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Did you know that 80% of employers will Google you before an interview according to a recent article by job search expert Susan Joyce? What are they going to find?
Is this potential employer going to find a bunch of social media profiles with pics from your amazing Spring Break trip with friends, or are they going to find a curated search result that highlights what you want them to see?
Employers aren't even going to look that hard you're likely one of hundreds of candidates. But what they do want to see is something that stands out and if that “something” aligns with your resume.
That's why starting your own website as a college student is a no brainer. When you're a college graduate, having your own website becomes your home base an online resume, a portal to “you”, and a place to showcase your work.
You might be thinking to yourself, well, I have a LinkedIn profile isn't that enough? No. It’s just a starting point.
You need a website because you need a home base for yourself. What happens if LinkedIn goes the way of MySpace? What happens if Facebook goes out of business? When you rely on other websites, you are at their mercy. If you create your own website as a college student or college graduate, you now have your own piece of the online real estate world that you can keep forever.
Here's some of the potential benefits of starting your own website:
1. You own your own brand online:
When you create your own website using your name, Google will likely rank that website as the #1 result for your name (unless you share the same name as a famous celebrity, then you might have some trouble). As such, you can control your brand online because most users will only click the first couple results and maybe they browse the first page.
Studies show that the first result in Google gets 32.5% of the click-throughs. This needs to be your own website if it's your name people are searching for. The second result only gets 17.6% and the third only gets 11.4% of the clicks. These should be your best looking social media profiles – such as LinkedIn or Twitter.
If your resume and other social profiles all align, it will make getting a new job easier even if you're getting your first job right out of college.
2. You can showcase yourself:
Your website is the true place where you can showcase yourself and what you stand for.
Think about it even if you're in college today, a good website will have:
- A picture (or multiple pictures) of you.
- A resume page.
- A place to share your accomplishments.
- Links to your other social profiles.
- A contact form.
All of these are great ways to show off what you've done. Maybe you've held several internships (show some photos of it along with what you've learned). Maybe you've volunteered and have some great experiences there. Maybe you have a side hustle that you want to highlight that shows you have an entrepreneurial spirit.
That's how you control your brand.
3. You can get a new job easier:
Since 80% of employers will Google your name, having your own website that looks great goes a long way to showing employers that you care about the work you do. With the right website, a potential employer can learn about you, see examples of your work, and really get a sense for who you are.
