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How to create a beautiful online resume, and why it’s a smart idea.

How to create a beautiful online resume, and why it’s a smart idea.

Online resume icon

I’ve had quite a few people ask me how to build an online resume recently so I’ve created this series to show you how easy it is. I’ve included:

What is an online resume?

A beautiful little website all about you.

An online resume is a website like any other, but we’re going to install a WordPress resume theme so it looks like a resume and because it takes care of all the hard stuff. Some of the typical things to consider including in an online resume are:

  • A summary of you
  • Your profile photo
  • You past experience
  • Your skills and level of competence
  • Social media links
  • A project portfolio
  • A contact form
  • Videos
  • A blog

21 Beautiful resume themes

Here’s two of them.

You can find the other 19 here: Best resume themes and templates 2013

Wordpress resume theme Zwin

Zwin resume theme: Live Preview

Book resume theme

Bookcard resume theme: Live Preview

Why is an online resume a smart idea?

Here’s 7 reasons why.

  • An online resume is a 24 hour recruiter
  • It’s visually different
  • You get to frame yourself on your terms
  • It’s fast
  • You can include video
  • You can use social media
  • Long term SEO benefits

Read the full article here: 7 reasons why an online resume is a smart idea

Video tutorial on how to build an online resume in 5 minutes

Here’s my video tutorial on how to build an online resume using WordPress including a custom domain name like Johnsmith.com. It’s a step by step process that should only take you 5 or 10 minutes.

Other questions about an online resume

 

1. But most jobs still ask for a paper resume?

Yes. But there’s a way to have both.

  1. On the first page of your paper / PDF resume add a link to your online resume. Make this bold, attractive and add a web link so the reader can just click on it. The aim here is to get the employer away from everyone else’s generic resumes and onto your site. You can now tell your story your way, rather than being confined to the bureaucracy of a standard resume. This now gives you the best of both worlds. You’ve submitted a standard resume as required, but now have a way of directing readers to your online one.
  2. Upload your paper resume to your online resume site. Now if people use your online resume, but still want a paper one they can download it easily. And if people ask for your resume, lets say you meet someone at a work event, you can very quickly just give them a link to your site.

2. But I don’t want my full resume to be public

Ok. Make it password protected.

Not everyone is comfortable having their full resume online, and it’s smart to exclude sensitive details. Things like drivers license numbers, tax file numbers and so forth are best kept private. There is a way to solve this problem though. Let’s start by not adding sensitive information to the online resume to begin with, and then add a password protected page where only people you give that password to can download your full resume. Below is a video tutorial showing you how to do that.

3. Can I turn off my online resume when I get a job?

Yes. Use this plugin.

If you want to hide your site from the world you can use the Under Construction Plugin, which replaces your site with a customisable message that could read, “My online resume is offline at the moment because I’m happily employed at……” For search engine reasons though I’d avoid doing this and just leave it on. That way any pages your site has are still indexed by Google and you may even pick up a few back links along the way. This is all going to be beneficial when you next need your online resume, or if you decide to swap it over to a full blown site later on.

NEXT: Build an online resume in 5 minutes using Wordpress: Video tutorial