Building a Personal Website for Your Job Search: What to Include
When a personal website really helps your job search, which pages it needs, how to write case studies, and how to finish one in a weekend.
A recruiter opens your resume, sees the line designed a sales dashboard for the leadership team, and wonders what it looks like. If there is a link they can click right away, you have an edge over someone who has to wait to explain it in the interview. That is the main job of a personal website: holding evidence of your work that a one to two page resume cannot fit.
What a personal website is, and who should have one
A personal website is a small site of your own that brings together a short bio, your work and contact details. You do not need to code, because there are many drag and drop website builders. The people who benefit most are:
- Fields with visible output: designers, writers, content creators, developers, marketers who run campaigns
- Data and analysis roles: to show dashboards or analyses with confidential data removed
- Career changers: to prove new skills through personal projects that are not yet in your work history
- Freelancers and consultants: clients often check work before getting in touch
If your work cannot be shown publicly at all, such as internal accounting, a complete LinkedIn profile may be enough. Not everyone needs a website.
Pages to include
Home page: who you are in two sentences
Example: A marketing data analyst who helps e-commerce teams decide from real data. Currently looking for a Marketing Analyst role in Bangkok. This beats Welcome to my website, because it states your skill, the result and what you are looking for.
Work page: your 3 to 5 best pieces
Choose pieces that match the job you want, not everything you have ever done. Quality matters more than quantity.
About and resume page
Tell your career path briefly, add a downloadable PDF resume and a link to LinkedIn.
Contact
A professional email address is enough. Do not put your phone number or home address on a public site.
Write case studies people finish reading
Recruiters do not read long pages. Make every piece answer these four points on one page.
- The brief: what was the problem, and who had it
- Your role: which part you did and who you worked with
- How you did it: the main steps and why you chose that approach
- The result: what changed after this work
If the work belongs to a former employer, ask permission first, or change the data and hide all client names. Posting a previous employer's internal data is a red flag for a new employer.
Domain names and tools
If you can, use a domain with your real name, because it is easy to remember and looks professional on a resume. If you do not want to pay for a domain yet, a free link from a website builder works, as long as it is short and has no long random numbers. Choose a tool you can easily edit yourself, because a good site is one you return to every time you have new work, not the prettiest site you cannot update. For tech roles, coding the site yourself is another piece of work that shows your skills.
Your resume says what you can do. Your personal website shows that you have actually done it.
Common mistakes
- Beautiful design that breaks on mobile: many recruiters open links on their phones
- Outdated information: a site that still says third-year student when you have worked for two years looks careless
- Including everything: unrelated work buries your best pieces
- Broken links: check every link before each application
Finish it in one weekend
- Saturday morning: choose 3 pieces and write case studies using the four-point structure
- Saturday afternoon: write your two-sentence introduction and about page
- Sunday morning: pick a website builder you are comfortable with, use a simple template and add the content
- Sunday afternoon: check it on mobile, and ask a friend to read one case study and say whether it is clear
- Add the website link to your resume and LinkedIn profile
Once your site is ready, read about adding portfolio links to your resume and cleaning up your online presence before applying. Then make sure your resume matches the site in Resume Lab, and start applying for roles that fit your work on the job listings page.