The personal statement is a very important part of your CV. It is the first part of your CV which you can make or break your CV and whether an employer or recruiter reads on. It should summarise your skills and sell your skills to an employer making them interested and wanting to continue reading on through your CV.
Some top tips on how best to write your personal statement can be found below:
# Do it last
It’s best to write the whole of your CV allowing you to concentrate on your skills and qualifications and then go back to writing your personal statement when all the information you need is fresh in your mind. By doing it after will make it much easier in terms of thinking and recollecting about what you have been doing.
Related: Example Personal Statements
# Tailor it to a specific role or industry
It’s a good idea to have your personal statement section as the bit that you can change most easily and tailor this to specific jobs so that the employer or recruiter who is reading it immediately sees where you fit in with their company and their role.
# Keep it short and to the point
A personal statement is only meant as a short summary, it should be a few lines long or a couple of small paragraphs. You have your covering letter to be able to allow for further explanations so make sure you keep it short and to the point but covering the information you want an employer to read.
# Read the job description carefully before writing your personal statement
Make sure that your job description for the role you are applying for matches your personal statement. Try to use the same language they use and words that they use in the job description so that the employer or recruiter immediately sees a connection and feels that it is worth continuing to read.
Related: Top 10 Tips to Write a Personal Profile for Your CV
# Explain who you are within the personal statement
Who are you? What do you need them to know that would be valuable to their company and the job that they are trying to fill? Think what is going to give them the wow factor and think that you are right to be interviewed. You want to be invited to an interview so have a look at what other people who work there do and if you are like them and will fit in easily to a growing business.
# What can you bring to their company?
What relevant skills do you have that you can take to their company and how can you sum this up in a few words? You can probably get a lot of this from reading the job description properly but it is important that you know in your own mind exactly what you can do and what you think are the important things they are looking for in a new employee.
# What is your long term goal?
What are you looking to do long term? Does that fit in with the company plan from doing your research? Make sure after doing your research you know where the company is going, look at how they have grown in the past, what areas they are looking to continue growing and how you feel that your long term plans will fit into that. They will not want to employ someone who is going to outgrow them quickly.
# What major achievements have you had?
Have you had any major achievements that you are proud of and that you strived to achieve? If you do and these are relevant to an employer then make sure that you include these in your personal statement when you are summarising your work skills that you think a company will be interested in.
# Read it out loud or get someone to proof read it for you
By reading your personal statement out loud or getting someone to read it through for you, it makes sure that you have not made any mistakes and that by getting a second opinion they are able to read it like an employer would do and you can hear how it sounds. It’s always good to double and triple check work but this is a very important document and one that you do not want to get wrong if you want to have a good job.
