5 Reasons Why Every Student Needs a Website

In my second year of college, I landed my first internship at an advertising agency that quickly turned into a full-time job. By the end of my 3rd year and up until graduation, I was making at least twice what any other student in my class could make.

All I had to do to stand out among my classmates in the first place was to send the link to my website along with my CV.

Some of the other applicants might’ve been able to create a better website but they simply chose not to.

As for me, I was just publishing all my study projects on my website and only took it down after graduation. I can recover it from the zipped backup file in minutes whenever I decide to return to the ad industry.

It only took me a couple of hours once or twice a month to post all updates, so I didn’t really have to put much effort into maintaining it. Now, why not use this chance to broaden your career perspectives?

Here are the top 5 reasons why students in every industry need their own websites.

1. Build a portfolio

Very soon, the time will come to apply for your first job or your dream internship. You’re going to need a CV, great recommendations from your faculty, a motivation letter, and a portfolio. And your portfolio is what matters the most. In creative fields such as product design and UX, having an impactful UX designer portfolio is especially important. A website gives you the maximum freedom to arrange and present all the work you’ve been doing in the most impressive way.

Even if you’re not in a creative industry, a portfolio will highlight your skills like nothing else. Put together the best research work you’ve done.

When an employer sees what you’re capable of, your GPA and recommendations are no longer the most important parts of your application.

A portfolio is also a must-have if you want to transfer to a better school or get another degree.

2. Develop your personal brand

A personal brand is like any other brand: it has to be well-presented on all channels where your audience is looking at you. Edit Sober podcast has many interesting insights on developing your brand.

Think of yourself as one of the best offers in the job market. Use your website parallelly with your LinkedIn account. Define yourself as a professional with a catchy one-liner.

This is a shortcut to the best job offer out there.

3. Create new earning possibilities for yourself

There are just. so. many. ways to have a side income while you’re studying. My preferred option would be freelancing small research jobs for the best professionals in your area.

If you’re in the creative industry, your possibilities are endless here. As a writer/journalist, your own blog is a must-have. It’s also great to have one regardless of your profession: share industry news with your opinion, and if manage to become popular enough, people would pay you pretty well to write for them in your unique style.

Then, as a designer, your absolutely beautiful website will be just an example of what you can do. Send the website to one of the many online competitions, and the demand for your services will grow by the day.

If you’re in programming, better show your coding skills. You see how it goes.

Plus, there’s always the option to open an e-store for targeted sales on your campus.

4. Show your tech skills

It’s unbelievable how many students just don’t know how to put together a simple website. In fact, it’s incredibly easy. You can code and design all you want if you’re good at it, but all these skills are optional.

All you need to do is choose the most suitable platform and build on one of the ready-made templates. This is something super easy and still, a lot of people don’t know how to do it.

Even optimizing your website performance can be really easy if you know the right tools.

So when you do a small research and end up creating an amazing website, your effort will be much appreciated.

Here’s my personal experience: I stood out among writers quite a few times just because I had more experience with managing content with WordPress.

5. Get things off your chest

Yes, a personal blog.

More and more personal blogs today are on social platforms, and you could have one too. But it’s never the same as owning a personal website. Some of the other applicants might've been able to create a better website but they simply chose not to.
First of all, a website is all yours. You won’t be depending on an algorithm update or some now policy from the social network of your choice.

If you want to move your website elsewhere, say a different hosting, or change your domain and create redirects, you can easily do it in a few steps: nothing is locked up like it is on socials.

Have I convinced you yet? Now go ahead and start creating your first website! And a personal recommendation: WordPress is my favorite platform because of its unlimited customization options.

About the author

Ani Barseghyan

Ani is the blog manager at 10Web — a platform for building, hosting, and managing WordPress websites. She’s been using WordPress since 2011 and writing about it for the last couple of years. You can always have a chat with Ani in the WordPress Family Facebook community.