Your personal statement is possibly the most critical paragraph on your CV. This short opportunity to sell yourself needs to summarise your experience, your accomplishments, and what you can bring to the table in a new role. It may be brief, but it needs to be dynamic and proactive; something that is able to capture the attention of a potential employer quickly and ahead of all the others sitting in their inbox.
Without an engaging and relevant personal statement, recruiters and hiring managers may never get as far your skills, your employment history or see those achievements you have worked so hard for.
The latest in our CV essentials blog series addresses this most difficult, yet vital paragraph. We will give you hints and tips on how to write the perfect personal statement and why these methods are effective.
How do I write a great personal statement?
Keywords, not buzzwords.
These days, everyone is a ‘guru’, a ‘ninja’ or a ‘disruptor’. These Apprentice-esque buzzwords should be avoided in a CV personal statement. They mean nothing, lacking substance, relevance or professionalism.
On the other hand, keywords should be included. Keywords are the specific statements and required skills outlined in the job description.
Before you write your personal statement, you should read the job description thoroughly and pick out the keywords within it.
Including the keywords will ensure your CV passes the initial screening from the recruiting software and will also communicate that you understand the role and are able to deliver what is expected of you.
Be brief.
Your personal statement should be a maximum of 5 lines. It is an elevator pitch and needs to be concise and to the point.
If you are applying to a few different roles, it is advisable to compose the same number of personal statements; one for each role. Don’t try to be everything to everybody. Tailor your personal statement to allow brevity. If you try to write one blanket personal statement to cover the keywords in each job description you will fail to be succinct.
Use actionable stats.
Once your CV gets past the Applicant Tracking Software (ATS), your personal statement needs to sing; recruiters and hiring managers look at hundreds of CVs each day.
We would recommend using actionable stats and specific data from your employment experience to ensure yours stands out. These metrics give quantifiable results and tangible successes.
One reason doing this works is that quantifiable statistics provide a moving journey.
Name drop with a purpose.
If you have worked with, or for, a big name organisation, you may like to add this to your Personal Statement.
Remember though to only name drop with a purpose! Use the stats point above to help you here. It may be a good idea to add in metrics to help back up your results working with the big-name organisation.
Consider using bullet points.
If you struggle with writing articulate and concise full sentences, you may like to consider using bullet points to craft your personal statement.
Bullet points are reader-friendly, concise, and facilitate a results-driven opening introduction. It is for this reason that bullet points are often the preferred style of executive-level candidates and the consultants recruiting them.
But what do you include in your bullet list?
We recommend that you model it in a logical way. For example
Bullet 1 – Industry credentials
Bullet 2 – What you bring to the table
Bullet 3 – How you can help the business achieve its objectives, in relation to the role
Bullet 4 – A strong, relevant, and recent deliverable
Still struggling?
Here are some long-form and bullet point examples of personal statements.
“Scaleup veteran over 10 years, I am a strategic consultant with specialisms in fast-growth forecasting, initial finance, and operations function within SaaS, e-commerce, fintech, and blockchain businesses. I am a proven team leader building an FP&A function from scratch and leading my first hire to full CIMA qualification.”
Or,
“Target driven Sales executive with a 20 year sales record, growing (Company name)’s client base from 10 to 50 within one year. I increased sales by 40% through the implementation of a new lead qualification tool. As a confident networker, I bring effective relationships with key senior contacts in FTSE 250 organisations.”
Or,
- Sales Director within the travel industry with over 30 years’ expertise in the tourism and travel sector
- Can quickly identify your clients’ needs and provide a tailored service, increasing the pipeline to meet your operational objectives
- Strong track record in driving new customer leads, increasing sales revenue, client-focused account management, and people development
- Created and implemented a 3-year sales and marketing plan, achieving the target result of £26m
Takeaways.
- Buzzwords may be dynamic, but they are fluffy and generic. Instead, use Keywords that are information-dense and effectively communicate your understanding of the role.
- Don’t have a generic statement. It should be short, to the point, and specific to the role and company.
- Use quantifiable data to help tell your story. Using numbers makes a sentence less generic. Your achievements are given form by adding a value.
- Only name drop with a purpose.
- Consider using bullet points, especially for executive roles.
Can we help you?
If you found this piece on how to write your personal statement helpful, have a look through our back catalogue of employee advice blog posts. We cover everything from the 10 most common mistakes made on a CV through to the 10 most overused words on a CV, and what you could use instead.
Once your stellar CV has secured you an interview, we give you advice on how to ace a remote interview, and even give you examples for when your interviewer turns the tables and asks, “Do you have any questions for us?”.
We build digital careers, finding our incredible clients the tech, digital and data talent they need to propel their businesses to the next level. We can help you find the role to define your career.
