Ask the Hiring Manager

Question:

Hello-

I just made my own homepage today. I'm wondering about posting my resume on my homepage--is this a good idea for job possibilities after college? I'm writing a story for my journalism class about the effectiveness of on-line resumes in comparison to paper resumes. Do employers value the experience of someone learning how to do their own homepage and resume on-line or is it just an added bonus? Have you had any responses from employers about postings from your organization, meaning has anyone come to you saying they found the perfect employee from your on line service.

I would appreciate any feedback, rates, numbers of people who have used your organization and what the majority use it for. Please e-mail me or call me as soon as possible as my story is due on Monday. I would really appreciate a response by Friday.

Thank you very much for your help--

From: Erika Olson, Senior, Michigan State University

ANSWER FROM BRIAN KRUEGER:

Hi Erika -

Posting your resume in Web format will help in passively marketing your resume to companies, since yes, we are out there trolling for people (constantly). I have personally hired many people I found originally on the Net. Putting your resume in Web format does not necessarily mean that you did it. There are plenty of services out there who will do it for you. So from my side of the desk (as the hiring manager), it is simply an added value in being able to find the person. If the job calls for Web development experience, it would be an added plus. But I would also look at the background code (document source) for the resume to check out the person's HTML experience and abilities. If you do post your resume, make sure your other pages are acceptable to employer view. I've rejected candidates based on their personal page, even though I was initially impressed with their resume page. And remember that you need to publicize the page. It's not enough just to put it out there and hope something happens.

Happy hunting!