Online CV

Being a student in computer science or related field makes it ideal to have your own website to host your CV. I just did so a few months ago and must say it’s also a lot of fun to design a website where the main subject is… yourself!
To make it an easier setup for others I wanted to share my process.

Get a domain

This is something you can do far in advance. Just make sure that perfect domain is yours. This is surprisingly addicting, there are still loads of domains I want to invest in. The website I used is https://www.namecheap.com/

Create your website

This is the creative step.
Use your favorite framework, some online tool(check out Jekyll) or a premade static template.
I used the last option to get my site fast up and running. This is not a site that needs a lot of functionality so it might be better to get the base out there and then you can always add on to it.
Here are examples of places to look for a template:
https://startbootstrap.com/template-categories/all/
https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/w3css_templates.asp
https://www.free-css.com/free-css-templates

There are loads of templates to look through, just make sure to take a look if the template has any license limitations. I ended up mixing few templates together and now actually some months later I’m still applying minor changes. Make sure to check how your site looks in different browsers and on mobiles.

 

Host your website

I used GitHub Pages for hosting my website. That way it’s also easy to update it if you’re used to working with git.- Simply create a new repository with the name username.github.io where username should be your username. You can also add a GitHub page to all other repositories you have. Then you need to upload the website to a branch called gh-pages. Another way is to open settings for that repository and click on the GitHub Pages section. It’s possible to launch an automatic page generator from there. Those GitHub pages can be accessed through username.github.io/repositoryName  or when you have added the custom domain then customDomain/repositoryName
This way you can connect your GitHub projects to your website:

• Add your website to the repository and make sure the front page’s filename is index.html
• Now your site should be running on username.github.io
• Add a file named CNAME  (no extension) to the root of your project and in there write the url of your domain. This enables you to use your custom domain.
• If you’re using some kind of framework a more setup is needed to make it work with Github Pages. Here like always Google is your friend.

Connect your domain to your website

• Sign into namecheap.com
• Click Account > Dashboard
• There will be a list of your domains. Click on manage next to the domain you want to use.
• Click advanced DNS and change the records corresponding to your GitHub Page url

This is my setup. Where I wrote huldalilja, change it to your GitHub username.
It takes some time until it is up and running.
If you have some problems this is the tutorial I used:
https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9645/2208/how-do-i-link-my-domain-to-github-pages

Some details to add

Some things to possibly add to your website:

• Make your resume downloadable.
  In Google Chrome click Ctrl + P to “print out” the CV. Instead of a printer pick “Save as PDF” for Destination. Click on more settings to change margins etc. A fun add-on is to include a QR code on your resume to link it back to your website form of your resume.
• Email redirect
  Under Domain on namecheap.com you can add an email redirectHere you can see my setup for having all emails to huldalilja@huldalilja.com redirected to my email address.
• Add your custom facivon.ico
• Create custom 404 site
  Simply add a new file in the root of your project called 404.html that contains the site you want the user to land on. At the top of your file add:
        —
        permalink: /404.html

        —

• Add Statistical or Analytical tool
  This way you can follow the traffic on your website.
  I am using statcounter.com but another option is Google Analytics

Show off to your friends or family

This last step is optional but highly recommended.

 

Advertisement