Jobs Series - Point Your Domain Somewhere
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 by Kelly Sutton This post is part of the Getting a Job Series that we're running. To see the rest of the posts, go the Get a Job series page.
Your domain name isn't going to be very useful it's a dead end in cyberspace. You need to point it somewhere that represents you best. You have a few options.
(This post isn't going to talk about the technicalities of domain name forwarding or hosting, since you might have used a different service to register your domain name.)
Option 1 - Host Your Digital Business Card
If you have hosting already, the best thing to do is to make a "digital business card." Keep it simple. Check mine out: michaelkellysutton.com. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
If you have hosting, you probably know enough about HTML at least to understand what's going on here. If you want the "source code" of my page, download it here:
Put that on your site and modify as you see fit. It should be pretty straight-forward.
Option 2 - Forward Your Domain
If you're not an HTML fiend or don't already have a hosting plan, you'll want to forward your domain name to something that professionally represents you best. For most people, we recommend your LinkedIn Profile. LinkedIn is a professional social network. We'll be talking more about the importance of LinkedIn tomorrow so for now just think of it as Facebook - Drunk Pics + Business Contacts = LinkedIn.
Option 3 - Forward to Your Portfolio
This is especially handy if you're an art major. If you have your portfolio in digital form, forward your shiny new domain name there. Make sure you have your contact info somewhere prominent on the page.
A potential employer's though process should be as follows:
- Ooooo, pretty.
- Where is this young gun's contact info? I want to offer them a job.
Option 4 - ?
There are probably other uses for your own domain name. Let us know how you use your own domain name for professional uses in the comments!
Stay tuned for the rest of the HackCollege Jobs Series.
Reader Comments (5)
[...] 2 of a great series this week on using the internet to help your job prospects on graduation. [Hack [...]
This is a good idea. It seems like it is an unnecessary expense, but could definitely be used for benefit, especially just getting the domain and moving it around as needed. Good series so far.
[...] mitch@mitchkeeler.com (Mitch Keeler) wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptYou have a few options. (This post isn’t going to talk about the technicalities of domain name forwarding or hosting, since you might have used a different service to register your domain name.) … [...]
[...] and put something up there, doesn’t have to be anything fancy - HackCollege has some good ideas for what to do with [...]
I 'borrowed' the code from Kelly's (http://jcpeden.com); I fell for its simplicity. I had already registered the domain and was just using it to point to my blog, but I don't think the process needs to be expensive (I've paid for considerably more than I need and its cost less than $30). If it gets you a job it has paid for itself. Failing that you could always use Adsense :-)