What’s the #1
networking tool you can have in your arsenal as a student?
It isn’t your resume!
Resumes are
boring. Career experts tell you to make your resume a one-page, size 11 Time
New Roman document printed with black ink with no pictures. Seriously? How are
you supposed to represent – and differentiate – yourself with that?
Plus, your
resume becomes static and outdated the moment you hand it to someone. You can’t
update resumes you’ve already given out – you have to make new copies. That’s why you
need a personal website! A website is
the complete opposite of a resume. Everything bad about resumes can be
fixed simply by having a website.
4 Reasons Why You
Need to Build Yourself a Website
1) A website
isn’t static; it’s dynamic. It’s ever-changing. The moment you
accomplish something, you can add it to your website. You don’t need to print
new copies of it and send it out to your contacts over and over; you just
update it. People can continually come back and see what you’re up to.
2) Having a
website makes you more findable. If all you have is a resume, you have
to go out and hand it to people to get your name out. If someone wanted to look
you up on the internet and you didn’t have a website, all they might get is a
Facebook or Twitter profile. However, if
you have a website, you can be found by a much wider audience and control
what it is they see first. This is key for establishing your personal brand and
for highlighting your accomplishments. Make sure you can be found!
3) Not many
people have one. Succeeding today requires that you make yourself stand out,
and having a website can help you do that. It shows that you’ve taken the
time to learn how to do something fairly technical, and it shows that you have
some skills other people don’t have.
4) You gain some
new skills that can be very useful in the future. Learning how to build a
website involves a number of different skills, especially if you get into
customizing and optimizing things. Even if you’re not looking for a job in a
tech field, having these skills can give you a leg up.