How To Create A Professional Website To Enhance Your Job Search

We’ve discussed at length in another blog about the difficulties in crafting a resume balanced between flexing your creative chops and direct professionalism, but does creating a professional, personalized Website take your job search to the next level?

Although it may seem like a daunting task for many millions of job seekers, creating a professional website is easier than it's ever been: there are accessible tools, a world of affordable freelancers, and agile agencies ready to help you brand yourself better. 

It is worth pointing out, of course, that not all industries require or expect their professional job applicants to have a fully functioning website to augment their career credentials. However, expectations across the recruiter spectrum are changing, and with that comes new thinking, new methods, new branding options, and new ways to grab the attention of your dream job’s hiring manager. A personalized, well-branded website could be the difference between you and the next best hire.

For those in marketing and MarTech, a branded, custom website-as-resume is still a relative outlier idea, yet it should be a serious consideration as a creative career outlet and personal brand tool. 

Marketer’s day-to-day working function is attached to tech-aficionados, UX designers, copywriters, and brand managers: you are perfectly placed to turn some of that eagle-eyed brand and sales skill on yourself but, like any marketing project, you need to know your goals, your KPIs and your brand messaging. 

In this regard, you are the brand, the KPIs are successful job applications moving to interview, and the goal is getting that dream job. 

Here are some tips about how creating a professional website can enhance (or slow down) your job search:

Do you need a website?

Although the novelty and creative excitement of deciding to make a professional website are obvious, you need to decide if it’s necessary - it will take ample effort, input, and, in some cases, a monetary commitment so you need to understand if this sort of career showcase is going to grab the right sort of attention or distract the decision-maker at the heart of your job application.

If it helps, consider your career like a product. Not every marketing channel suits every product, and not every message finds the right audience. 

An example: if you’re a MarTech professional, with a passion for UX and end-user functionality, a website could be pivotal in highlighting your workflow and design mind maps. However, if you’re a Senior Marketing and Sales Manager your collaborative networks and project management may be better suited to a more simple resume with links to your LinkedIn profile and wider client network.

Take your time and do your research

Like any major career decision, take your time and do your research. Approach your website like you would a client: do competitor analysis; marry up the cost-to-outcome balance; approach more than one designer (if you need one) and focus on detail and simplicity.

Rushing the preparation stage will result, like any marketing campaign, in a clunky, unaligned and unpolished product. 

Do your research and use your network - if you have a great connection with a WordPress designer who’s able to craft an amazing site for you, tap them up! But if this isn’t an option, deep dive into a growing array of website-building tools and companies like format and Wix.

The devil is in the details. Keep it focussed

Your professional website needs to have a goal - we’ve discussed it within the context of job searches, but even if your website is just a passion project, having a target audience and goal will keep your site concise and help with major editorial and design decisions. 

Don’t make your professional website too complex, and where possible use it as a funnel to other supporting marketing documentation, such as links through to project completion (product rollouts, website launches, or copywriting examples), your own professional network (LinkedIn), and/or portfolios if you don’t want to host your work on your own site. 

Editorially, you do have free rein to do as you please with your website, but alignment with other “identity” documents such as your resume and LinkedIn profile is required purely for professional consistency's sake.