Go ahead, admit it; writing a resume is a pain in the butt. Maybe you’ve been working the same job for a few years and need to create a resume that accurately reflects your marketable skills. Or perhaps you’re applying to different types of positions. How do you highlight the skills that apply to varied job openings? Is your resume keeping you from landing the perfect job?
A recent survey found nearly 70% of U.S. professionals said not knowing if they were portraying themselves effectively was the most challenging part of writing a resume.
Microsoft and LinkedIn feel your pain and have created Resume Assistant to help make that process a lot easier. It leverages LinkedIn data (LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft) bringing it directly into Microsoft Word to help you write a better resume and show off your skills and accomplishments.
So how does this work? We got the scoop from Scott Shapiro, Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, and Kylan Nieh, Senior Product Manager at LinkedIn.
*Resume Assistant just started rolling out to Office 365 subscribers as part of the Office Insiders program and will be available to all Office 365 subscribers in the coming months. We’ll have an update on how to get started and how to make it work for you once it's available to all subscribers.
Can you tell me a little bit about the Resume Assistant and why it was created?
Resume Assistant brings the power of the world's largest professional network directly into Microsoft Word. With this new feature within Office 365, you'll get the inspiration and resources to craft a compelling resume directly within Microsoft Word. By selecting a role and industry, users can see examples of suggested skills and work experience summaries to inspire the way they talk about their work, as well as articles and tips on resume creation. Furthermore, job seekers will see relevant job listings, based on the title and industry selected, from LinkedIn’s more than 11 million active job postings.
What pain points are you solving?
The prevalence of online job postings has driven an increased number of applicants, resulting in higher competition. This means the words and skills highlighted on resumes have become much more important due to online application systems that will sort through resumes based on words related to the job posting.
At the same time, nearly 70% of professionals find it challenging to present their professional accomplishments in a compelling way on their resume. Resume Assistant solves this challenge by leveraging LinkedIn data to showcase work experience examples for inspiration.
What are you trying to accomplish and how does Microsoft Word help?
When you think about the information between the MSFT Graph and LinkedIn Graph we can open up new opportunities to help make finding a new job so much easier. Your LinkedIn profile is the best way to keep your network up to date on your career journey and enable recruiters to bring you new opportunities. But, a resume is still an important part of the recruitment process. With more than 80% of resume updates happening in Word, Resume Assistant will help you create your most effective resume taking inspiration from great professional profiles on LinkedIn.
How does it work?
Resume Assistant pulls insights directly from public LinkedIn profiles into Microsoft Word. Users will be asked to select a job title and industry, and based on these selections, the tool will show them relevant work experience examples and top skills from professionals like them to inform resume creation. Also within the tool, users can explore helpful content and tips from LinkedIn on how to write a resume, and even connect with a professional Resume Writer via LinkedIn's freelance hiring platform, LinkedIn ProFinder.
How does the artificial intelligence work?
Microsoft Word can automatically detect if a newly opened document is a resume. It then launches the Resume
Assistant feature. Once Resume Assistant is open AI classification algorithms play a significant role in ensuring the personalized examples for skills and recommendations that we provide are relevant to the user. As part of these efforts, we look at many signals like profile quality, content quality, attractiveness to recruiters, and ‘recency’ in the work experience examples we surface.
People hate re-doing resumes or writing specific resumes for specific jobs they’re applying for. How much easier will this make it for them?
As we've done research on the job search process, we often hear statements like "I stay in jobs just to avoid updating my resume.” We’re committed to address this problem and bring the strengths of LinkedIn and Microsoft to work for job seekers across the Microsoft and LinkedIn Graphs. Resume Assistant presents a new capability that brings intelligence to the resume creation process.
Our research highlighted the following:
- Nearly 2 out of 3 professionals told us their biggest pain-point when creating a resume was not knowing if they are portraying themselves in the most effective way
- 1 in 3 professionals told us they struggle with understanding how others in the same function or industry describe themselves on their resumes
- More than 50% struggle with customizing their resume for a specific role
You’re leveraging public profiles – is there a danger of people stealing verbatim other people’s skills and profiles?
Resumes should be a reflection of each individual's' work experience. The suggestions provided in Resume Assistant are intended as inspiration for resume writers. You cannot copy and paste the suggestions within the tool.
