The Modern Day CV

I'm always struggling with recording my career-related activities to keep track of my own professional history. I haven't used a resume for years because as a business owner, I'm more commonly asked for my bio or background, and I try to edit my bio every six months or when I do something new or significant in my work, whichever comes first.

I did try to put a CV together which is much more of an academic document. While I have a 15 page CV, I ended up paring it down thinking it would be easier to read and ended up with a cross between an extended resume and abbreviated CV.

These days, I think the Resume/CV is LinkedIn. I can't see being a working or even an out-of-work businessperson without a LinkedIn account. The site prompts you to add your work history in an orderly fashion and encourages you to keep adding relevant activities and experience to get to a 100% completed profile.

When I want to know about anyone's background, I hit LinkedIn first to see if they have a profile and if so, what they've been up to in the last 5 years. I'm sure people are doing the same to learn more about me.

I find myself tweaking my LinkedIn account several times a month, making sure that it clearly conveys what I do.

How are you keeping up with your resume, CV or bio? Is LinkedIn working for you?

Comments

[Ian R McAllister]

Your LinkedIn profile is not a CV/resume. LinkedIn - like Facebook, MySpace, etc - are social networking sites. LinkedIn is a business networking site, and the reason you put your career history there is primarily for networking or selling over getting a job.

This means that there are things in your LinkedIn profile which an employer may not want to know, or are wholly irrelevant to your job application: eg, nice that you got a cheerleader medal 20years ago, but how does that apply to managing in a retail environment today?

A CV/resume is a personal and factual sales pitch at a specific job - no more, and no less. Your LinkedIn page is a networking profile first, and unverified confirmation of your skills at best.

Good Luck!