Create application website yourself - This must go in!

Companies use their website to manage their brand awareness and carry out marketing activities online. With the help of your own homepage, you too can influence your online presence in a targeted manner.

For example, if you are looking for a new job or new clients, you can use your homepage for your application.

Learn how to manage your online reputation and successfully market yourself to potential employers with your own homepage.

Check out the video for a crash course in under a minute!

The awareness or reputation of a brand or a company on the Internet is technically referred to as online reputation. Companies try to monitor, evaluate and control their online reputation. This can be seen, for example, in the fact that every company - no matter how large or small - can be found with the help of its own website and uses social media channels.

This allows companies to reach a larger number of users, expand awareness of their own brand(s) and carry out essential customer loyalty measures.

But not only companies have a reputation online, but also you as a private person have an online identity and thus reputation through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest or mentions in blogs or newspapers as well as registrations. The easiest way to show this is to Google your full name once and look at the results.

Googling names is also something more and more recruiters are doing when looking for new employees. If you are looking for a job or want to get new assignments as a freelancer, it is therefore essential that you know what is available online about you. It is no longer a horror scenario that you are confronted with an embarrassing party photo in a job interview, but rather that you use your online reputation in a targeted manner so that people find what you want to show.

This is exactly why you should have your own homepage, which you can use as your online signboard and also specifically for job applications.

A job application website is a flagship especially in the IT or multimedia industry (e.g. as a programmer), but it is also respected in other fields. With this individual way of application process you present a professional self-presentation, existing programming skills and creative design, which are important in some professions. This way you can already collect the first plus points.

However, you have to offer the recruiters an added value to show that you are confident in using the Internet. However, this added value is not given if the recruiter does not take the time to read through your application. This will leave an unprofessional impression.

On the homepage, personal information and the professional career are described. Thus, work samples, work experience or references can be uploaded, which makes the applicant look authentic.

The application website is a modern contact way to find your dream job, with which you will stand out and rather remain in the memory of the personnel. However, it is a supplement to the usual classic application on paper.

As our world becomes increasingly digital, IT and programming skills, an online affinity and networked thinking are qualities that are becoming more and more important. This is also evident in discussions with recruiters, who are increasingly pointing out that it is precisely these skills that matter to them when selecting suitable employees. An own homepage offers you the possibility to present your knowledge in the internet as well as other competences like creativity and experience in a bundled and visual way. In concrete terms, your own homepage shows your:

• Online competence and Internet affinity through your online presence

• Willingness to deal with problems and to learn new things

• presentation skills, style and creativity through the design of the page

• Solution competence for the individual components on the page

An own homepage can therefore be understood like a digital application portfolio. By clicking on and browsing your website, employers can get a picture of you, just like when they browse through an application portfolio. For you a homepage, which you also use for applications, has two essential advantages:

1. You specifically control your online reputation, because your own homepage will rank on the first page when Googling if you have provided the domain with your full name. You determine how you are found and what visitors see of you.

2. If you are looking for a job, you don't always have to create a completely new application, but can use your application homepage for several applications. And freelancers can get inquiries from customers without you actively taking care of it.

An application homepage should be specifically designed to present you as a potential employee and to show your strengths and skills.

In order to make your own homepage fit for an application, you should always keep in mind that employees or clients usually have little time and want to find relevant information quickly and easily. In order to create a sensible structure, the easiest way to do this is to follow the example of a classic job application. Your homepage should include a cover letter, a resume, references and other attachments. It is up to you whether you build these aspects as individual web pages or design your homepage in such a way that the readers are led to the appropriate places by scrolling or jump marks.

You should pay the most attention to the home page of your homepage. This serves to "catch" work or clients and to convince them of you at first glance. A simple, clean and bright design is proven to have the best effect. Avoid cluttering your home page and make sure you have enough white space.

It also makes sense to write a short text about yourself right on the start page, which is similar to a cover letter. Here you can orientate yourself by the length of a DIN A4 page.

On the following pages you will find your CV or resume as well as references and samples of your work. Make sure that your personal details are password-protected and that files can be downloaded as PDFs.

Your personal information should be legally under the imprint.

When integrating social media profiles, you should be aware of how far you want to link work and private interests. As a photographer, designer or graphic artist, a link to your Instagram page makes sense. But how much employers need to know about you through your Facebook profile is more debatable.

• Cover letter (should be more general for a homepage)

• Resume

• Short profile or personal information: Who are you; What do you bring to the table; What makes you special; What are you looking for?

• Application photo

• Contact details of the applicant

• Portfolio (work samples, certificates, work experience,..)

• Download area (to be able to download important documents and papers)

Once you have completed this checklist, the most important contents are on your application website

Do's:

• Lege eine klassische Bewerbung bei: Manche Personalverantwortliche bevorzugen immer noch die klassische Papiervariante oder benötigen diese für den Bewerbungsprozess

• Füge Verlinkungen zu deinen Social Media Profilen hinzu wie z.B. LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook,...

• Schreibe auf deine Bewerbunhswebsite nur die Informationen die wirklich aussagekräftig sind: Bei zu viele Informationen landen die eingehenden Bewerbungen meistens im Papierkorb.

• Benutze ein professionelles Bewerbungsfoto: Dieses sollte nicht unscharf oder improvisiert wirken sondern seriös und vorteilhaft

Dont's:

• Verteilen von zu vielen Unterseiten: Dies erschwert den Lesern sich ein Gesamtbild zu machen, benutze deshalb am besten eine Seite dafür

• Zu viel Aufwand in das Design investieren, konzentriere dich auf den Inhalt: Schließlich musst die Personaler von deinen Qualifikationen überzeugen und nicht von deiner Kreativität

If you have set up your homepage for job applications, it is not worth the effort to just wait for a recruiter to google your name and thus become aware of your homepage. It is more proactive to send your URL with your application. The best way to do this is to apply to the company by e-mail or online.

If you apply by e-mail, you can refer to your homepage with the following sentence, for example: "Please find enclosed my complete application documents. You are also welcome to access them online at [your URL]. Further details about myself and my work are listed there."

Often, larger companies have an application management system where you register online and enter your documents and contact details. Here, it usually becomes a bit more difficult to refer to your own homepage. Some companies offer a field with your own homepage, but with most you have to do some trickery. Look for fields where you can put your URL, so that people can click on the link right away. Usually there is a field with "message" or "other". You can use this to refer to your online presence with a short sentence. For example, "You can also find more information about me and my work online at [your URL]." Or, "If you want to get an idea of who I am online, take a look at my homepage at [your URL]."

Using your own homepage not only for yourself, but also for job applications, helps you in your job search, because it makes your applications stand out from others and gives your application an outstanding value. In addition, you can use it to control what is found of you online and what image there is of you on the web.

Especially employees in the creative, informative or online area can simply show their knowledge in their application and refer specifically to their skills without having to describe them in great detail. Especially if you are looking for jobs in the field of web development or development, a homepage can be of great help for your application, because it shows employers right away that you are definitely Internet-savvy and online fit.

If you want to read up more on the topic of application homepages or if you still have questions, we recommend the following article, which goes beyond our explanations in some points.