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How realistically can I expect an employer to visit an online and extended version of my resume?

I'm currently a Junior in college, studying Computer Science. Since I'll be graduating about this time next year, I'm going to begin looking for jobs soon.

I have done three 6-month co-ops (internships). Apart from that, there are various other freelance/personal projects etc.

Now, not everything finds space in my resume. However, I do have an online resume I maintain which provides far more information about me in a more presentable way. I do intend to include this link in my paper resume.

How realistically can I expect employers to actually visit the link?

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    I bypass the issue by just providing the link and then just maintaining my site. Paper resumes are done for me (reduces recruiters too if that is a goal). I have my own web site + linkedIn + Stack overflow careers site for all that stuff.
    – Michael Durrant
    Jun 7, 2012 at 4:20

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If I'm evaluating candidates I first narrow down the list based solely on resume content. After that first pass, I'll begin looking for other information that may or may not help me make my decision. If a candidate has a link anywhere on their resume, I will go to it at this point. This link could be a personal website, a portfolio site or perhaps a third-party website upon which they claim to have worked. All of that data is valuable. If the candidate does not have a link on their resume, I will Google them and see what comes up.

So, if I were to receive your resume for a position and you passed my initial screen, I would absolutely follow the link and see what was there.

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The answer to your core question "How realistically can I expect an employer to visit an online and extended version of my resume?" depends on the type of position and level at which the employee is being hired. In your case, you fall into the student/recent grad/entry level bucket, and in most situations the hiring manager will not take extra time to look for extended information about your work history (or yourself).

This is not to say that you (and students/recent grads/entry level candidates) are not wonderful people with great skills, but rather that there are a lot of you, and in general that extended information elsewhere is not going to dramatically alter my perception of you and where you're coming from. If that information is so incredibly amazing as to tip the scales dramatically in your favor, it'll either be clear to me based on your cover letter that I really should go look because if I don't I'm really missing out, or I'll have heard of you in some other way (personal reference, internet fame, whatever). Not to be harsh, but students/recent grads/entry level candidates are a dime a dozen.

When do I, as an employer, begin to spend more time with a person's resume, and follow links to read extended information and investigate more? When the position is one of greater responsibility, creativity, management of others, and so on -- when I'm evaluating a seasoned professional, for example, or when someone's cover letter is just so amazing that I can't not look. (Not all hiring managers care about cover letters. I am one who does.)

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  • +1. Also, for current/recent students, there just isn't going to be that much. If someone with 10 years' experience can cover his work in a resume of conventional length, hiring managers will wonder if you say you can't. Maybe you should review that resume again to make sure it includes all and only the important information.
    – Monica Cellio
    Jun 7, 2012 at 14:43
  • @MonicaCellio Thanks for saying that last bit - I actually had that in my original answer but edited it out before I hit Publish!
    – jcmeloni
    Jun 7, 2012 at 15:02
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It depends on how good your offline resume looks.

Really, nobody is going to bother looking at your online resume if you're offline resume (which should hold most of the important info) sucks hard. This means that you're going to have to make the resume the employer sees first look good, even if you're online resume is amazing.

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