CV and resume websites How to build a CV website, and whether you need one
A CV website is a single page carrying the evidence your PDF only claims. Here is what goes on it, what to leave off, and how to keep it away from your current employer while you are still working there.
- length
- one page
- read in
- under a minute
What goes on a CV website, in order
Whether you build it yourself or have someone do it, the structure is the same. It is read top to bottom by someone in a hurry, so the order matters more than anything else on this page.
- Name, role and location In one line at the top: your name, what you do now, and where you are.
- What you are looking for A short paragraph the PDF never has room for.
- Experience, in reverse order A result under each role rather than a duty list.
- The evidence The project, the repository, the article, the thing you actually made.
- A downloadable PDF Because some job applications still need an uploaded file, not just a link.
- One way to contact you That is not a form. A direct email address gets a reply faster.
What to leave off
A CV website gets worse as it gets longer. Your home address and date of birth, every job back to 2004 in equal detail, a skills chart claiming 85 percent at anything, a photograph unless your field expects one, and hobbies unless they are relevant to the work.
Keeping it out of your current employer's search results
This is the question we get asked most about CV websites and the one nobody answers honestly. You can keep a page out of search results. You cannot stop someone you sent it to from passing it on.
- Kept out of search engines So your name does not surface it while you are still job hunting quietly.
- A link still works for anyone who has it Private is not the same as secret. Send it only to people you trust.
- Your employer's name left off An option worth considering, entirely up to you.
- Switched to public in a minute The day you hand in your notice, with no rebuild required.
- Then it becomes your name in search Once public, it starts doing the job an old CV website is best at.
- Updated once a year Instead of rewritten in a panic the next time you need it.
Why it outlasts the job hunt
It is already the link in your email signature, and the next search starts from something rather than nothing.
Six ways a CV website undersells someone
These come up again and again, usually because the page was written the same way as the PDF instead of for how a browser actually reads.
- A duties list instead of results What you were responsible for tells someone less than what changed because you did it.
- No way to search or scan it A recruiter reading forty of these wants headings and results, not paragraphs to read in full.
- No sense of when things happened Dates matter. A timeline that is hard to follow makes an otherwise strong page harder to trust.
- Built for desktop only Most of these get opened on a phone between meetings, not at a desk.
- No evidence, only claims Strong communicator means nothing without a link to something that shows it.
- Indexed by accident Live in search while still employed, found by exactly the person it should stay hidden from.
If you are selling projects rather than applying for jobs
A CV website and a freelance website look alike and do opposite jobs. One is asking to be employed, the other is asking to be hired.
- All Personal Websites Every kind of personal site we build, in one place. See the hub
- Freelancer Website Design Built to filter enquiries before they reach you, rather than get hired for a role. Freelancer websites
Send us your CV
Send the PDF you are using now and we will come back with what belongs online, and a fixed price, usually within 24 hours.
- One page, read in under a minute
- Kept out of search while you are still employed
- Live in 4 to 6 weeks
- We reply within 24 hours