It’s January, it’s the start of the year, and the time when people make commitments to do things that they’ve been meaning to do but not yet got round to it. Two common ones are joining a gym, or updating your CV and start looking for that new job, instead of whinging about the current one.
But how important is a CV these days? As a seasoned senior recruiter I believe that having a strong and well presented CV is still important, but I would say that even more of a priority is to have an up to date and representative Linkedin profile. Some people still ask me if they should be on Linkedin, and even more surprising I can spend much time searching to find someone on Linkedin (and without being too immodest, I’m quite good at searching on Linkedin) only to establish that they haven’t actually got a Linkedin profile.
I mean who doesn’t have a Linkedin profile? Even Gareth Southgate has now joined Linkedin. Yes that’s right, our recently knighted ex-England manager is on there. Does that mean he’s looking for a job? Who knows. Possibly, or possibly not, but he recognises it as a leading public forum for expressing ideas about business or to the slightly more cynical, as a platform for self-promotion.
I say there’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion, providing it’s done tactfully and proportionately. I am convinced that there are more people in the business world that don’t do any or nearly enough self-promotion than those who do too much. So you don’t have to be job hunting to be active on Linkedin. I genuinely enjoy seeing what industry leaders or colleagues or ex-colleagues are up to.
So yes the CV’s important but an accurate Linkedin profile I would argue is as important if not more so, because its where you’re likely to have your first interaction in a selection process, even if you might not know it! Talent Acquisition professionals will be scanning Linkedin (often with the help of AI) to see who might fit a job brief that they are actively working on. If your profile is out of date, or lacking key information then you might miss out. And you might argue that you don’t want a new job, so it doesn’t matter, but in my opinion it’s often the people who are not actively looking for a job are the ones that get selected. So why miss out on your potential dream job. What’s the worse that can happen? That you say, thanks but no thanks to a recruiter (or even worse from our perspective that you don’t bother to reply).
And yes I do recommend that you have your photo in your profile, but perhaps not one of you at your wedding or even worse the stag/hen weekend! And definitely not a photo of your dog or cat, however cute they are.
Article by Ian Brooks