How do you still not have a Personal Website in 2021?
With only 30% of Professionals having one, here’s why having a Personal Website is an early-bird opportunity you need to seize.
We love to think that our life is a movie. And we are definitely the main characters of our own story. Right?
So, as the main character of your movie, let me, a mere extra in the background of the set, ask you this: Do you have a Personal Website or do you keep updating and typing in that same, old Resume and hitting send to potential employers like millions of other job-seekers?
Probably not. That’s why you’re here.
And while you’re here, let me tell you that if you stay, I might become that stereotypical advice-giver in your story with some life-changing tips for you and your about-to-be personal website.
1. It’s the new Resume
Remember what I said about only 30% of the professionals having a Personal Website in the subtitle of this piece? Now consider this. Only 12% of the job-seekers have a Personal Website and actively add them in their application process.
Those are some wild odds if you’re really trying to get ahead and stand out of the crowd.
Personal Websites are innovative summaries of personalities that can be edited with updated information in real-time. This means that the static resume that you sent to an employer for your dream job two years ago, has that same information with no mention of the skills you have might’ve acquired in the past years which make you qualified for that position and more now. It also shows with evidence that the candidate is ‘tech-savvy’, instead of the words just sitting idle in the Skills section of your resume.
Perhaps the most important reason for including a Personal Website in your application, according to me, is this: a Resume has details relevant to the job, a Personal Website has details relevant to your character. Employers these days, be it an MNC or a start-up, don’t just look at the qualifications of the candidate but what kind of character the candidate carries. Keep the Resume restricted to information that can land you the job and let your Personal Website narrate the story of who you are as a person, in your career and outside it.
While it may not be possible to replace the resume with a personal website everywhere, it certainly makes for a killer addition to your portfolio that can land you your dream job.
Even if you don’t actively add the website (even though you should), employers are bound to Google you. So, it is totally worth it to secure that domain name while it still remains unused and take charge of your own story.
A Resume has details relevant to the job, a Personal Website has details relevant to your character.
2. A huge part of Personal Brand Building
Speaking of “taking charge of your own story”, there cannot be a more essential tool in your career journey for you to establish your personal brand on. An ode to your personality, it is also a creative little space for you to show your best face to the whole world. Or whichever face you want to show.
We are building our brand all the time. We wake up and let our moods decide what kind of person we want to be today. We begin new somewhere and think about rebuilding ourselves. In the same way, we are working on our social media personality every time we post something.
But with every social media site having a different tone, it becomes difficult to crown only one of them as your one, true personality. You might have a more informal tone on your personal Instagram and 280 characters on Twitter can be a tad limiting, but having your own website is not just a flexible alternative, it is also the definitive, central hub to all the personalities of you that exist online. You can simply add your social media links to the website and it becomes a one-stop station to your whole online presence for any kind of visitor viewing your website.
An ode to your personality, it is also a creative little space for you to show your best face to the whole world. Or whichever face you want to show.
3. Networking Online
The charm of having a website is that it is more visual, more personal than just adding your portfolio to LinkedIn. Of course, LinkedIn is a great place for networking but then again, most job-seekers are already doing that. When you create your own website, you can visually show off an aesthetic that can even psychologically play to your benefit.
Having a Personal Website can also be a brilliant networking tool, especially if you’re an independent freelancer/content creator. Your potential clients can conveniently go through your best-published works, your most popular YouTube videos and directly reach you or write you an enquiry, all from within your website.
It can also help you gather a decent email list and provide your visitors with resources, eBooks or any product or service of yours that you want to promote.
All in all, a personal website will make it so that you are not defined by your job but you will define your job or gigs. It shows you as a person, not just as an employee.
It shows you as a person, not just as an employee.
4. It’s still not as popular as you think
This being the digital era, you’d think resumes would’ve been conquered by a new digital alternative by now. Sure, the PDF version comes in handy and platforms like Behance or LinkedIn are convenient, but you’re really not on top of your game as the perfect candidate, if you don’t have a personal website.
It is estimated that about 56% of the hiring managers think that Personal Websites give the candidate a competitive edge and are an effective branding tool for job seekers, yet only about 7–12% of job seekers actually have one.
Conclusion
If this doesn’t already make you hop on your laptop and brainstorm a theme for your new website, I don’t know what will. To get you started, here’s our little tool, TemplateToaster, with hundreds of free, pre-made themes for you. It’s a Drag-and-Drop tool for you to create your very own website without knowing how to code.
Here’s a next read for you to start with your website:
Want to create your own Website without knowing complex coding? Try TemplateToaster!
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