There was a time when paper business cards and printed resumes were the only way to network — but nowadays job-seekers have a whole slew of online tools to get discovered and hired. In addition to making profiles on sites like LinkedIn and Dribbble, having your own website is a smart way to showcase your personal brand and share your resume and experience with potential employers.
What you display on your resume website depends on your specialty and expertise within tech, explains Francesca Galbo, Codecademy Talent Director. For example, someone in the design field, like a UI/UX designer or a web designer, would want to have a stylistic website that’s easy to navigate and demonstrates their technical skills, she says. A data scientist, on the other hand, might want to include links to data visualizations and projects that they’ve created.
You should think of your resume website as a case study for recruiters or hiring managers who want to see a sample of your work, Francesca says. There are things you can communicate through your website that may not come across on a standard resume or CV. Here are the relevant details and helpful features that Francesca recommends including on a personal resume website.
Projects you’ve built
If you’re applying to any type of technical position — from software developer to data analyst — you’ll need a professional portfolio that has examples of projects you’ve worked on.
How you organize your portfolio is up to you: Some folks might have a dedicated page for each project with details about what technology they used or their role in the project, while others prefer a list with links and a brief sentence about their contributions. “Having some sort of visual portfolio to connect to the work that you’ve done is exceedingly helpful,” Francesca says.
Still building out a portfolio that you can use to apply for jobs? We have lots of tips that will help you compile a portfolio that’s tailored to specific tech roles, like a game developer or web developer. Check out our career center for pre-planned projects that you can complete and include in your portfolio. With portfolio projects, you’ll also get a list of tasks and a Kanban board to keep you on track, plus lots of external resources and information you might need to complete it.
Links to open-source contributions
Including a link to your GitHub profile is an easy way for technical recruiters to see the open-source projects that you’ve contributed to, Francesca says. Your GitHub profile shows how comfortable you are writing and reading code, plus gives a glimpse into how you collaborate with other developers. Make sure your GitHub profile is updated and visible to potential employers.
The programming languages you know
Your resume website is a great place to list all the programming languages you’ve learned. Not sure how to organize all the skills in your arsenal? These guides explain what to put on a full-stack developer resume and how to list the most relevant developer skills.
A writing sample
Sometimes recruiters will ask candidates to share a writing sample as part of a job application. If writing isn’t your strongest suit, don’t stress — Francesca says writing samples are just meant to give people a sense of your communication style.
Examples of writing samples for job applications can be things like a bio, personal statement, blog post, article, or even research paper from a class or job, Francesca says. Just make sure to proofread your writing sample for any grammar or spelling errors before you post it on your website.
A link to your LinkedIn profile
It might seem redundant to add a link to your LinkedIn on your resume website, but Francesca says it’s a must-have on any resume whether it’s on paper or digital.
Recruiters often operate within the LinkedIn platform when they’re gathering candidates for a position, Francesca says. “It’s so much easier when we can actually pull up a LinkedIn profile and save that person to a project or archive them,” she says. (FYI, this is also why a job application might require that you provide a link to your LinkedIn profile.)
To that end, if you want to make sure recruiters are seeing your professional website, it’s a good idea to add the link to your website somewhere on your LinkedIn profile — fish where the fish are, so to speak.
Your contact information
Make sure people who visit your website have a way to get in touch with you. Add a contact form or list your email address directly on the site, with some sort of instruction about ways you can work together.
Your resume website should contain enough information and evidence of your past accomplishments to tell your story and make yourself stand out as a candidate. To recap, you’ll want to include: past projects you’ve completed, links to open-source contributions, a list of the programming languages and frameworks you know, plus a writing sample and your contact information — including a link to your LinkedIn.
If you’re looking for a way to practice coding and also build out your own resume website, check out our Portfolio Project Portfolio Website. You’ll learn how to build a responsive and interactive resume website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. (Here’s an example of a resume website we imagined Ada Lovelace might have.) Want to see some examples of resume websites that other Codecademy learners have created? Check out this Codecademy forum post to see how fellow learners designed and organized their Portfolio Projects — you can even offer feedback if you’d like.
While you’re finessing your online presence, consider following these recruiter tips for making a LinkedIn profile that will make you stand out as a strong candidate. And for even more job-search advice, like interview prep practice and advice from recruiters, head to our career center.