Since its $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn Corp. last year, Microsoft Corp. has been working to integrate the social network’s data into key product lines such as the Office 365 productivity suite. Today, the technology giant unveiled the latest fruit of this initiative.

Resume Assistant is a new tool in Word that aims to help job-seekers increase their chances of landing a position. It takes the form of a sidebar located by default on the right side of the interface that can be toggled to provide access to LinkedIn’s rich data about the world’s professionals, and specifically on how they present themselves to recruiters.

A search bar at the top lets users narrow down the results based on their field of work. A programmer, for example, could enter “senior iOS developer” to find matching profiles. Resume Assistant will display the skills that professionals in this field most commonly highlight on their LinkedIn profiles to help users determine what work experience they should add to their resumes.

From there, professionals can browse through different skill descriptions for writing ideas. Resume Assistant also can show relevant job openings in users’ local areas to help them further customize their resume based on what local companies are looking for.

Microsoft said the tool addresses a key need among job-seekers. According to the company, nearly 70 percent of people say they struggle to portray their work experience compellingly and half have a hard time tailoring their resumes for job listings.

In the bigger picture, Resume Assistant furthers Microsoft’s goal of realizing a return on the $26.2 billion that it paid for LinkedIn. Making it easier for workers to apply to openings could in the long term help boost hiring activity on the social network. That in turn would drive more interest from companies seeking new talent and thus create a bigger market for LinkedIn’s paid recruiting tools, which are already a major revenue source.

LinkedIn is targeting the recruitment market in other ways, too. The Microsoft subsidiary last month introduced an analytics service that can help companies uncover what cities present the best hiring opportunities, how effectively they’re luring workers away from competitors and where they can improve.

Image: Microsoft