www.yourkidsname.com

October 23, 2009 | 10 Comments

Focused

If you have kids that aren’t in high school yet, they’ll never need a resume.

Never.

Resumes are broken and they are dying (but not quickly enough).

By the time today’s 14-year old today starts a career, they will be judged more by their digital footprint and reputation than by a Word document outlining past job responsibilities.

So why don’t you own the domain name for all of your children?

For $10 / year (two Starbucks lattes) you can give your child the platform on which to build their personal brand. It could be a blog or pictures or even just a digital scrapbook or scratchpad. It will evolve. The point is not to make it perfect, it’s to realize that resumes and similar representations are going away quickly and a personal URL is flexible enough to be whatever the future requires.

[photo credit: Vince Alongi]

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/clayhebert clayhebert

    I would buy whatever name you think she's likely to go by. If you're unsure and they're available, buy whatever combinations you think she may use. $10 per year isn't much and you can always redirect those domains to the one she decides to use.

  • http://twitter.com/maniactive @maniactive

    Will personal branding issues change the way parents name their children?

    If a unique identity is important, will we assign more creative names and stray away from traditional first and family names?

  • http://twitter.com/bigyahu @bigyahu

    Pffft! I hope the next generation have smarter ways of bookmarking their online identity than owning a domain name. Domain names don't scale to millions of people all called John Smith and domain names can't be owned, only licensed.

  • Hoitomt

    Awesome Idea!
    Although I'm not sure the resume will die so soon, at least until our kid's generation ends up in hiring positions. It is still easier to sort through a stack of resumes; write notes and comments on the paper, and create 'good', 'bad', 'maybe', and 'hilarious' piles than doing anything similar online…. so far

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/clayhebert clayhebert

    Thanks, Paul!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/clayhebert clayhebert

    Both very good points. My point is just that a domain name is pretty flexible and a great place to start. People named John Smith could think of a unique URL. The important piece isn't the URL itself but the point that a digital footprint is way more important than a traditional resume.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/clayhebert clayhebert

    Hey Mike. I'll make you (another) bet. If Anna ever needs a resume in MS Word for a post-college job, you win the bet and I owe you TWO cases of the beer of your choice (at the risk of bankrupting myself, I love Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout).

    If she doesn't, I win the bet and we'll cancel out the "Drew Brees vs. Michael Vick, who will be a better pro QB" bet. I lost that one by a long shot.

    If Anna neve

  • http://bit.ly/steffansblog Steffan Antonas

    Clay – I actually know parents who have set up a facebook accounts for their newborns and have been posting baby pictures etc on them. Some people think it's odd. I think it's inspired. Squatting the domain name for their name is really smart parenting.