How to Make Your CV Stand Out with a Personal CV Website
When looking for your next job or contract role, you will likely be one of many with a well written CV, cover letter and LinkedIn profile. How do you make your CV stand out from other applicants, applying for the same job?
Make your CV and more, available to prospective employers and recruiters 24hrs a day in a format that you control!
Online CVs
With many years experience as a contract project manager, like everyone else it was the usual cycle of updating the CV, uploading my CV online, contacting relevant recruitment agents and searching through job boards, to find the next role.
However over time, I identified a number of issues with online CVs:
LinkedIn is a great social platform for making contacts, networking and storing your profile. However there are over 722 million LinkedIn users across 200 countries and territories worldwide.
High competition in profile searches.
Restrictive profile interface.
Nowhere to store your CV or resume.
Online Job Boards
Allow you to upload your CV and enter your skills / previous experience.
Basic profile forms, resulting in inadequately displayed information.
CV downloads are often in text only format, losing formatting.
Recruitment Agencies
Recruitment agents are faced with high numbers of individuals looking for work, and their time is limited. As and when they come across your details in their database, finding out more information about you may typically involve:
Glancing at your LinkedIn profile, potentially missing key information.
An email, social media message or phone call requesting your latest CV.
How to Make Your CV Stand Out
With so many applicants doing the same thing when looking for work, having your own CV website will help make your CV and other related information stand out.
Personal CV Website
Once setup, a personal CV website can not only be used to make your CV available to prospective employers and recruiters 24hrs a day, it can also be used to highlight additional information surrounding your experience.
The benefits of having your own CV website can be significant:
24 hour CV
Recruiters and potential employers can quickly access your latest CV 24hrs a day.
Additional Information
Why stop at your CV? You can provide additional information relating to your work experience, skills and even customer / work colleague testimonials. Giving prospective employers / recruiters instant answers to any initial questions.
High Search Engine Ranking
Your own CV website could attain you first place in search engine results (subject to search engine optimisation and search criteria). Telling a recruiter to Google my name followed by the word “CV” while on the phone to them, never fails to impress.
Social Image
When you get a request via social media for your latest CV. Instead of manually attaching a file, you simply type in the URL of your main career page and a professional looking social image is then displayed, instead of a plain icon*.
A single click on your social image will immediately take the visitor to your main career page, to download your latest CV or view more information
You could also display the social image (link) within your LinkedIn profile "Featured" section, on job boards, social media signature or email signature.
Content Control
Unlike existing Job and professional social networking web sites, you have total control over what information to use and how it is displayed!
Here are some examples:
"Career Summary" Page - Main searchable landing page, with links to latest CV.
“Customer Testimonials” Page - Accessible via the main landing page.
“Project Experience” Page - Accessible via the main landing page.
Career Summary Page
Customer Testimonials Page
Work Experience Page
You can have as many pages as you wish, perhaps broken down by industry. You may even choose to have video content, or prepared presentations.
I use slide style graphics on the “Project Experience” page, enabling me to quickly bring up a slide if required, during an interview.
Data gathering
Have your CV website visitors complete a simple form (name, email address etc.) prior to downloading your CV. You can then notify them, when you’re seeking work again in the future.
Statistics
Subject to what web hosting platform you choose, you can get detailed statistics such as number of visitors, button clicks, search engine keywords etc. This information to help you fine tune your CV website, to attract even more visitors.
How to setup your own CV Website
A CV website are simply dedicated pages on your own website.
Already have a personal website?
If you already have your own personal website, you're most of the way there!
Simply create the new pages, add content, graphics, social images and apply relevant SEO (search engine optimisation).
Subject to current content, you may choose to have your career portal excluded from general site navigation. This will help focus your visitors to only those helping you find work.
Don’t yet have a personal website?
Setting up your own personal website is easier than you think:
Purchase a domain
It's recommended to have your own name in the domain name, to make searching easier. I use "Hover.Com" for all my domains. They provide excellent support, whether you're technically minded or not.
Select a web hosting company
There are many web hosting companies providing different levels of service. My personal recommendation is Squarespace. While they're not the cheapest, I find their platform to be more intuitive than most, allowing you to focus on content.
Squarespace also offer a free trial and domain name purchase options. Their uptime and 24/7 support is excellent. Other providers include “Go Daddy”, “Wix” etc.
Add content!
Using your CV / Resume for reference, start off with a career summary page, with a link to download your CV. You can then create additional pages to provide more detailed information.
If you’re looking for professional photos and graphics, I recommend “DreamsTime”. They have a huge selection of photos, drawings and videos at reasonable prices.
Tip: As you are making your CV / Resume publicly available, it is recommended to remove personal data, such as your personal address and date of birth.
Few people have their own “CV Website”, which increases your chances of making your CV stand out over other candidates, when applying for jobs.
Feel free to like, comment and share with anyone who is looking for work!