What does that 47% actually mean?
Our homepage quotes one number: 47% of employers surveyed by CareerBuilder said they were less likely to interview a candidate they could not find online.
That number is worth putting into context, because it says quite a lot about how hiring works today.
The survey was conducted by The Harris Poll for CareerBuilder in 2018. In the same research, 70% of employers said they look candidates up online during the hiring process.
So for many employers, reading your CV is not the end of the process.
They search your name too.
What are they looking for?
Usually, nothing complicated.
A recruiter sees a name on a CV, searches it, and tries to get a clearer sense of the person behind the application.
They might find LinkedIn. An old social profile. Results that have nothing to do with your work. Or several other people with exactly the same name.
Or they might find something built specifically for that moment:
a website with your name, your CV and the professional information you chose to put there.
That is where a personal website becomes useful.
You cannot control whether someone searches for you. You can have much more control over what they find when they do.
Your name can lead straight to you
If your name is Andrew Jones and your website is andrewjones.com, the domain and the page both make it immediately clear who the site is about.
It is not a profile buried several levels inside somebody else’s platform. It is not platform.com/users/andrew-jones-58291.
It is simply:
andrewjones.com
You can put that address on your CV, LinkedIn, email signature, job applications or messages to recruiters.
And unlike a PDF you sent six months ago, the website can stay up to date.
Your CV can change without your link changing
A CV sent as a file stays exactly as it was when you sent it.
A website can change whenever you need it to.
Add a new role. Rewrite your experience. Update your education. Change the layout. Switch to another CV format.
The address stays the same.
That means andrewjones.com can become the permanent link to your current professional profile, even if you shared it months or years ago.
A professional online presence can make a difference
The CareerBuilder survey shows that employers do search for candidates online.
Another study looked at whether having a strong professional presence online changed the response candidates received.
In an experiment by ResumeGo, 24,570 fictional CVs were sent to real job openings.
Candidates whose CVs included a complete LinkedIn profile were contacted in 13.5% of cases. Candidates with no online profile were contacted in 7.9%.
In other words, they were contacted about 71% more often.
The study looked at LinkedIn, not personal websites, so it would be wrong to claim that a personal site produces exactly the same result.
What it does show is something relevant: what an employer can find beyond the CV can affect how an application is received.
Your CV is not always the last thing someone sees before deciding whether to contact you.
So why not just use LinkedIn?
For most people, LinkedIn is useful and worth keeping.
A personal website does not need to replace it.
They serve different purposes.
LinkedIn is your profile inside a professional network. It has its own layout, its own rules and the same basic structure for everyone.
Your website is yours.
You decide how your CV looks, what gets emphasis and what information appears. There are no competing profiles, recommendations or other distractions around it.
On LinkedIn, you are one profile among many.
On yourname.com, everything is about you.
What if nobody searches for me?
The site is still useful for one very simple reason: it gives your CV a permanent address.
You can send it instead of an attachment, or alongside one.
You can add:
CV: yourname.com
to your email signature.
Put it on LinkedIn.
Send it directly to a recruiter.
Add it to an application form.
That way, you are not relying only on someone finding you through Google. You can put the link exactly where you want it.
Your first impression can start before the interview
A domain with your name on it does not make your experience better than it is, and it does not turn a weak CV into a great one.
What it changes is the presentation.
Instead of your entire professional presence being reduced to an attachment inside a hiring system, you have your own address — something that opens cleanly on a phone or computer and immediately presents you in a professional context.
It is a small detail.
But in a process where people make quick decisions about who they want to know more about, small details can matter.
The idea is simple
CareerBuilder’s research found that the absence of an online presence can matter during hiring: 47% of employers surveyed said they were less likely to interview someone they could not find online.
That does not mean a personal website automatically gets you a job.
The case for one is simpler than that.
If someone searches your name, it is better for them to find something professional, current and controlled by you.
And if they do not search for you, you still have a simple, permanent link to your CV that you can use anywhere.
From 35.00 EUR a year, your domain, website and hosting are included in one subscription.