Microsoft Releases LinkedIn-Powered Resume Building Assistant for Word

It is definitely a fact of life that with a good resume, finding a job is much easier. Resume Assistant from LinkedIn, which is now available to Office 365 subscribers on Windows, is designed to make creating an outstanding CV much simpler, thus helping with the job-seeking process.

LinkedIn and Microsoft, which integrated in 2016, will help give resumes the attention they deserve.

Using Resume Assistant is quite simple, you first have to select your desired role and industry. The Assistant then aggregates LinkedIn insights from matching member profiles to give you a better idea of how these professionals describe their work.

“Positioning your professional experience in the strongest way possible is everything when it comes to your resume and LinkedIn profile,” the company notes in a blog post.

Innovative way to display experience

The examples which are put together from other successful individuals can help a person discover innovative ways to express own experiences. Resume Assistant also provides users with information about the skills other professionals in the industries and positions preferred by the applicant possess, as well as the job requirements from current job postings. This way, the applicant can add these skills to their CV as they apply.

Resume Assistant will then display potential job opportunities for the applicant directly within Microsoft Word. If the applicant sees something they like, they can apply immediately through LinkedIn, or make themselves more noticeable by turning on the tool 'Open Candidates'.

This indicates to recruiters that the applicant is actively looking for new possibilities. “We hope Resume Assistant makes it easier than ever for you to be your most successful self, however you define it,” LinkedIn noted in a blog post. “Be on the lookout for availability across other operating systems, including Mac, as well as additional regions and languages in the coming months.”

The availability in the specific region can also be found out by checking out the Microsoft support site.

Shows relevant job opportunities

Microsoft has bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016. The company says the feature works by gathering insights from millions of LinkedIn profiles for examples of how others in similar roles or positions the candidate is interested in, talk about their work experience.

LinkedIn’s freelance hiring marketplace tool ProFinder is also connected directly to Resume Assistant. This means the candidate can talk to experts about career coaching and other resume tips. The tool will also find and show relevant job opportunities.

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Resume Assistant is available when the display language is set to English and the region is set to Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, or the US.

The feature will roll out to other operating systems, regions, and languages in the coming months, Microsoft says. More than 433 million people use LinkedIn worldwide to network, find jobs, and reconnect with old colleagues.

Many of those LinkedIn users also pay for premium services to use the site. It is anticipated that Microsoft will use the LinkedIn acquisition more and more as a way to promote the company's social networking presence. Microsoft had invested in Facebook in the earlier stages, but the company struggled to break into enterprise social networks. Four years ago Microsoft spent $1.2 billion on Yammer but enterprises did not use the tool as much as Microsoft had hoped.