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What is a Personal Website?

A personal resume website is a digital presentation, and extension of the traditional paper resume. Summary brief bio of with links to social media profiles, and contact information this website serves as an extension of your personal professional brand and done well, is a great way to make a memorable first impression that can include:

• links to pdf resume
• highlights your education, capabilities, and work experience in graphical format
• examples of previous positions or projects that cannot be represented on a traditional a paper resume.
• Bring professional skills alive through infographics, project photos, video presentation highlights
• Blogs stories as well as links to articles you’ve written or had published elsewhere

Why Create a Personal Website?

Having a personal website, in a challenging jobs market like today, is a competitive advantage. A personal website extends a richer view into your professional work experience, education, and work examples. It offers a feature rich contextual view that can simply not be covered in a traditional resume. Used with a resume, that opens doors, the personal resume website lets you represent yourself in a unique and personal way.

In a freelance marketplace environment, or a traditional job search environment, a personal website offers you professional distinction, and extends or improves over time. Here are some of the advantages:

• It offers feature rich content that is more dynamic and flexible than merely providing a resume
• Its modern agility lets you add or refine skills without retyping and redistributing a resume
• It helps recruiters to find you through targeted google search
• It helps in an interview situation where the hiring manager asks if you have samples of your work
• It helps to provide examples of your work when bidding on freelance marketplace jobs

Is this necessary in addition to my resume and LinkedIn?

In a competitive market, anything that gives you an advantage is recommended. Companies invest in advertising, websites, and have pages on most social media. The reason they invest time, money and resources in it, that also apply to a professional job seeker, freelancer, or entrepreneur is this:

• it increases exposure of your (resume, your LinkedIn profile, and your website) to your unique talents
• blogging about industry news and views creates opportunities to leverage, connect, and celebrate successes of members and leaders in your network
• it gives you a variety of ways to connect with your target audience
• it expands capabilities and awareness of your skills and value offering
• it provides a natural and informative way to keep in touch and connected to colleagues, partners, and prospective new opportunities
• for college internships and recent college graduates, it allows you to expand upon your internships and volunteer experience and professional skills and establishing your work experience
• for experienced professionals it allows skills and improves the odds of career continuity, even in challenging economy for flexible work, contract , entrepreneurial projects

Some of the reasons for using WordPress for building your personal portfolio are:

1. Easy to use and start using right out-the-box as soon as it is installed.
2. Easy to manage and update after being set up, by anyone even without any technical or coding knowledge.
3. WordPress is a power tool with professional impact complete with a host of themes, tools and plugins, that makes a great website.
4. Security is more important than ever. WordPress is easy to update, the latest security, keeping your site secure, fresh, and functioning well.

What is the best platform for first-time website builders?

Here are the Top Websites for novice website builders. We recommend WordPress because it free and open source content management system that is both easy to use, with powerful features, that deliver the best professional image for your site.

We are experts in profile design and can get you started in design and installation to quickly create a site that is easy to maintain, graphically compelling and can easily integrate and showcase a variety of mixed media and professional content, videos, and infographics into to the website.

EXAMPLE 1: IT and Business Consulting Profile: http://dawncsimmons.com

EXAMPLE 2: COMMUNITY LEADER and POLITICAL PROFILE http://www.monaemsarker.com/

EXAMPLE 3: Consider a Graduation or Early to Mid Career Portfolio to enhance your visibility for the future: .. Fresher to early Executive Profie

What is an example of a Professional Profile Site ?

You can elect what features to incorporate but the key elements to consider: are:

• Memorable easily share-able URL that represents your brand
• Personal Branded Home Landing Page (Name, Professional Personable Photo, Description)
• About Me (Resume, Career Highlights, Downloadable Resume) TIP: put a “SOCIAL resume with public profile links instead of your personal home address and phone number)
• Blog (This can include learnings, successes, industry leaders, professional development book reviews, books, articles, or videos you have created, interviews on best practices)
• Contact Feel free to use this “contact form” to contact me if you would like me or someone in my team to help you jump start your professional website!

My Personal Professional Profile Story:

I have an incredible professional network because I founded a Helping Friends Career Network. I have helped laid off professionals find jobs since 2001. However it was my expert Full Stack WordPress Developer, who suggested, when I was looking for my next job, that I needed a Profile Website. I did not see why, I had a rocking LinkedIn page, and get daily calls on my resume. My expert WordPress Team designed and developed a custom professional WordPress Custom Site, arranged the hosting and url, and installed this CXO Profile Site.

Before I was not even sure it was necessary. Proof of concept sold me! Now I had a working example and could see its power and agile influence in a competitive market place. The site looked amazing, and was easy for me to maintain and keep competitive in a changing IT Consulting Climate.

What a difference it has been. I have had contract opportunities requesting work samples, and quickly put up samples catered to their interest and sent them the URL. In a competitive interview situation where a hiring decision had not been made, I sent the URL with my personal thank you note and got shortlisted. In the end, I had another job contract before they had decided.

Now How can we help you?

BEST PRACTICE CAREER PROFILE ARTISANS: I now have a great example and my web development team and I have helped others do the same.

My Quality Web Designers and Developers create a rocking custom professional profile matched to your industry and professional skills, and I help with suggestions for keywords, LinkedIn profile optimization and professional Networks that can help.

Our job seekers can opt into several job search options to help them find their next job.

1. Jobs n Career Networks is a free global open source Network with direct access to share and receive job leads and connect with recruiters
   1. LinkedIn: Professional Jobs n Career Network
   2. Facebook: Jobs N Career Network
2. Be on our SoInnovate Star Search Focus Star Profiles with Custom Jobs Networking webinar online events or a new concept “showcase interview”.
   1. All Custom Profile Website Orders before August 1 get a free LinkedIn Profile Makeover,
   2. Or if you already have a profile,
3. We have partnered with Vouch4Veterans  to help Employers hire United States Military Veterans and their spouses to qualify for this program:
   1. If you are in professional network, I will be your Advocate, use this Dawn Simmons Vouches4Vets link
   2. If you are a friend I do not yet know, thank you for your service and will help.   Go to Vouch4Vets.org.  
4. COVID-19 JOBSEEKERS TALENT HOTLIST is a free service confidential list of job seekers and freelancers, who are looking for their next great opportunity worldwide.
   1. All US Military Veterans and their spouses as well as So Innovate Clients receive automatic complimentary Networking on our Stars or Confidential Star Search Program.
   2. Covid-19 Global Employment Task Force: We are proud sponsors of the Covid-19 Global Employment Task Force and are dedicated to helping professionals globally find jobs. Our programs and events take a great deal of coordination more volunteers, partners and sponsors are welcome and will help us put more people back to work.
   3. To be considered on an upcoming Star Search or Confidential Talent Hot list, fill out the one page Templates– Job Seeker Star Power Point Slide and attach resume on the Contact Us form. We are here to help the global community and if you have already created a solid profile, simply fill out the form and we will do our best to include your profile in our event planning.

If you have other examples of your Professional Profile Site, please put it in the comments. And if we have designed a Professional Site for you, and you give us permission, we would like to add it to this list as a style guide variety of examples.

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