Microsoft Word’s Resume Assistant Uses LinkedIn Data to Write Exceptional Resumes For Users

Microsoft word has just introduced a new feature Resume Assistant that uses LinkedIn data to help users write exceptional resumes.

Resume Assistant lets you import information about yourself and the companies that you have worked for  from LinkedIn data into your Word document, tapping into some algorithms and artificial intelligence to help suggest wording and other items to help fill out your experience.

The new feature will start to go live Thursday, first to Office 365 subscribers on PC (part of the Office Insiders program) and then more widely to other Word users in future months.

The feature also ties into some of LinkedIn’s job-finding tools: It will pull in job listings from LinkedIn’s database, which should help you further customize your resume, and you can opt-in to LinkedIn’s feature that tells recruiters you’re interested in a new job.

However, what Resume Assistant does not do at the moment is give advice on the precise order in which you present the information on your resume, that is, helping you decide whether it is better to list your educational background on top of your business experiences if that is more relevant, or vice versa.

The update is the latest way Microsoft and LinkedIn are working to tie their two services closer together following Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition last year. Though the LinkedIn data is available to anyone outside of Resume Assistant too, it shows how the two companies are combining their data to make their platforms more personalized to each user.

The move follows several other products that have come out over the last couple of months that have seen the two companies finally working more closely together.

They have included LinkedIn integrations into Outlook to enhance contact info in your email inbox, which was the first step in a bigger strategy announced in September of this year to integrate more LinkedIn data into Office 365 products.

When Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016, it told Wall Street that a major value was in the data inside the professional social network. This new fearure is a great example of that promise coming to life.