Will your website help (or hinder) your job search?

Career coach Beverly R. Daniel offers this professional perspective:

Should a person who has a full-time job in mainstream corporate America (whether a FORTUNE 500 company or Wall Street firm or other professional services firm) have a personal website to promote himself/herself?   Basically, it isn’t a good idea for most people.  If you want to bring attention to your corporate capabilities, and create a web online presence to highlight your work to attract the attention of a recruiter, I would NOT recommend it.  A person with a high-level visible job should not promote corporate work done in the line of his “9/10” responsibilities on a personal online website.  The message it sends may be tantalizing to a recruiter, but it can get you in trouble at work.

·         Clients who found having an online presence beneficial:

o    An IT manager working at a top tier Wall Street firm.  Last year, he secured a “Consent to Outside Work” Form from the HR department which his manager signed.  He is teaching Computer courses in his home on the weekends and he has a website to promote his business.  His private work was of a different nature than his “day job”.

o    An Advertising executive who had one more year on his full-time contract to go. He made it very clear that he did not wish to renew his contract.  Instead, he decided he wanted to start a non-profit company.  He created a website for this firm and created a board and identified himself “on leave” for the year.

o    A Real Estate executive who is active in a community neighborhood group has created an online presence for himself as a Board member of this neighborhood association.  Due to the entrepreneurial nature of the real estate business, his firm thinks online presence of this nature with his employer’s logo helps to promote both the company’s brand as well as his own.

For more information, visit www.careergrowthgroup.com

 

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