How to Add Your Resume to LinkedIn
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"How do I add my resume to LinkedIn?" sounds like one question, but LinkedIn actually offers four or five different places a resume can live, and they behave very differently. A resume in your Featured section sits on your public profile for everyone to download. A resume attached to an Easy Apply application goes to a single employer and disappears from view the moment you submit. A resume posted to your feed lands in front of your entire network — including your current boss. Choosing the wrong one can either hide your resume from the people you want to see it, or expose your private contact information to the whole internet.
This guide covers every method as its own section with numbered steps you can follow on desktop or mobile: adding a resume to your Featured section, attaching one during Easy Apply, posting one to your feed, downloading your LinkedIn profile as a PDF resume, and updating or removing a resume you have already added. There is a quick comparison table so you can pick the right method in seconds, plus a privacy section you should read before you upload anything.
Method 1: Add your resume to your Featured section (visible on your profile)
The Featured section is the best place to put a resume you want everyone who visits your profile to be able to view and download. Anyone — recruiters, hiring managers, connections — can open and save the file, so use this when you are actively and openly job hunting. Because it is public, this is also the method that most needs a privacy pass first (see the privacy section below).
You add a resume here by uploading it as media. If you do not already have a Featured section on your profile, the steps below create one.
Steps (desktop)
- 1. Open your profile — Click the Me icon in the top navigation bar, then "View Profile."
- 2. Find the Add profile section button — Click "Add profile section" near the top of your profile, then expand the "Recommended" group.
- 3. Add Featured — Choose "Add featured." If a Featured section already exists, click the pencil (edit) icon on it, then the plus (+) to add a new item.
- 4. Upload your resume — Select "Add media," choose your resume PDF from your computer, and confirm the upload.
- 5. Add a title and description — Give it a clear title like "Resume — Jane Smith, Marketing Manager" so visitors know what it is, then click Save.
Steps (mobile app)
On the iOS or Android app, tap your photo to open your profile, tap "Add section," open the "Recommended" group, and tap "Add featured." Tap the plus (+), choose "Add media," and pick your resume file from your phone's storage or files app. Add a title and tap Save. The uploaded resume then appears as a card in your Featured section.
Method 2: Attach a resume during Easy Apply (goes to one employer only)
When you apply to a job that uses LinkedIn's Easy Apply, you can attach a resume that is sent only to that employer. This is the right method when you want a specific, tailored resume to reach one company without putting it on your public profile. Crucially, a resume attached this way is NOT saved to your profile and is not visible to anyone except the company you applied to.
LinkedIn remembers your four most recently uploaded application resumes so you can reuse them, but it never publishes them. If your goal is a private, per-application resume, this is the method to use.
Steps
- 1. Open a job with Easy Apply — Find a posting that shows the blue "Easy Apply" button (not "Apply," which sends you to the employer's own site).
- 2. Click Easy Apply — Work through the contact-info and questions steps until you reach the Resume step.
- 3. Upload your resume — Click "Upload resume" and select your tailored PDF or DOC file (LinkedIn accepts up to 2 MB).
- 4. Review and submit — Check the application preview, then click "Submit application." Your resume goes to that employer and nowhere else.
Important: this resume is private
A resume uploaded during Easy Apply is tied to the application, not your profile. It will not appear in your Featured section, it is not searchable, and other LinkedIn members cannot see it. If you later want to remove a saved application resume, you can manage it under Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → "Job application settings."
Method 3: Post your resume as a feed post (visible to your network)
You can share your resume as a regular feed post with a short caption — for example, an "open to work" announcement. This puts your resume directly in front of your network and can generate referrals fast, but it is the highest-exposure option and comes with a real privacy cost.
Steps
- 1. Start a post — Click "Start a post" at the top of your home feed.
- 2. Attach the document — Click the document/attachment icon (it may be under the "..." more-options menu, often labeled "Add a document").
- 3. Upload and name it — Select your resume PDF, then give the document a clear title such as "Jane Smith — Resume."
- 4. Set the audience and write a caption — Choose who can see the post (Anyone, or Connections only), add a short note about the role you want, and click Post.
Pros and cons
- Pro — it reaches your network instantly and is easy for connections to like, comment, and reshare — great for referrals.
- Pro — a feed post can surface your search to recruiters who follow you but have not visited your profile.
- Con — if your current employer is connected to you, they will likely see that you are job hunting.
- Con — a posted resume is hard to fully retract — people may have already downloaded or screenshotted it.
Privacy warning
A feed post is public by default and exposes whatever is on the document — including the phone number, email, and home address printed on a standard resume — to your entire network and, if set to "Anyone," to the open web. Never post a resume that still carries your full contact block. Use a stripped-down version (name and a professional email only), or skip this method and direct interested people to message you instead.
Method 4: Download your LinkedIn profile as a PDF resume
LinkedIn can turn your own profile into a ready-made PDF resume in a couple of clicks. This is handy when you need a quick resume and your profile is already up to date, or when you want a starting point to edit. The export pulls your headline, experience, education, and skills into a plain LinkedIn-branded layout.
Steps
- 1. Open your own profile — Click the Me icon, then "View Profile."
- 2. Click the More button — In your profile's introduction card (next to "Open to," "Add profile section," and "Enhance profile"), click "More."
- 3. Choose Save to PDF — Select "Save to PDF." LinkedIn generates the file and downloads it to your device.
- 4. Clean it up — Open the PDF and edit it — the auto-generated layout is generic, so reformat it and tighten the wording before sending it to any employer.
A heads-up on the exported file
The "Save to PDF" export is functional, not polished: it uses a fixed one-column layout, includes everything on your profile (even sections you would trim for a targeted resume), and is not tailored to any specific job. Treat it as raw material. If you want an ATS-ready, recruiter-formatted resume from the same profile data without the manual cleanup, see the converter mentioned at the end of this guide.
