In this week's installment of the Ivy Exec blog, we repost Bradford Agry's 'Ask Brad' section with information about the difference between LinkedIn and your resume, and how to approach groups during in-person networking. 

Q: What is the actual difference between my linkedIn profile and my resume? Can I use one for the other? If not, how should they be differently positioned?

B: The Linked-in profile is like your regular resume in that it should highlight your past positions, dates, and responsibilities in reverse chronological order. The difference in my mind is that Linked-in should be more edited and not necessarily show more than several recent positions–The idea is that Linked-in— particularly when used by a recruiter to research potential candidates– should give them enough initial information to want to contact you at which point a standard resume could be shared/discussed in more depth.

Q: When at a networking event, how do I enter into a conversation that already has a group of people engaged?

B: I would first of all not to try to tackle a group of more than 3-4 people, as “getting in” obviously is harder with more people talking. If there is one person doing all the talking and the rest listening, you may have to wait until natural breaks in the group conversation to interject a follow-up question–best of an open-ended variety. If possible, I try to single out one person in the group to break the ice with and eventually try then to weave into the flow of the larger conversation.

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