Writing a Strong Personal Statement for Your CV
A personal statement, otherwise known as a personal profile, professional summary or CV summary, is the opening paragraph which sits at the top of your CV. It is a short introduction which informs recruiters who you are, showcases the skills and qualities you possess and provides a brief overview of your career history. Including a personal statement in your CV can help you stand out from the competition and grab the attention of recruiters.
What is a CV personal statement?
Your CV personal statement is a key part of your job applications, and helps to provide a concise, attention-grabbing introduction to your CV. The statement is typically a short paragraph that sits at the top of your CV, below your contact details, and outlines your experience, your skills, your achievements and your career ambitions. The reader should be able to glance at your personal statement and immediately start to form an opinion about your suitability for the role.
The importance of including a personal statement in your CV
A personal statement is an important part of your job applications. Along with contact details, work experience, education and skills, this section is one of the essential elements to include in a CV. The statement should be carefully crafted to draw the reader in and encourage them to study your CV in greater detail.
Do you need to include a personal statement in your CV?
On average, recruiters spend 5-7 seconds scanning your CV which is not a lot of time to impress them. Many CVs consist of generalised lists that say nothing about the candidate or why they’re applying for the job. By adding a personal statement to your CV, you stand out from the crowd and show recruiters a bit of your personality.
Personal statements can be particularly handy for competitive industries or for jobs where there are many candidates. As recruiters have to browse through many CVs, they may just skim over yours, unless there is something to grab their attention.
They’re also useful if you have a broad career history. A personal statement can tie those disparate experiences together and help prospective employers understand how your skills match their desired criteria.
On the other hand, if you have little to no experience, it may be best to save this space for a CV objective. While it shares similarities with a personal statement, a CV objective is usually only one to two sentences in length and focuses more on your career goals.
Structure and Content of your personal statement
Many people struggle to write a personal statement. The important thing to remember is that you don’t have a lot of space to go into detail. To give your personal statement some structure, it can be helpful to break it down into the following three sections:
- Who you are
- Your career goals
- What you can offer your prospective employer
Who you are
This section allows the recruiter to quickly identify your background and industry experience. Reference your profession or job title, as well as an indication of your experience levels. You could introduce the paragraph with one or two of your key skills or qualities. For example, you may state that you’re:
‘A dedicated, flexible project manager with 10 years’ experience,’
or:
‘A recent graduate with a 2:1 in Modern Foreign Languages from the University of Sussex seeking a role in…’
What you can offer your prospective employer
Next, you’ll need to hone in on what you can offer your prospective employer. Here, you’ll want to highlight skills and achievements relevant to the job description and to back these up with evidence. For example:
‘Managed a team of 12 business strategy consultants, increasing productivity and efficiency levels across local government, health services and other public organisations.’
If you don’t meet all the criteria for the role you’re applying for, you may want to draw attention to transferable skills which demonstrate why you’re a suitable candidate. For example:
‘Having lived and worked abroad, I am fluent in French and German, and can confidently use my language skills in a professional environment.’
Your career goals
The last section of your personal statement should conclude with your career goals and reaffirm why you’re applying for the role. This is particularly useful for junior or entry-level candidates, who might lack relevant work achievements to mention in their personal statement, but have clearly defined ambitions for their career. For example, it may read:
‘I am seeking a role in the translations industry that complements my language skills.’
Or:
‘Seeking to progress in my career as a management accountant with greater client contact and opportunities to contribute towards business development.’
Formatting your personal statement
Your personal statement should be a short, snappy paragraph that’s easy to read and summarises your experience, your skills and your ambitions. Aim for no more than three sentences and place your personal statement at the top of your CV, directly under your header with contact details. Use a clear, readable font that’s consistent with the rest of the document. Adopt left-aligned text and make sure your line spacing makes the paragraph as readable as possible. 1.15 or 1.25 line spacing is typically the most suitable.
CV personal statement examples
Take a look at these complete examples for inspiration on how to write your own CV personal statement:
‘Driven, dynamic sales manager with eight years’ experience in software start-ups. Developed sales strategies and led teams of up to 10 sales executives, with a track-record of sales worth an average of £8 million annually and consistent repeat business. Seeking a fresh challenge with an innovative software firm that supports career progression opportunities.’
‘Enthusiastic post-graduate ICT student with strong UX development skills and knowledge of Python, JavaScript and other languages. A strong team player with excellent creative, problem-solving and analytical skills. Seeking opportunities to develop useful and usable apps and websites that create great customer experiences for major brands.’
