the crowd if you do. By uploading a copy of your resume, you can ensure that recruiters and hiring managers are seeing the best version of you. Of course, you’ll want to make sure your resume is rockstar worthy before you do so.

Before we begin…

If you upload your resume to LinkedIn, you may want to take a few precautions first.

I’d suggest using a PDF version of your resume, so an unscrupulous recruiter doesn’t take the liberty of changing your resume without your permission or knowledge. I’ve heard a horror story or 3 of some shady recruiter changing around resumes without the candidate’s blessing, only to cost them the job later when the hiring teams determined they didn’t have the skills listed on the resume (that weren’t there originally…)

You may also want to exercise caution in giving out too much personal information on a public forum. This is especially true for the ladies – safety first. I’d recommend removing your contact info for this particular version and maybe only listing your city/state.

You may want to create a unique email address just for your job search and use it instead of your regular email. That way, you can reduce the disruption to your inbox. (be sure to check your job search email often!)

Where should you upload your resume to Linkedin?

You’ve decided to join the fun and add your resume to Linkedin. Great! Now the question is, where to host your resume? You’ve got a few options.

1. You can create a simple website and link it in your headline
2. You can add it to your most current job
3. You can save it to a Featured post
4. You can put it on blast and share it in a post

Let’s break down each of these options and see which one is best for your situation.

Adding a Resume Website to your headline

One of the most prominent spots to upload your resume to Linkedin is including a simple website and adding your link in the headline. This section makes sense because it’s the first thing a recruiter will see if they visit your profile. What better way to catch their attention than by including a link to your resume?

Doing so is pretty straightforward.

Of course, this requires a bit of extra work on your part to get a simple website set up. But it’s not hard, and I’ve made a video on how to do so here.

Adding your resume to your most current job

You can also add your resume to your most current job. Doing this will guarantee a lurking recruiter will see your resume attachment and perhaps download it. The process for adding your resume to your current job is simple. As you edit the job details, there’s an option for attachments. Find your resume file (again, a PDF is recommended) and upload it.

However, this may have its disadvantages if you’re currently unemployed – it may just indicate that you don’t have a job. This leads me to my favorite way to post a resume.

Save your resume in a “Feature Post.”

A great place to consider saving your resume is as a featured post. Featured posts are pinned on your main profile, and anyone who visits will see it listed predominately. I prefer to storing resumes here because it’s featured on the main page and does not associate you directly with any particular role.

As you create this featured post, you can include a short bio of yourself, what types of roles you’d be open to, and where you’d be interested in working. This is a chance to show your personality, so feel free to get creative.

To add a featured post, scroll down below your header to the featured section. If it’s missing, you may need to “add a section” by clicking the pencil icon near your header. Then add new media by clicking the “+” button, select your resume file, and upload. You should now see it as a featured post.

Get discovered by adding your resume to LinkedIn

Congrats! As you can see, uploading your resume to LinkedIn is simple and easy and can help you stand out from a competitive crowd. And in a tight job market, any advantage you can get is worth doing. Make sure you are cleaning up the rest of your LinkedIn profile for maximum discoverability, and you’ll be on your way to a new job in no time!

If you need more help navigating and using LinkedIn to look for a job, check out my course, Unlocking LinkedIn. I take you DEEP behind the scenes of LinkedIn and show you exactly how recruiters use it to find job candidates. I also show you how to skip the recruiter and jump into the hiring process! I’m confident there’s no other training quite like it.

Good luck with the job search!

Bryan