01 Mar You.com: How to Build an Online Resume
If you’re in the job market, then you’re almost certainly on LinkedIn and active on online job boards. You hopefully also have a polished, professional resume. A great resume is important, but you can be even more creative with an online resume – a personal website, of sorts, but very streamlined to just your professional profile.
Here’s how to build an online resume:
Why? Old-fashioned paper resumes (or, if not paper, at least documents that you can send online) are still useful, and used. You need to be sure to have a traditional resume in a format that can be easily sent via email, such as Word or PDF. Most employers will eventually ask for it, at least by the time you come in for an interview.
But an online resume can be helpful for employers and recruiters who are on the lookout for candidates. You can be more creative here than in a traditional resume (which should not be creative, by the way), and you can also include more extensive information such as work samples.
A resume should be brief, clear, and to the point. But an online resume is an invitation to dig deeper into your experience.
Where? You can use any popular website software to build a resume, or use a service that specializes in online resumes. If you build it from website software, you can customize it completely, while still relying on their easy templates to build a simple site – Wix, Weebly and Squarespace are all popular choices. On the other hand, if you use a resume builder you will have resume-specific templates to help guide you.
What? What you include will almost certainly include everything you have on your traditional resume (with the exception of your personal address, and other sensitive information). But you can add links to more extensive information on an online resume than is appropriate on a traditional one.
You could add anything from a link to your blogs on industry, to a brief video clip explaining your background. You can include a portfolio of your work, or reviews from clients or former employers.
How? Keep it easy to navigate. You basically want every section to be a summary on the main page, with a link to more detail on other pages. For example, under work history, you might put only the dates of employment, the employer, your title and a single line or two about your role.
But each of those roles could have a link to more extensive information. Or, if you have decades of experience, list only the last five years, with a link to see a full work history.
An online resume is another opportunity to showcase your skill set.
Your online resume is an additional job seeking resource. It should not replace your presence on LinkedIn. You should not expect potential employers to look at your site in lieu of receiving a traditional resume. But it can serve as a great way to catch they eye of those hiring but haven’t posted publicly their job positions. And it gives you an opportunity to personalize, customize, and regularly update your personal story.