Method 5: Update or replace a resume on LinkedIn
LinkedIn does not let you edit the contents of an uploaded resume file in place — to change a resume you have already added, you replace the file. The steps depend on where the resume lives.
- Featured section — Go to your profile, click the pencil (edit) icon on the Featured section, delete the old resume card, then add the updated PDF as new media.
- Easy Apply (saved application resume) — Open Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → "Job application settings," remove the outdated file, and upload the new one — or just upload the new version on your next application.
- Feed post — You cannot swap the document inside an existing post. Delete the old post and publish a new one with the updated file.
Method 6: Delete or remove a resume from LinkedIn
Removing a resume also depends on where you put it. Here is how to take each one down.
Remove from the Featured section
- 1. Edit Featured — On your profile, click the pencil (edit) icon on the Featured section.
- 2. Open the resume item — Click the pencil on the specific resume card you want to remove.
- 3. Delete — Choose "Delete" (a trash-can icon on some layouts) and confirm. The resume is removed from your public profile immediately.
Remove a saved Easy Apply resume
Go to Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → "Job application settings." Under your saved resumes, click the delete icon next to the file you want to remove. This clears it from the reuse list so it is not attached to future applications. It does not retract resumes already submitted to employers — those have already been delivered.
Remove a posted resume
Find the post in your feed or on your profile's Activity tab, click the "..." menu on the post, and choose "Delete post." Remember that deleting a post does not recover any copies people already downloaded, so treat a posted resume as permanently public once it is live.
Privacy: do not expose your phone number or address
This is the single most important caveat in this guide. A standard resume contains a full contact block — phone number, email, sometimes a home address — that is fine to send to a single employer but dangerous to publish. The Featured section and feed posts are public surfaces: anything you upload there can be viewed and downloaded by anyone, including data scrapers and bad actors who harvest contact details at scale.
Easy Apply is the exception — that resume goes only to the employer you applied to, so it is the safe place for a resume with your real contact information. For anything public, take these precautions:
- Remove your phone number and home/street address from any resume you put in your Featured section or a feed post.
- Keep only a professional email address — ideally one you use specifically for job searching.
- Use a clean filename like "Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf" rather than one that leaks internal version notes.
- If you are employed and want to stay discreet, prefer Easy Apply and turn on LinkedIn's "Open to Work" with the "Recruiters only" visibility instead of a public post.
- Review who can see your post audience before publishing — switch from "Anyone" to "Connections" if you do not want it on the open web.
Which method should you use? Quick comparison
Use this table to match your goal to the right method before you upload anything.
| Method | Visible to whom | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Featured section | Everyone who visits your profile (public) | Open job seekers who want a downloadable resume on their profile |
| Easy Apply attachment | Only the employer you applied to (private) | Sending a tailored resume to one specific job |
| Feed post | Your network, or anyone if set to public | Announcing a job search and asking your network for referrals |
| Save to PDF export | Only you (it downloads to your device) | Generating a quick resume draft from your existing profile |
Common mistakes to avoid
- Posting a resume to your feed with your phone number and home address still on it.
- Assuming an Easy Apply resume is on your profile — it is not; use the Featured section for that.
- Sending the raw "Save to PDF" export to employers without cleaning up the generic layout.
- Forgetting to remove an outdated resume from the Featured section after you replace it.
- Confusing "Easy Apply" with "Apply" — the second one sends you to the employer's external site, where LinkedIn does not handle your resume at all.
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Frequently asked questions
Should you upload your resume to LinkedIn?
It depends on your goal. Upload it to your Featured section if you are openly job hunting and want every profile visitor to see and download it — but strip your phone number and home address first, because that section is public. If you only want a resume to reach one employer, attach it during Easy Apply instead, where it stays private. If you are employed and discreet, skip a public upload and use Easy Apply plus "Open to Work" set to recruiters only.
Can recruiters see my resume on LinkedIn?
Only if you make it visible. A resume in your Featured section is public, so any recruiter who visits your profile can view and download it. A resume attached during Easy Apply is sent only to the specific employer you applied to — other recruiters cannot see it. Your LinkedIn profile itself acts as a searchable resume that recruiters can find, which is separate from any uploaded file.
How do I download my resume from LinkedIn?
LinkedIn can build a PDF resume from your own profile. Open your profile, click the "More" button in your introduction card, and choose "Save to PDF." LinkedIn generates a PDF of your headline, experience, education, and skills and downloads it to your device. The layout is generic, so plan to reformat and tighten it before sending it to employers.
How do I remove a resume from LinkedIn?
It depends where you added it. To remove one from your Featured section, click the pencil (edit) icon on that section, open the resume card, and delete it. To remove a saved Easy Apply resume, go to Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → "Job application settings" and delete the file. To remove a posted resume, open the "..." menu on the post and choose "Delete post." Note that deleting does not recover copies people already downloaded.
Does an Easy Apply resume get saved to my profile?
No. A resume you upload during Easy Apply is attached to that single application and sent only to that employer — it is never published to your profile and is not visible to other LinkedIn members. LinkedIn does keep your most recent application resumes so you can reuse them, but only you can see that list, and you can delete saved files under Settings & Privacy → Data privacy → Job application settings.
What file format and size should my LinkedIn resume be?
Use a PDF so your formatting stays intact across devices, and keep it under LinkedIn's 2 MB upload limit (LinkedIn also accepts DOC and DOCX for Easy Apply). Name the file clearly, such as "Firstname-Lastname-Resume.pdf." A PDF is also the safest choice for the Featured section because it preserves your layout exactly as recruiters will see it.
