LinkedIn is a potent tool that allows you to reach out to influential people in your industry. But let’s face it – the user interface is ugly and not personalized. The social elements can distract readers from your individual expertise. It’s not optimal as a profile of your professional experiences. You need an one-page online resume that gives an overview of your career trajectory.
Looking for a free online resume builder? Look no more. With the LinkedIn One-Click online resume builder, you can literally make an online resume website in five seconds. It pulls the data off your LinkedIn profile to automatically make an one-page website. The site works out of the box, but follow these tips below to save time, update the page, make it easier for other people to find, and finish with a site that represents your own brand.
1. Update your LinkedIn profile beforehand.
If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, make an account here first, and fill out your profile. Even if you do, it’s best to make changes to your LinkedIn profile before you make a one-click page, because the one-click website doesn’t update automatically. Get this done first to make sure that you don’t have to type descriptions out twice.
– Make sure that your experiences are up-to-date. Update a checklist of your current job, internships, externships, certificates, and achievements. If you have moved roles within the same firm, or have gained new responsibilities, remember to rewrite your descriptions.
– Check for typos and errors in spelling and punctuation. “If your website contains a lot of grammatical errors, misspellings, or outdated information, it may detract from your reputation rather than enhance it,” says Dr. Katherine Brooks, career services director of University of Texas at Austin.
2. Click.
This part is simple. Go to the LinkedIn One-Click page and click on the “Connect to LinkedIn” button. Log into your LinkedIn profile when prompted and then allow access for Strikingly to continue. Done!
3. Edit the page.
Now that you have the basic framework of your online resume, get down to making it better.
– Add in images on the “Experience” timeline. Strikingly helps you do this by automatically grabbing relevant logos of your firm online. Still, be wary: mistakes can happen. For my experience at Morningstar, an equity research firm, a photo of a hard rock band with the same name was used instead. Use tools such as Google Image Search to change upload the right logo for the organizations. Don’t run that unedited.
– Get rid of the clutter. Your online resume should act as an overview of your professional life, what you stand for. The longer your page, the easier it is for the reader to lose attention. If there’s fluff, such as ancient experiences from middle school, or irrelevant skills that have ended up being endorsed by your LinkedIn connections, don’t be afraid to get rid of it. Or move it down the page, so it can still come up in search results but won’t get in the way of your key competencies.
– Under “Skills”, group your specific skills and interests into sections. Strikingly pulls the “Skills” from your LinkedIn profile, but they appear under individual headings. Group multiple skills under one heading – for example, a category of “Technology Skills” to house the software applications, programming languages, or computing concepts that you’re most familiar with.
A sample screenshot from my friend Klevin Lo‘s online resume, an overview of his amazing skills from biology research to 3D modeling.
4. Get the word out.
– Publish if you finish. “It’s not helpful to post an underdeveloped website, and especially in the midst of a job search, it should be up-to-date and not look like a project you started but left undone,” says Miriam Salpeter, a job search coach. Check again for typos, errors, and unfinished sentences.
– Put in your professional name as the domain, if it isn’t already! While the one-click page provides a placeholder URL, making my website http://brian-ng.strikingly.com/, instead of something like site16884-4391-5615.strikingly.com, makes it show up at a higher priority when people search for you on Google. Even better? Choose your own custom domain name to complete your personal branding.
– Prepare a short personal statement. Write a clear description, including keywords that represent your professional interests and organizations you want to show up in searches for: e.g. “I’m Brian Ng, a Growth Hacker for Strikingly, with experience in content strategy, data analytics, and editorial copywriting. I’m currently looking for co-founders at my startup, MumbaMumba.” This can also act as your one-minute pitch at networking sessions.
– Attach your site to your resume, LinkedIn profile, business card, etc. There’s no replacement for publicizing the site yourself, and including your one-page website can attest to your ambition and technological proficiency.
Antsy to build or improve your own online resume from LinkedIn? Click here to start the free online resume builder.
