How to update your resume on LinkedIn (and keep both in step)

“Updating your resume on LinkedIn” sounds like one step, but a resume can sit in three places: a file on your profile, copies saved for job applications, and the text of the profile itself. LinkedIn changes none of them for you when you finish a new version, so each one needs its own update.

1. Replace the file in your Featured section

If you attached a resume to your profile, anyone who visits can still open the old version until you change it.

1. Open your profile and go to the Featured section.
2. Open the pencil icon, find the old resume and delete it.
3. Choose Add media, upload the new file and give it a clear title, such as “Resume”. Save.

LinkedIn moves its menus around, so the labels may differ a little on your screen. Before you upload, take your home address and personal phone number off the copy, since the file is as public as your profile. A PDF keeps the layout.

2. Update the copy saved for job applications

Resumes you’ve uploaded while applying are kept in your job application settings, separate from your profile. An old one can be pre-selected the next time you hit Easy Apply, which is how a stale resume goes out by accident.

• Open your job application settings and add the new resume.
• Remove the old one so it can’t be picked by mistake.
• When you apply, check which file is selected before you submit.

Keep a resume tailored to each job description rather than one copy for everything. Employers you already applied to keep the file you sent them; changing your settings doesn’t reach back to those.

3. Update the profile so it matches

Recruiters search profiles, not attachments, and many open your profile and your resume side by side. Anything new on the resume should be on the profile too.

• Experience: add the new role or dates, and the bullet points that earned the change.
• Headline: if your target role moved, so should this. See 30 LinkedIn headline examples.
• About: rewrite it around what you do now. See LinkedIn About section examples.
• Skills: add the ones you used in the new work.

A quick check after you update

• Titles, employers and dates are the same on the profile and the resume.
• The Featured file is the new one, and the old one is gone.
• The resume selected for applications is the new one.
• No personal phone number or home address on any file that’s public.

Presr’s LinkedIn profile optimization points out where your profile and your resume say different things.

Starting from the profile instead

If it’s easier to bring the profile up to date first, you can turn your LinkedIn profile into a resume and let the new version come from it. New to attaching one? See how to add your resume to LinkedIn.

Questions about updating a resume on LinkedIn