SITE REVIEW: Brian K. Davis Professional Website

Hello All,

I have made my Online Professional Resume and would like a review from both technical,design, and content.

http://www.kbdavis07.somee.com

I made this website with Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express
edition.

Based on this website alone would you hire or offer me a job or project?

Does it provides enough information to hire me?

Does it look professional?

I have a couple comments.

Your main goal is to have someone hire you, so every page should help push the person reading what to do next. In reading the home page, the text doesn't push me to go anywhere else... though being 'sales type' may not be what you are looking for, but you are trying to sell yourself.

In the About Me, you mention Hand/Hard Coding. An experienced previous developer will cringe at the sight of 'Hard Coding', as it usually implies that the code is not flexible.

The side links of the pages don't work...not sure if that is a work in progress or not.

The site is clean, and well layed out. Its too bad those Google ads at the top create a quick flash of your layout before everything settles down.

Beautiful design, but maybe you can make the bottom border to the menu round cornered

I like the graphical design, but think you should consider some different things related to the content.

If this site is your online professional resume, then your main landing page should represent this. I think this should either by the resume or the cover letter or both. That maybe what you intend with the text on the landing page, but it does seem like a hard enough sell.

If the main page is like a cover letter, eliminate all of the passive voice. For instance, don't say "I have been doing Web Development for about 10 years now" instead say "I have 10 years of Web Development experience." This is a much stronger statement.

Also, the title should be more than "Welcome to My Website". It makes me think that I have landed on your personal web page and not a professional site. I think that it should be more like "Professional Resume of Brian K. Davis" or something else along those lines. You may also want to consider "Brian K. Davis, Experienced Web Developer."



I think this statement needs to be completely reworked so that it is more concise or eliminated all together. Consider saying telecommuting or something like that.

In your front page or cover letter, reference other parts of the site. You can do something like "As you will see from my portfolio ..." and link portfolio.

I agree with the guy above, every page should give an opportunity for action. To contact me; To inquire about hiring; To set up an interview. You want them to know your intent her is to get jobs and you want them to contact you about this.

I was wondering, why does your portfolio include only one site? This is a question a person hiring would ask. I would think that in 10 years you would have more sites than this.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but am really trying to be helpful. Based on the professional graphics of the site I might hire you. Based on the text I would not. The reason is, as I read, there is nothing that really captivates and holds my attention. Your main text needs to say "You need me. You want me. You are going to hire me." and I don't really get that feeling. You may want to put it up for review on the about.com jobsearch forums and get some feedback there. There are some people on there that can really help with the text of everything and give you some good pointers.

Again, I hope what I had to say did not seem harsh. I was really just trying to be helpful and let you know my impression. I wish you luck on your job search.

Hello Jobbala,

I do agree with you on what you said about my content.




I was a Web Master for a NSA (National Security Agency) Field site. All of the web work I done is 1. Classified and 2nd its on the NSA intranet on the .nsa domain.

I have left the Army/NSA in 2005 and working on transitioning to the civilian side of web development. So I am doing retraining as I am looking for work. But, I am not only looking for Web development work but basically anything that can be done on a computer and listed on my website:

http://www.kbdavis07.somee.com/Jobs.aspx


wpgwiggum





I completely agree with you on this.








Thanks for your opinion on this one. Made me think of this in a different way. But, I sort of disagree with you on this one. The point I was trying to make is that I can do both Hard Coding and using Software (Editors) to Develop Websites with.

Some Developers can only hard code, and not use Software that well. Others can only use Software and can not do Hard coding.





Its still a work in progress. I did the main content then stop to see what others think so far on what I got so I know what direction to go with my content. The reviews I got so far are helping a lot and will help with the development of the rest of my other content.





Thanks for you comment.

I will try to fix the Google ads quick flash problem.

Thank you all for all of your comments so far. I knew my content was not the best just wanted to verify that.

Now back to work on my website.

http://www.kbdavis07.somee.com/


Thanks,

Brian K. Davis

This should definitely be noted in your portfolio even if you can't provide a link to the sites. It is valuable experience and will catch the attention of anyone who is concerned about security. Relate as much as you can about the work you did.



I can see where the person is coming from related to hard coding. Web sites were hard coded for the most part in the early days. Now almost all sites are dynamic. Someone may get this confused with what you are really trying to say. Consider saying "Comfortable coding with both simple text editors or IDEs" or something along those lines.

Hello Jobbala,


You are right again, thanks for your advice, very helpful.

Hello All,

I fixed the following:

On the main page

http://www.kbdavis07.somee.com/Default.aspx

3.[Main Page] Make it like a cover letter. Take out all passive voice.

4.[Main Page]Change title to “Professional Resume of Brian K. Davis”
5.[Main Page]Statement, “Currently I am seeking” Needs to be concise or eliminated? I took it out completely.


6.[Main Page]Reference other parts of the site. “As you will see from my portfolio” [link]

Tell me what you think so far? I am still working on the rest.

Thanks,

Brian K. Davis
http://www.kbdavis07.somee.com/