Can A Webpage Open Doors?
Creative types may need more than a polished resume and LinkedIn profile page to succeed in the job hunt.
A personal webpage that showcases work samples is especially useful for those in artistic fields, like marketing and advertising professionals, editors, chefs and designers, many experts contend.
A 2013 survey by Workfolio, a service that helps workers develop sites, found that about seven percent of all job seekers maintain a webpage.
Creative professionals are more likely than other workers to have a webpage touting their accomplishments, notes Charles Pooley, CEO of Workfolio, but he says, “we are seeing the gap shrinking.”
A webpage is “an additional ‘look behind the hood,’” says Kathleen Steffey of Naviga Recruiting. “It gives recruiters a greater perspective on professional image, communication ability and history of success.”
Ford Myers, president of Career Potential, is one expert advocating personal webpages for serious professionals, even those outside of artistic fields. They may not have “samples” to display, but could “post brief accomplishment stories about how they helped a client or solved a problem,” says Myers, who notes many services help consumers design and maintain webpages for relatively nominal fees.
But many busy jobseekers should first “focus their efforts on other parts of the job search,” says Patrick Sullivan, interim director at Wake Forest University’s Office of Personal and Career Development.
Candidates are “better served researching the history, purpose and culture of the organization where they are interested in working,” Sullivan says. “Using the information gathered on an employer to network or prepare for an interview or produce a tailored resume or cover letter is time well spent.”
Moreover, even though Myers is an advocate of webpages to which jobseekers can direct potential employers, he warns: “Candidates should not view the website as a tool to land the next job, but rather as a long-term resource to build their career.”
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