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A buddy of mine has been looking for work for a long time. He is a help-desk professional. I had a drink with him last night, and he was talking about a recruiter that had asked him to send him a copy of his resume.

This seemed odd to me, as his LinkedIn profile matches his resume and includes recommendations. (I do the same with my LinkedIn profile)

Why would a recruiter who found a candidate on LinkedIn in not be able to use that information to submit for an opportunity?

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    Should I tailor my resume for each job application? Although my (guess at an) answer would probably be "because that's the standard process".
    – Bernhard Barker
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:56
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    LinkedIn is your "Brochure." Your resume is your "Product line sheet." Very different things.
    – Wesley Long
    Dec 22, 2017 at 18:20
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    Every single time I've reached out to a recruiter (without a single exception) or they've reached out to me (regardless of how they found me), when looking, I've needed to provide a resume. This includes recruiters with whom I've got an ongoing relationship and are actually the recruiter for a current job and know exactly what's changed since my last resume. It's just standard. For what it's worth, I don't know why this Q got downvotes. While a rather novice question, I think it's a good one for the type of site we have here and the answers are exemplary.
    – Chris E
    Dec 22, 2017 at 19:14
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    Yeah, I don't see what this is a bad question either @ChrisE it wasn't so novice to me... three downvotes sheesh...
    – Neo
    Dec 22, 2017 at 20:01
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    @IamSoNotListening Some people are just richards
    – Chris E
    Dec 22, 2017 at 21:56

2 Answers 2

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They always ask for resumes. And for good reason.

Some people may only list some key points on their profiles, but go into greater detail in their resumes, etc. There's no reason to assume that they would be the same.

Also, it's rather unpleasant for the recruiter to copy paste the content of your LinkedIn into a document for the purpose of printing it for the customer, or forwarding it to them.

Better to have a well-formatted copy handed them by the candidate.

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    Good point, If LinkedIn was smart, they would provide a way for a recruiter to nicely print of your profile/resume for use.
    – Neo
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:42
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    @IamSoNotListening I am guessing they don't so they cannot be held liable for any issues or mis-interpretations of data
    – SaggingRufus
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:47
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    @IamSoNotListening yeah I don't see it as an issue either, but if the site malfunctioned and parts of your resume were not there when the recruiter printed it, there would be some unhappy people
    – SaggingRufus
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:50
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    @IamSoNotListening In my experience, recruiters like to "massage" a resume and reformat it a bit to send to a client. This gives all of their candidates a uniform presentation and allows their client to find the relevant information faster without having to look over a bunch of different styles of resumes. I suspect if the client is looking for design or artistic talent, that would change.
    – Chris E
    Dec 22, 2017 at 19:20
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    @IamSoNotListening they would provide a way for a recruiter to nicely print of your profile/resume for use - Hi we have great news I saw your profile and knew you were a great fit so we have submitted you to a company with out asking you... Hey thanks for the resume, GuyWithNameSameAsMine... are just the top pitfalls of that
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Dec 23, 2017 at 14:18
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There are lots of reasons why a resume might be required, but let's go with the most straight-forward.

HR is all about protecting the company, and one of the ways they achieve that is through consistency.

  • Candidate records should be consistent.
  • Candidate communication should be consistent.
  • Interview questions should be consistent.
  • Interview feedback should be consistent.

HR needs a copy of the candidate's resume for their records. If there is a lawsuit, they need to be able to pull up that candidate's resume. They may need to justify why they did or did not hire a particular candidate. By not having an official resume, a potential can of worms is opened that can easily be kept shut by simply requiring a resume from every single candidate.

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  • Another good point, HR/Legal protection.
    – Neo
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:43
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    The point about keeping documentation on the candidate applies equally to the recruiter themselves as well as the company where the job is.
    – Steve-O
    Dec 22, 2017 at 17:46

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