Are Personal Resume Websites Still in Demand? A Deep Dive into Job Seeker & Recruiter Needs

The question of whether there's significant demand for personal CV/resume websites sparked a lively debate on Hacker News. The original poster, having built such a service (UserCV.com), found initial traction underwhelming and sought community wisdom before further development. The discussion quickly converged on a central theme: the primary demand is for employment itself, with resume websites being merely a tool, and perhaps not the most effective one in the current landscape.

The Real Demand: Jobs, Not Just Resumes

Several commenters, notably Jugurtha, pointed out that a CV builder is like "soap in a restaurant; it is important... but you don't go to a restaurant to wash your hands." The ultimate goal for users is to secure a job. Therefore, any tool in this space must clearly demonstrate how it helps achieve that primary objective more effectively than existing methods.

Current Hiring Practices & Challenges

Many contributors highlighted the realities of modern job applications:

• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): As byoung2 emphasized, recruiters and hiring managers rely on ATS, which typically expect PDF or Word document uploads, or pasted text. A standalone website link often doesn't fit this workflow for initial screening.
• LinkedIn's Dominance: LinkedIn is frequently cited as the de facto platform for professional online presence and organic discovery by recruiters. A separate resume website needs to offer a compelling advantage over a well-maintained LinkedIn profile.
• Recruiter Workflow: Recruiters usually ask for a resume to be sent directly or submitted via an ATS, rather than seeking out individual resume websites.

Identifying Potential Niches and Value Propositions

Despite the skepticism, some potential avenues and feature suggestions emerged:

• AI-Powered Customization: byoung2 suggested a valuable feature: using generative AI to tailor a base resume to specific job descriptions, producing a downloadable PDF for applications.
• Integration with Personal Branding: For individuals with personal websites or blogs, a CV page can be a useful addition, providing more context for visitors who want to learn more, as jeremy_k noted.
• Custom Domain Hosting: The OP found some interest from users who owned domains and wanted a simple way to put up a professional page without managing hosting themselves.
• Advanced Customization & Formats: tacostakohashi shared a personal system using XML, XSLT, and build tools to generate multiple resume versions (PDF, HTML, Word) from a single source, hinting at a niche for power users needing high control.
• Open Standards: deverman pointed to jsonresume.org as an open format, suggesting potential in tools that support or leverage such standards.
• Serving Specific Demographics: Jugurtha proposed targeting those new to the job market (e.g., students) who may need help creating their first CV, potentially by partnering with educational institutions or employment agencies.
• Teaser Resumes: deverman also mentioned a preference for publishing a partial resume publicly, designed to elicit contact for the full version, rather than exposing all details upfront.

The Importance of Validation and User Experience

Collinvandyck76's feedback on the OP's landing page being "extremely noisy" underscores the need for clear, focused design. The OP's own admission that "Validation failed right on my face" despite positive feedback from a small, close network serves as a critical lesson: broad and diverse user research, especially with the target 'consumers' (recruiters, hiring managers), is essential.

Conclusion: A Tough Market Requiring Clear Differentiation

The overall sentiment is that while the idea of a personal resume website isn't entirely without merit, it faces significant headwinds from established practices and tools like LinkedIn and direct PDF applications. Success in this space likely hinges on identifying a very specific, underserved niche or offering a truly innovative feature that solves a tangible problem in the job-seeking or hiring process more effectively than current solutions. Simply being another place to display a resume is unlikely to gain significant traction.