Art directors, graphic designers, web developers and brand managers aside, most job seekers create personal job-search or career websites because they’ve been unable to get job interviews with their traditional promotional pieces (their resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile), and they’re trying something new.
Here’s the problem:
- Unless you have one of the job types mentioned above, your web design-development skills are likely irrelevant to your target employer; as is your ability to pay someone to build a website for you.
- Your content is your content. If it’s not working on your resume and cover letter, it’s not going to work when published to a web site.
- Unless you have top-flight web development skills, you run the risk of creating a low-end site that will make a bad impression. Rule of thumb: Can you create something that’s substantially better than your LinkedIn profile or what can be produced using any number of online portfolio sites? If not, then don’t create a website for yourself. (By the way, you can upload files to LinkedIn.)
- Time. You can only allot so much of it to your job search. Therefore, you need to choose your job search activities wisely. For most job seekers, building a career website is mostly busy work–and time that could otherwise be spent networking, targeting an approach/cover letter or sharpening your interviewing skills.
My advice: While a website will give your job search global reach, that’s no bargain if it’s not what you want to project. Your time and energy are better spent targeting a few employers with a strong resume and cover letter.