Usually, yes—if your LinkedIn profile is current, professional, and consistent with your resume. A useful profile can give employers more context about your experience; a sparse, stale, or conflicting one may raise questions. Update it before sharing, or leave the URL off until it is ready.
When to include your LinkedIn URL
Think of LinkedIn as a supplement to your resume, not a required application field. Notre Dame Undergraduate Career Services describes a profile as a deeper view of your experience that can either help or hurt your application. Include the link when the profile adds relevant detail—such as projects, credentials, or experience that does not fit on a one-page resume—and presents it professionally.
There is no basis here to say that every employer expects a LinkedIn link or that including one guarantees an interview. The decision is about whether the specific profile strengthens the materials you are submitting.
Check the profile before you share it
- Accuracy: Compare employer names, job titles, dates, and experience against your resume. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service advises: “Ensure the content you include on your LinkedIn profile matches your master resume.” Its February 2026 guide warns that a mismatch may keep a candidate from advancing to the hiring manager; it does not quantify how often this happens.
- Relevance: Make sure the profile supports the kind of role you are applying for. Extra detail should clarify your qualifications, not tell a materially different career story.
- Completeness and professionalism: Review the profile as an employer might see it. A bare or outdated profile is not necessarily better than no link.
- Access: Open the public-facing profile and check that the intended audience can view it. Visibility can vary; a clean URL alone does not guarantee access for every viewer.
How to present the link on your resume
Place the LinkedIn URL in the contact header with your other professional details. Use a readable custom URL rather than a default address cluttered with random characters; Notre Dame’s resume checklist recommends cleaning up the URL. Make the link text understandable on a printed copy as well as clickable in a digital version—for example, a custom LinkedIn address or a clearly labeled LinkedIn profile.
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Keep your email address and other direct contact information on the resume. A LinkedIn link is an additional route to your professional profile, not a replacement for basic contact details. No universal hyperlink format or applicant-tracking-system compatibility guarantee is established by the cited guidance.
What if your profile is outdated or incomplete?
Update it before adding the URL if the work history is stale, key sections are unfinished, or details conflict with your resume. If you cannot bring it into line before applying, omit the link for now rather than directing employers to information that weakens or confuses your application. You can add it to a later version once the profile is ready.
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Review LinkedIn’s resume-data settings if privacy matters to you
Linking to a profile and uploading a resume are different actions, but LinkedIn’s help documentation says saved resume data may be used for job recommendations and other personalization. It also describes uses related to qualification matches visible to hirers and LinkedIn hiring products when the relevant setting has not been turned off. Review LinkedIn’s current help page on the visibility and usage of your uploaded resume and your account settings if you are concerned about those uses. Platform features and controls can change.
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