This is the second in a series of posts about Careers in Racing and how to achieve your dream of working in the motorsports industry. Whether you’re interested in being a racecar driver, working in NASCAR garage or being in the front office, you can use the information from our Careers in Racing series to get you there!

One of the first and most obvious things you’ll need to do when applying for a racing job is create a resume. You probably already have one for internships, college application or real-world job, but I bet you haven’t thought about creating one online.

Having a web resume is one of the best ways of setting yourself apart from other applicants, and it will actually make it significantly easier to customize your resume when you go to apply for jobs. It also gives potential employers a way to get more in-depth information about you all in one place, and gives them a better feel for who you are beyond what you can put on paper. It also leaves you open to the possibility of getting noticed before jobs are even advertised or available – creating a pull effect instead of pushing your resume out to potential employers.

Creating your own website that will serve as a digital resume is surprisingly easy, cheap and painless. It should be simple, direct, well-edited and up-to-date, and you don’t need graphic design skills or loads of content. You’ll need three things to do this – a domain name, a web hosting company and a WordPress blog. Then, you’ll need to pick a WordPress theme and populate with content.

Check out the easy steps below for how to set it all up:

Step One – Purchasing a Domain Name and Web Host Services: We’re only going to cover one way of doing this because what we’ll describe is the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to go. Our web host, BlueHost.com is a one-stop shop for hosting services, domain names and WordPress setup, covered in the next step. Hosting with BlueHost is extremely reasonable at $6.95 per month, paid for annually with one payment of $83.40. Most companies will charge you upwards of $10 per month, and you don’t get all the bells and whistles like you do with BlueHost. If you are willing to commit to two years with BlueHost, which I definitely recommend, you’ll pay only $5.95 a month with one payment of $142.80.

Your domain name, if possible, should be your fullname.com. While it’s important for most websites to have a .com name to show up in search engines, it won’t be that important in this case because you won’t be trying to rank for keywords. If you can’t get your full name, try adding something fun and simple like iamfullname.com or thisisfullname.com. Signing up for BlueHost has another immediate advantage – your domain name will be free! You’ll save yourself a little chunk of change by hosting through BlueHost here, too.

Step Two – Install WordPress: Like I said earlier, I will be covering how to complete these steps if you host through BlueHost because of the ease and simplicity of the process.

Once you login into your Control Panel, you’ll see a box labeled SimpleScripts Installations (see photo). One of the options will be WordPress – select that. Choose “Install WordPress” and then you’ll have a few options. Choose the stable version of WordPress, which should be selected already. The next option you should also leave at the default – your domain name with the ‘www’. The only Advanced Option you should change is the user name and password. Otherwise, the install will randomly generate a password for you, which isn’t as easy to remember. Then, agree to the Terms and Conditions and you’re ready to go! The install will be complete in a matter of a few minutes at the most.

Step Three – Configure WordPress: It’s really up to you how much you want to customize your site. I strongly believe that simplicity is key because your site won’t look outdated as it ages, and you won’t have to re-design it multiple times. It will also appeal to more people if it is not design heavy.

Three things you’ll want to do is change the name of your ‘blog’ under Settings: General. I also suggest turning off comments under Settings: Discussion. Under Themes, you’ll want to select a simple, basic theme without a heavy graphic presence. One that I like in particular is Elegant Grunge – you can check out a sample site with this theme on the website for Kristin Swartzlander, a racing social media and marketing consultant.

I also suggest creating a page under Pages labeled Home. Then, under Settings: Reading, select “Static Page: Home” for the Front Page Displays option. That way, you won’t have a blog for your front page that dates the content. You’ll have a simple welcome, like on KristinSwartzlander.com, and the opportunity to host a blog, if that’s what you want, on another page.

Step Four – Add Résumé Content: Depending on how in-depth you want to get, you can add one additional page or multiple. To start out, you can copy and paste your current résumé onto a Bio or Résumé page, removing any personal information you don’t feel comfortable with sharing.

Simply including a list of completed school projects, updates on your Formula SAE team, job or internship experience and similar information will be plenty for viewers to keep up with on your site, and it’s a great way to add a personal level to what used to be a regular, one-dimensional résumé.

As always, please be sure to share only your basic information and not your address or phone number with the world for your personal safety.

Once you’ve created your personal website, feel free to share it in the comments section! And, of course, if you have questions please post below as well.