How to Use a Personal Website When Searching for a New Job - CareerAlley

How to Use a Personal Website When Searching for a New Job - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. If you dont like who you are and where you are, dont worry about it because youre not stuck either with who you are or where you are. you can grow. You can change .You can be more than you are. Zig Ziglar By Mona Abdel-Halim As a job seeker, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to separate yourself from the fierce competition. Creating a personal website is one guaranteed way to set yourself apart. Your personal website can be whatever you want it to be. For job seekers, personal websites should showcase personal brands and provide useful information for prospective employers. If you decide to create your own site, you should mold that site so that every aspect reflects your personal brand. Your personal brand defines who you are as a professional. Because this is your personal site, you have control over the content, format, and design. A personal website will help prospective employers fully form their understanding of you as a whole person. Creating a website doesnt have to be difficult. There are many online tools available that can help you create your own website in minutes, such as About.me, Carbonmade, Wix or Weebly. On your own personal website, you are allowed to shamelessly self-promote. One way of doing this is to place links to all of your social networking sites on the page. You can also post your resume on your site. In doing so, your employer has access to everything they could ever hope to learn from you in one place. Personal websites are not limiting like many networking sites. Not only should you be linking your resume on your site, but you can also provide the document in several formats. If you really want to get your personal brand out there, tag your personal website with keywords. These keywords will help others find your site on the Internet. Search engine optimization (SEO) for your personal website is important if you want to expand your sites audience. Zerply is one Internet tool that you can use to help showcase tags on your site. You can put a lot more information about yourself on a website than you could ever fit in a networking profile or resume. However, you must be careful what you post. While the site is personal, everything must remain professional. Personal websites arent the only tool that you can use to set yourself apart, but they are definitely the most informative, user-friendly, and non-restrictive option. What other kinds of information would you include on your personal website? Do you have an online portfolio youd like to share? Mona Abdel-Halim is the co-founder of Resunate.com, the worlds only search engine optimizing resume builder. You can find Mona and Resunate on Facebook and Twitter. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search.