What happens when the recruiter discovers your LinkedIn profile and resume do not match?
Is it a question of integrity or just or a simple oversight? Can you control this situation?
A recruiter friend of mine, Ted Rosenmayer at Breezeway Corporation International, raised this question recently. His client company was seeking a specific kind of engineer in the aerospace industry. Ted did his recruiter-thing that he does so well and met a fellow he thought was a sure fit for the job. We will call him “Jack” for purposes of this discussion.
Jack’s LinkedIn profile was exactly what the company wanted. He used all the right words to describe his background. Jack even worked at a few of the target companies in roles that provided a great background for success in this role.
The phone screen with Jack went great. Ted wanted to present him to the company. Jack was excited too! This was the opportunity he wanted to move his career to the next level! Ted asked Jack to send over the resume so he could include it in the packet to the client company.
When Ted received the resume in email, he stopped for a second. Something was a little off. Somehow the resume was different from the LinkedIn profile. Dates and job titles didn’t match; one entire job appeared in one place and not in the other. These are not small discrepancies. Mmmmm… What is going on here?
If you were Ted, what would you think?
Consistency is critical in this day of social media. Our profiles and information appear in numerous forums and platforms, sometimes whether we want that information revealed or not. You cannot control what conclusions people draw based on variations in information about you available to the public in social media.
Ted said, “I sent him an email to ask him to explain, but dependent upon his answer I might not even present him if there is even a hint of deceit.” Ted jumped to the same conclusion I arrived at, that there is a big problem when the information in the resume and LinkedIn profile do not agree. It becomes a question of integrity.
Maybe it is all a simple mistake. Maybe not. But what started so optimistically might not end so well. Jack’s chances at the job of his dreams teeter on the edge of an explanation. It didn’t have to end this way; all because of a little variation. What a waste.
So what should you do? Here are a few tips:
- Be certain that every profile about you reflects the same TRUE information in terms of jobs, dates, titles, and companies. Google yourself to find all the places you appear in social media. Read the profiles checking for consistency with your resume.
- Take affirmative steps to make corrections so all your various profiles are consistent with one another. Write a basic profile then copy and paste if you have to so you can be certain you are being represented consistently.
- Don’t EVER misrepresent yourself. You cannot control the information enough in this social media. It will come back to haunt you.