‘A flexible, approachable customer service executive with a track-record of delivering outstanding outcomes for major retailers. Developed customer service and complaints strategies for national supermarket chains, increasing satisfaction and brand loyalty rates by up to 18%. Searching for roles that offer the opportunity to explore emerging customer service technologies for an enhanced consumer experience.’
Tips for the perfect CV personal statement
Tips for a powerful personal statement
- keep it short
- write using ‘I’ statements
- identify your key strengths
- quantify your achievements
- tailor it to each application
- make it easy to read
- proofread it
Keep your personal statement short
The ideal personal statement captures your experience and skills in no more than 50-200 words. Consider it the written equivalent of an elevator pitch, designed to spark your recruiters’ interest so that they’ll want to read the rest of your CV. As you’ll have plenty of space in your cover letter to elaborate on any points, your personal statement should only provide recruiters a quick summary of your career history.
Write using ‘I’ statements
Your personal statement is about yourself, so make it personal! Writing about yourself in the third person, i.e. “he” or “she” can sound pretentious and come across as distant.
When you write in the first person, using ‘I’ statements, you add a personal touch to a CV which may otherwise consist of bullet-point lists. That doesn't have to mean starting every sentence with ‘I’, for example, you could write:
‘As a qualified project manager, I have consistently delivered complex projects within demanding time constraints.’
Identify your skills and achievements
When writing a personal statement, the tendency is to include generic statements which could describe any candidate. To help make your personal statement unique to you, start by identifying your skills and achievements.
One of the best ways to do this is to think about all the jobs you’ve had and ask yourself what difference you made to each employer. You could also dig out past reviews and appraisals to identify the objectives/skills for which you received positive feedback.
Quantify your achievements
Offer evidence to back up the claims you make in your personal statement, so employers can see the value you’ve added for previous employers. The section doesn’t allow you space to go into great detail about the impact you’ve made. However, if you can offer up one piece of evidence to showcase a particular success, or a key strength, it will help to make a positive impression on the reader. Remember to reference evidence of your impact and achievements throughout your CV.
Tailor your personal statement to each job application
In the same way that you would tailor your CV to each job you’re applying for, you’ll also need to tailor your personal statement. Look at the desired experience, skills and education in the ‘Requirements’ section of the job description and draw on examples of how you meet each criterion from your career history.
Make your personal statement easy to read
While your personal statement should be short, it should also be easy to read. Don’t make it another bullet-point list like the rest of your CV, but at the same time, avoid boring the reader with a mini-biography of your entire career history.
Recruiters have little time to spare and don’t need to know the ins and outs of every job you’ve ever had. Use specific keywords from the job description, include specific examples to help recruiters understand why you’re the right candidate and save details for your cover letter or interviews.
Proofread your personal statement
It’s worth proofreading your personal statement to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes and to make sure it flows well. Your personal statement is the first impression recruiters will have of you. If it’s littered with mistakes, it conveys a lack of attention to detail and doesn’t bode well for the rest of your CV.
You not only want to impress recruiters with your achievements but also your writing skills. A well-written personal statement demonstrates that you have good communication skills (without buzzwords!), and more importantly, ensures that recruiters won’t discard it at first glance.
CV personal statement mistakes to avoid
There are also several key mistakes people often make when writing a CV personal statement. If you can avoid these errors, you’ll have a better chance of impressing the reader:
Don’t use cliches or buzzwords
Avoid using jargon or buzzwords. There’s a reason that it’s called a personal statement! If you write that you’re a good team player, you have a strong work ethic or you’re an effective communicator, it’ll be more difficult to stand out from the crowd.
These are just empty phrases that don’t really tell recruiters who you are or what you can do. Instead, provide examples of how you’ve worked well in a team or communicated effectively. If you wouldn’t describe yourself as a ‘team player’ in real life, don’t do it in your CV.
Don’t make your personal statement too vague or generic
Be as specific as possible about your qualities, strengths and career ambitions. A vague, generic and directionless personal statement will be quickly forgotten and won’t do anything to help you stand out from other candidates.
Don’t use inconsistent tense
Keep the tense consistent throughout your personal statement, and across your entire CV. It’s up to you whether you write in the present or past tense, but switching between these throughout your personal statement can cause confusion for the reader.
Don’t make it too long
Aim to keep your personal statement short, punchy and to-the-point. Two or three sentences is usually a perfectly reasonable length for a personal statement. Any longer than this, and the paragraph will become harder to read and may lead to the reader becoming distracted. Writing a short personal statement will also help you to stay focused on the point and deliver an impactful paragraph, focusing purely on your most important strengths and achievements.
