Most people already have their work history neatly organised somewhere — on LinkedIn. That's a great start. Here's what happens when you feed that PDF in, and what you'll need to do afterwards.
First: how to get the PDF
On LinkedIn, go to your own profile. Click "More" (under your photo) and pick "Save to PDF". The file downloads directly — usually named "Profile.pdf".
Not new — it's existed for years. What many people don't realise is that this PDF is surprisingly structured: headings, date fields, language blocks — all in a format a parser can recognise.
What the parser extracts
- Name, location, contact details.
- Profile summary (the "About" section).
- Experience in chronological order. Per role: title, company, period, description.
- Education: institution, field, period.
- Skills — including LinkedIn's subgroupings.
- Certifications with date and issuer.
- Languages with proficiency.
- Volunteer experience.
- Publications and projects — if filled in.
- Birth date — since a 2026 update, picked up if present.
What does NOT come automatically
- Nationality. LinkedIn doesn't ask. Fill it in separately if your CV target market expects it.
- Marital status. Doesn't belong on a modern CV anyway — leave it off.
- Concrete project outcomes. What's on LinkedIn is often general. For a targeted CV you want measurable impact per role. Add manually — the tool helps with framing, but the facts come from you.
- A photo. Default is no photo. Upload one separately. Your LinkedIn photo isn't pulled in automatically — privacy reasons.
- Recent personal work. Open source, side projects, your own ventures — anything not on LinkedIn, add separately.
Common mistakes with LinkedIn imports
1. An empty LinkedIn
If your profile is three role lines and no descriptions, you get empty raw material. Fix LinkedIn first. Ten minutes there saves an hour in CV setup.
2. Outdated roles not pruned
A nine-year-old job nobody cares about needs to go, or at least shrink. That's not LinkedIn's job — it's the CV's. Good news: in CVeetje this happens automatically during profile setup. Old roles are condensed to one line if they don't seem relevant to what you're seeking.
3. Silent LinkedIn-speak
LinkedIn has its own language: "connecting people", "passion for data", "servant leader". A parser takes that literally. But on a CV it's weak. The tool will try to make it more concrete during generation — but read your profile summary in CVeetje once and rewrite what sounds too fluffy.
No problem. Fill in your profile manually — a wizard guides you. Or upload an existing CV (PDF) and start there. A Word CV works too, but PDF is more robust because the text layer is more stable.
After import: the actual work
- Read your profile summary. Does it sound like you? Is it specific enough?
- Add concrete proof. One or two bullets per recent role with measurable outcomes. Not every role — only where you have them.
- Update skills to current. Not all 47 LinkedIn stored — the top five or six you really use in 2026.
Ten minutes, and your profile is a strong base for unlimited targeted CVs over the months ahead.
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