Well, it looks like AI has decided to take over a good part of my job.
LinkedIn has a new Premium (paid) feature called “Tailor my resume to this job” along with a function called “Sparkle” that gives you “personalized insights” into the advertised job. That includes pointing out the “gaps” in your resume or experience. It talks about “keywords”.
It’s nice to have what I have been saying for close to ten years validated – that is you must customize your resume. It’s nice to know that one of the actions I do for my clients (job listing analysis) is valuable enough for it to now be offered by LinkedIn – although I doubt that it is as comprehensive as my process. I suppose it’s even nice that a phrase I use – “make your resume sparkle” – is right on trend.
I am not a Premium user, because I don’t need the functionality that 35 dollars or more a month (plus tax) provides. YMMV on that value. It does include a certain number of In Mails that let you reach out to hiring managers directly.
In the cause of helping you make such a decision, studies show that job hunting will take about 1 month per $10,000 of annual salary or pay, including 1 month for each $10K more than your current salary. There is a free trial month – and if you are currently employed, have optimized your profile, and are ready to spend all your available time applying with all those bells and whistles – that might be all you need to move up by up to $10K. Don’t forget to cancel the automatic deduction!
The question is how well does LinkedIn’s AI actually accomplish the assignment? I hope it’s great. If you have any experience with this, I’d love to hear about it.
I’m not cheap. I know it. My total fee package for resumes is the equivalent of 10 months of the basic Premium LinkedIn service. My rates are not going down any time soon. I still give personalized service and produce multiple drafts of customized documents, that work to help you secure interviews beyond the LinkedIn ecosystem. LinkedIn probably doesn’t understand how to format a credits-based resume for entertainment networking between real people – which is still how you will find most of your gigs in this industry.
But as you may know if you’ve been reading here, I want to move to a more affordable-for-you online course/group coaching model. I want to know what you would want from me, so here is another link to my product survey. I have some responses, but I’d like a bigger sample so please consider filling it out if you are a prospective client, existing client, entertainment industry worker, or recent college graduate, or just curious about resumes and cover letters. You can then be in the running to be a beta tester and get the course for free, IF you like – no obligation!
In the meantime, pay attention to the fine print at LinkedIn – “This AI feature is in beta and may make mistakes.”