Wired has just posted a new article on how to “Supercharge Your Resume”.
The article makes several really good points that bode well for both resumes and your personal website. If you want your website to serve as a virtual resume or portfolio, or just want customers to think you’re awesome, you need to craft your content much the same way as you would on your print resume.
Wired’s article suggests things to avoid, including long chunks of text, generalizations, canned templates and lying. All of these rules can be applied to your website as well.
What does this mean? First, when talking about your accomplishments, don’t rattle on for paragraph after paragraph simply because you have the space (it’s the web, you can scroll, right?). Don’t assume that endless space gives you a license to ramble. Second, when you do talk about yourself, be precise and give details. No one cares that you “like working with people” but they might care that you devoted 27 weekends to volunteering at a homeless shelter.
You also want to stand out, somehow. I don’t think you need to have lots of bells and whistles on your website, but you need to do or say or show something unique and special about yourself. But at the same time, don’t say you’ve climbed Mt. Everest if you don’t even know what country it’s in!
Points they stress include simplicity, conciseness and accuracy. Again, very few people (other than your mother, and only if she’s special) will want to read a lengthy personal biography. Now, if you’re particularly witty and have a good way with words, you might keep people’s attention through your 17 pages of content, but very few of us have such compelling personalities. So keep the site simple, with a minimum of distinct pages, and if you want to ramble, get a blog (like this one!).
And be accurate in your details and in your spelling! Nothing turns people off more than a document – online or in print – that is riddled with grammatical or spelling errors. So read things over, or even ask a friend to help.
These are extremely useful guidelines you have made as far as resumes. All resumes are all different (as it is a reflection of you as a professional) so a template only should be used to guide you in crafting it.