When it comes to searching for jobs online, many things have changed over time concerning this issue. The impact of technology advancement on the job-seeking process cannot be underestimated. Rather than having applicants submitting their CVs in hard copy, digital submission is the way to go today. It’s an obvious aspect for the companies that deal with the creation of job opportunities for people who try their best to find the most suitable job for them.
How does this work? There are various sites now that help people to prepare a job-worthy resume that is set to fetch them the job of their dreams. All of those resume creators work on certain platforms that provide support for their services and help other people.
What does it actually take to design and operate a successful resume website? In this article, I’m going to highlight 2 essential aspects:
- Drafting a resume
- Creating a resume website with WordPress
Creating a resume
The labor market is more volatile today than ever. Job requirements tend to change and upgrade with time – roles become more detailed and in some industries, more complex. Hence, drafting a resume that would be suitable for a long time and still be relevant is a real challenge.
Generally, there are 4 different resume formats. The specific format you need to create majorly depends on the requests of the prospective employers. While some of them look out for years of experience, others may find the level of career growth over the years more valuable. Still, another subset would consider both and select employees based on the features that would add more value to their company.
Most job seekers tend to use the hybrid resume, which blends in itself years of experience (chronology) and career growth (functionality).
CraftResumes and similar companies have, over time, demonstrated a set of skills that should be considered essential when creating resumes for their clients. Some of these skills are:
- Using the proper style of presentation (design theme);
- Highlighting the person’s experience and growth in a way that makes both look appealing;
- Drafting the perfect summary to describe the person’s personality;
- Avoiding the use of long, watered down sentences.
Creating a resume website with WordPress
WordPress is one of the fast-evolving platforms used by bloggers and web designers to create websites. However, creating a resume on WordPress, as a website, generally isn’t a widely discussed topic.
Most people are more acquainted with using this platform for their blogging needs. But creating a static, one-page website with WordPress is as easy as publishing a blog post.
Like any other content management system, it’s good to have a series of skills which will help you out build the website you already shaped in your mind: things like PHP, HTML, CSS and maybe a bit of jQuery are technologies you should be familiar with, as they’re mainly the engines behind every website.
Furthermore, there are certain other features a website should possess, such as:
- Portraying strengths
Be it for a business or a person, a website should promote one important aspect: self-branding. It’s a fact that you are likely to get addressed based on the way you advertise or ‘package’ yourself. It is, therefore, necessary to highlight the key strengths possessed, and describe them in a very appealing way.
- Aesthetics
Aesthetics refers to the general appearance of your site. The appropriate theme, typography and general design of any website should reflect things that are likely to attract the target audience. If your target is to attract prospective employers, then your website must have an air of professionalism around it. If your audience is more entertainment-based, you use people-friendly themes, and the list goes on.
- Ease of navigation
Unless you are creating a website for your company, you shouldn’t use too many widgets or navigation tabs. Employers are more likely to look through the first few lines when selecting the most suitable. It would be unfortunate if your ‘juiciest’ skills are hidden behind a constellation of unnecessary widgets and tab links.
Creating a resume website on WordPress
The great thing about WordPress is that it’s relatively simple to use it both for personal and business purposes.
If we combine all that we discussed in the previous two sections, we would see that:
- A resume website shouldn’t be too complex or ‘flashy’. The platform in question has a collection of the executive, professional-looking themes that can give a resume the look to catch the needed attention.
- It should suit the type of requirements for the job you need. When using a combination format, you could choose to place greater emphasis on the aspects you know would get you better prospects, while adding the rest as backups. Remember, it’s important to highlight your strengths.
- It’s beneficial to get hold of materials that teach you the best way to use search engine optimization to enhance your website. Here are a few reasons for that. You could also search for articles that teach you to highlight strong aspects while keeping a professional tone.
- Navigation should be easy. Avoid using too many ‘ingredients’. It might be perfect for business promotion, but a bad idea for personal resumes.
- Remember to keep your information concise and relevant. Use short sentences to offer details on the past experience.
- Consider translating your resume into multiple languages. If you plan to apply for jobs overseas or located in a foreign country, have your resume website translated. It might help. And we could help, with a tutorial on how to translate your website into multiple languages.
Now, the steps to create resume-website on WordPress are quite simple:
- Find your domain name. There are many tools for doing it and many registrars waiting to have you as a client.
- Select a WordPress theme which fits for a resume website. These are usually one-page themes. There are free and premium versions as well.
- Work on the content. Nowadays, everything is drag and drop so it would be easy to do it with WordPress and the right theme.
- Make your website known by promoting it on the right social media platforms or when you apply for a new job. Employers should consider it as a bonus which will eventually lead to more interview calls or appointments.
The next tutorial is a great resource for building yourself a WordPress website for your resume.
Wrapping Up
As human beings, to live a good life, we’re actually looking to fill in 4 gaps, related to health, wealth, relationships and personal fulfillment. Finding a job which lets you accomplish all of these four pillars of a good life could be quite tricky. Imagine yourself having a well-paying job, in a location which is close to your home, which has a gym where you can work out and distress a bit, a job where you’re part of a great team built on trust and friendship which successfully delivers every single task assigned, a job which puts you in the position of helping others through your work…now, that’s the definition of a great job, isn’t it?
Save yourself a spot in such a company and play your cards smart by building a resume, the right way: as a web page. WordPress should be the friendly platform you can rely on. Best of luck!
