As technology advances, there are limitless ways to showcase your skills. One area that is growing is the emphasis on personal websites. However, creating your own website can take a lot of time and energy. So, is it really worth it? Here is what our recruiters said when asked about personal websites.

Personal websites are not a must, but they are increasingly helpful to people pursuing a variety of careers. It can be used as an extension of your resume to show off your creative spirit and to showcase real, tangible work that you have done.  Websites are particularly helpful for those pursuing careers in writing, as you can showcase your previous writing samples in a professional and publishable way.  They are also commonly thought of as being used by photographers or graphic designers, again as a way to compile previous creations. However, websites are not just for writers and designers-they can be used by scientists and researchers as a way to display results from experiments.  They can also be useful to those in the information technology and computer science industries as a way to present their coding skills and show exactly what they can produce through coding.   

Once a website has been developed, you should aim to share it with everyone who you are trying to network with.  This does not have to mean simply sending the website link to people.  One idea is to hyperlink the website within your resume in a subtle way-many people include these links in the tops of their resumes with their personal information.  Another option is to utilize LinkedIn.  You can link your personal site there, or you can include the components of the website within your job history.  For example, if you have writing samples you would like to share from a previous position, you can put the link within the position description and LinkedIn will automatically show a preview of the post. You can use the same method for other types of media that you would like to share

So, while it is not a requirement, personal websites are a great way to keep your creative juices flowing while establishing credibility with recruiters. If you or someone you know has an excellent personal website, please share it with us in the comments!