6 Things on Your LinkedIn Profile That Shouldn’t Be on Your Resume

Gerrit Hall is the CEO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes and grades resumes instantly. Connect with Gerrit and RezScore on Facebook and Twitter.

Many people think their LinkedIn profiles and their resumes are interchangeable, but you should not send your entire LinkedIn profile into a potential employer and expect to land an interview. While there is the LinkedIn Resume Builder, all that does is reformat your existing profile into a resume — it’s not tailored enough to show the value you could bring to the specific job you’re applying for.

Sure, LinkedIn and your resume have a lot in common. They both include your professional summary, experience, skills, contact information, education and important links. But beyond that, there are plenty of things your LinkedIn profile has that need to stay clear of your resume.

1. All of Your Experience

That job you held in high school is likely not applicable to your career path five years post-graduation, so don’t include it on your resume. The jobs you display on your resume should be relevant to the position you’re applying for, so show potential employers your pertinent accomplishments and results at each position in the bullet points. A resume should be much more focused towards a particular role than your profile. Think of your LinkedIn profile as your “master resume,” and then pull the most relevant information from it to build a resume for each position you apply for.

For example, if you were applying for a job in social media, you’d want to include your internship at a local news station where you helped create a Facebook Page for the company. However, you don’t want to list your high school position where you worked at an after-school care facility.

2. Publications

It’s true that a potential employer might want to see your work portfolio or samples, but including links to everything you’ve ever written on your resume is unnecessary. Keeping track of these on your LinkedIn profile can be helpful, though, particularly when the employer asks for links to your previous work or writing samples on the application. Instead of including links to everything you’ve done, simply provide a link to your LinkedIn profile or online portfolio on your resume (or in your email signature) to allow employers to check it out on their own time.

3. Recommendations

Yes, you need to have references handy for moving forward in the hiring process, but it’s not necessary to take up space on your resume with phrases such as “References available upon request.” Employers expect this, so there is no need to say it — much less include any recommendations. It’s common for employers to ask for these further along in the hiring process anyway, though some may require it on the job application.

4. Interests

While it’s great to let your networking connections see your interests on LinkedIn, a potential employer does not need to know that you enjoy playing basketball if you’re applying for a job in IT. The same goes for your love for cooking if your career path isn’t related to anything culinary. Leave out the talk about your interests in social media -– if the recruiter checks out your profiles, he’ll likely learn about your hobbies and favorite sports teams through the content you’ve shared.

5. Birthday

Age discrimination is a worry among job seekers, whether they’re more experienced or fresh out of college. While it can be helpful for LinkedIn contacts to know when to send you a birthday wish, you do not need to include any personal information, such as your age or birthday, on your resume. Instead, you want to highlight your experience and skills to show the employer why you’re a good fit for the opening, regardless of how old you are — which means providing a compelling (yet concise) resume.

6. Marital Status

Your personal life is your personal life. Whether you’re married or single should not affect your ability to do the job, so don’t give employers more insight into your personal business than necessary. Although job seekers who are used to creating a curriculum vitae (CV) might typically include personal information, such as marital status, place of birth or their spouse’s name, it is not appropriate to include this detailed information on your resume.

What’s on your LinkedIn profile that’s not on your resume? Let us know in the comments below.

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