Your resume should be specifically geared to the position you’re applying for. At the same time, you don’t want gaps in your employment history. So can you provide only the experience that’s applicable to the current job opening, without selling yourself short?

While you don’t need a full work history going back to your paper delivery days on your resume, you still want to maintain a record of the jobs you’ve held, particularly if you’re a recent graduate with only a few jobs under your belt, or at the other extreme, a mature professional with an extensive work history going back 15 years or more.

LinkedIn is a network for professionals. Today it is one of the first places an employer looks when starting the hiring process—but that’s not the only reason to have an active profile in LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a great place to capture your complete work history. This can be done in several of different ways:

• Fill out a complete LinkedIn profile, including work history, education, and skills.
• Attach a copy of a multi-page resume (or CV), using one of LinkedIn’s applications, such as Box.net or Portfolio Display.
• Use your personal website to capture your complete work history, and link to it from your LinkedIn profile.

Include a link to your LinkedIn profile on your resume, as a point of contact. The employer or hiring manager now has the option to review your full profile if they choose.

Another advantage of using LinkedIn is the Recommendations section. Providing recommendations from past employers, co-workers, or other business associates through LinkedIn will give a prospective employer more insight into your work ethic and value. LinkedIn recommendations are not the same as professional references. Professional references are much more in-depth, and are geared to specific questions posed by the hiring manager or employer.

Explore the other areas LinkedIn provides for rounding out your professional persona. By adding Sections, you can include information on the organizations you belong to, volunteer experiences, languages, and more.

LinkedIn provides a profile score based on the information you’ve provided. Make LinkedIn work for you by keeping your score at 100%.

Related articles:

• Job Hunting? The Ingredients of a Perfect LinkedIn Profile (theblush.com)
• Can LinkedIn Help My Career? And How? (socialsmarty.com)