Due to COVID-19, Taylor Pope and other Piedmont students were forced to present their symposium projects online this year.

As seniors graduate and look to enter a competitive job market, senior theater major Taylor Pope hopes an attractive website helps her stand out among the crowd.

“I think website design can really help anyone,” she said. “It is a good way to show you and your talents off without having to be face to face.”

Having a website can help people show more about themselves without having to go through an interview process, she said. A potential employer could go to your website and see all your accolades and credentials and know from there if they might be interested in hiring you. 

Another way website design could help is to demonstrate technological proficiency. Most companies have a website, but having a good looking, well organized website could help people navigate to where they need to go to find what they are looking for. If a website is too hard to navigate through, people likely will lose interest and go to another website, Pope said.

For Taylor, the reason she chose to present her website was for her professor.

“I chose to present this topic because my professor, Bill Gabelhausen, said that my website was very well done and recommended that I present at the symposium,” she said.

Gabelhausen said he was very pleased with Taylor’s presentation and thought it was very informative.

“Taylor is a great student and works very hard at professionalism and it shows in her website and through her presentation at the symposium,” said Gabelhausen.

Pope was very detailed about her website and gave plenty of good examples for others to use. 

Anyone can design a website, but making it professional is much harder and requires more attention to detail, Pope said.

She hopes her website will give her an edge when looking for a job, allowing her to showcase multiple abilities. “This website (gives) easy access for employers to see what you do and to be able to access it without having to email a bunch of files back and forth.”