How to Turn Your Resume or CV into a Website

With the many job sites out there, as web professionals, one probably has one, two or several resumes online from which prospective employers can peruse. It's getting to be a challenge to stand out from the crowd. Why not take it one step further and turn your resume or CV into a website.

The first step is of course, finding webspace. There are many free web hosts. The downside is that most of them have advertising on the pages. It's a good starting place since most of them allow you to build and publish the pages on the spot.

However, if you are more experienced you could opt for no ads web-hosting and a URL. The good news is that web-hosting rates are coming down. They are even as low as $5.00 US a month. Some web-hosts have What-You-See-Is What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) builders to help beginners establish their web presence.

Domain names (also known as URLs or web addresses) prices are also coming down as well. Some web hosts can handle the registration as well.

Take a look at the resume and see how many visible sections there are. Those sections can be your pages. A sample listing of sections can go as follows:

This is already four sections that can turn into 4 webpages. As the experience grows, the website can branch out to be more pages. Also feel free to provide external hyperlinks(links that are not a part of your website.) This will enable people to visit the external website without closing or navigating away from your website. One can link to employers, educational institutions, etc. so that the resume can have an interactive feel.

Don't forget the main page or the homepage, the first thing that visitors see when they arrive on your website. Think about a headline that will grab someone's attention that in a few words summarizes the website. It can be your name or your function. It's also a good idea on the homepage to have a paragraph summarizing who you are and what you do. Another recommendation is to have a full-page version of the resume as well. This gives people a choice if they want to view a section or the full version.

Its is also a good idea, if you have the webspace to have multiple versions of your resume accessible by linking to them on your site. .DOC and .PDF formats are widely known followed by .RTF.

Lastly, as we all know, a resume is always growing and changing; such as a website and the nature of the Internet. Always take the time to review and enhance your website. It's important that your online resume should show growth and evolve to meet new challenges and opportunities.

As the owner of NextSTEPH (http://www.nextsteph.com), Stephanie M. Cockerl helps organizations define and implement goals for their websites. She also works with clients and audiences to effectively and safely harness the power of the World Wide Web for information gathering, information sharing, marketing and career pursuits.

Over the years, Stephanie has become an award winning web designer, developer, professor and web consultant. She is a Certified Webmaster, awarded by the International Association of Webmasters and Designers; listed on Who's Who on the Web, has been featured as "Webgrrl of the Week" by Webgrrls.com, an international networking organization for Women in New Media; Silicon Salley, a magazine that recognizes women in technology; in iVillage.com, a leading online community for women as a "Featured Technodiva".