How to create a compelling CV or portfolio website

When you’re a woman working to build your career, it’s important that you’re simultaneously building your personal brand.
CV
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Looking for a job or ensuring you’re ready for your next big move is no longer as simple as creating a one-page CV and submitting it to companies or having it on hand. Instead, it’s important that you’re able to clearly convey to potential employers who you are and what value you bring to the table.

A lot of women are looking beyond the traditional CV and are instead moving in the direction of creating and maintaining a personal website that can serve as a CV, a portfolio or a combination of both.

The following are some tips that can help you get started if you want to design a personal website that stands out to help you achieve your career ambitions.

Make Your Homepage Your Elevator Pitch

Do you have an elevator pitch that you would be able to tell your dream boss if you were to get the opportunity? If so, make sure this is what’s represented on the homepage of your personal site.

If you don’t already have an elevator pitch for yourself, think about crafting something that’s a summary of who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and your ambitions. Just make sure it’s ultra-concise and to the point.

Don’t Get Too Personal

When you’re creating the content for your personal website, you don’t want to get too personal. You want potential employers to get a feel for your personality and what makes you unique, but you don’t want to go so far into the personal that it comes off more like your blog or online journal than a professional CV site.

Make Yourself Findable

An online CV or portfolio site can be valuable to have if you’re in the process of applying for new jobs because you can quickly give potential employers a link where they can find out more about you, but you should also make yourself findable through your site.

There may be available opportunities you aren’t even aware of, so you always want your site to come up in relevant searches.

Think about things like SEO research and keyword tools, and also technical aspects of good web design, for example, make sure everything translates well across both desktop and mobile, and also that your site loads quickly.

Quantity Over Quality

If your personal website is also going to serve as a portfolio, make sure that you’re not trying to cram every piece of work you’ve ever done on the site. You want to highlight just a few of your very best pieces of work. Otherwise, your site may come across as cluttered or amateurish. You might also ruin the overall user experience of your site, which will turn off potential employers.

As a final note, to wrap up, in the general design of your personal website, keep it clean and straightforward. Make sure it’s modern and that your work and background are the central focus.

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