With the shift in the economy I’ve seen a fair amount of my friends, including myself at one point, unexpectedly find themselves back in the job market. In such a situation it’s more important than ever to control your image on the web.

If you’re in a technical industry such as web development/design or digital media, it’s expected that you have your own website. Even if you’re not in such an industry, having a website to serve as your “online business card” is a wise move. Your own website is the best way for you to control the first search result for your name.

Having your own website does not mean having a Facebook page, a MySpace profile, or even a Twitter account. While it’s great to also have a presence on any one of these social networks in order to connect with friends old and new, this is not how you want potential employers to get to know you. If you’re not careful, these social networks—Facebook and MySpace moreso than Twitter—have great potential for tarnishing, or even ruining, your online image in the eyes of a potential employer.

The first step towards having your own website is to purchase your name as a domain–preferably .com and/or .net. It’s important that your name is the domain (ex. firstnamelastname.com); don’t try to get creative! The domain name is one of the highest, if not the highest, ranking pieces of information in the eyes of a search engine. If your website’s domain is firstnamelastname.com, your site will undoubtedly be the first result for “firstname lastname.”

The next step is to setup your website. You’ll need to purchase webspace along with your domain. Typically the most basic Linux hosting package will be sufficient. Next, I’d suggest an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) such as WordPress. A CMS will allow you to easily style your site as well as populate its content without needing to know how to code a website. I’m available to help setup and/or customize your website if needed. Or, if you just have simple questions those are welcome too. I assist many of my friends and just flat out enjoy helping people, so I’m not trying to increase my business here.

Your website may want to mention a little blurb about yourself such as key skills, notable accomplishments, or any other qualities that may be appealing to an employer. Do NOT start listing your activities and hobbies, let people learn those once you’re working with them at your new job.

You may want to link to some of your presences on social websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) but first make sure that your privacy settings are in place for your profile(s). Or, just keep a clean profile! I’ve found that that is generally an easier and safer practice; nothing that your mother wouldn’t want to see.

Most importantly you should have a link to your resume so that it is quickly and easily available for download by potential employers. I’ll go over a great way to share your resume on the web in a future (soon) blog post.

Update: Part II is available, Sharing your resume with Box.net