A Personal Website is a CV on the Internet
The job market is a fiercely competitive place. Did you know that less than one in every 100 applicants receives an interview! So how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? How do you ensure that you are the one invited for an interview? Typing a CV is what everyone else does, so how can you be different and show off your ability?
The answer is to distinguish yourself from all other applicants. Do something different. Show yourself to be superior to your competitors. The answer is to design your own personal website – the 21st Century answer to a typed CV (or resume as they like to call them in the US).
Consider this: A CV will only be seen by the people that you send it to, but a website can be found by anyone using an Internet search engine such as Google. Why is this so important? More than 80% of job openings are never advertised, ergo you will never have the opportunity to submit a curriculum vitae for these roles. Instead recruitment professionals are tasked with finding the appropriate people. Head hunters, as they are often known, will trawl the Internet to find appropriate people with the requisite skill sets.
A recruiter will make it his/her business to know find the names of people that are highly regarded in a particular industry. These people will then make a subtle approach to those people in order to entice them into a new role for another employer – all sorts of incentives are offered including large increases in pay, attractive bonus structures, promotions, golden-handshake payments, company cars and more. We know that an ever-increasing number of employers are researching for job applicants on-line, and owning your own website with your name in the domain gives you a great shot at showing up when someone searches for you. After all, when someone searches for your name on Google the chances are that they will find your social media pages on Facebook or LinkedIn. Is this what you want them to be looking at? Does it present you in a professional manner that makes you stand out from everyone else with an account on Facebook or LinkedIn? Of course it does not. However, with a personal website that properly details your expertise you will be found and you will stand out from the crowd.
We would not advocate using a personal website in the place of a CV, but there is absolutely nothing to lose (and in fact there is everything to gain) by supplementing your career progression toolbox with a slick website, designed to impress.
A personal website gives hiring managers a glimpse into your personality. A website gives you the opportunity to express your personality in ways that are not possible through your CV. Everything from pictures, paragraph of career aspirations, videos, awards, educational qualifications, achievements and more may be presented in a dynamic manner which says something about you. A website shouts out “Hey, look what I can do. I am not just another applicant, I am a creative thinker who goes the extra mile in order to make a difference.” If you put yourself in the shoes of a recruiter, what would you think? Ultimately this gives recruiters that added incentive to bring you in for an interview.
It is a great idea to create an on line presence now so that you will be ahead of the crowd when everyone else is rushing to catch up with this trend – by which time it will not be half as impressive as an on line CV is right now.
For a well designed personal website contact Type It Tiger today on telephone (UK) +44 (0)1494 763223 or contact@typeittiger.com