How to Write a Personal Profile
Are you familiar with personal profiles? Do you know to write a personal profile and make it effective? The key to a successful profile understands what a profile is and how to go about drafting an ideal one. A personal profile is a short statement that outlines your personal features or characteristics. It tells the target audience or the reader about your, the kind of person you are, your attributes and the qualities you possess.
- A personal profile also talks about your experience and a short summary of your career plans.
- It summarizes your credentials in terms of your work experience, qualifications and expertise
- Track record in terms of level of experience and achievements and
- Your aspirations in terms of the roles you play and those you are considering in different types of organizations
Besides writing a personal profile for a job, you can also write a profile for social media and networking sites including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
How to write a personal profile and tailoring it
One of the key strategies on how to write a personal profile is tailoring it for your employer and your role. This is done while highlighting important areas including areas and level of experience that is relevant to a specific job. Most importantly, it should be written to match your career aspirations or role on offer.
Many people are often tempted to write a generic personal profile just to see which employer will be interested in the experience they possess. However, it is imperative that you write a profile that
- Demonstrates you area of focus and target role of choice.
- Be clear on the range of organizations that you wish to work for.
- Highlight key areas of your expertise, qualifications and experiences that the employer you are eyeing is more likely to be interested in.
By doing so, your chances of attracting the attention of the employer are very high.
How to write a personal profile outline
A personal statement has a simple outline that includes the headline and the summary.
The headline
When writing a personal profile, draft a headline that is not more than 100 words long. In many cases, especially job personal profiles, it is essential to write a statement of 40 to 70 words long. In this case, ensure to start with a headline sentence that sums up your current career plan and your key experience. This can be challenging especially if you have been working for a long time.
Therefore, the key to writing an effective headline is to focus on what you can offer something that sets you apart from other job seekers or employees.
The Summary
The headline of your personal statement should be followed by a summary. This should be written in one or two sentences that give details of your achievements, interests and experience. To write an effective summary,
It is wise to focus on those aspects of your job experience and more specifically, those that are relevant to your target role
Focus on what will set you apart from the others in the field to get an edge over them
Ensure to include evidence of your skills and abilities
The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to writing a personal profile is concentrating on what you can offer to an organization. In this relevance, state this clearly and the direction in which you would love your career to move on.
How to write a personal profile – dos and don’ts
The Do’s
Always use the right tone and choose your words wisely. This will help you to write a personal profile in a positive manner that will also enhance the reader’s precondition.
Ensure your personal profile only has relevant and appropriate details
Keep your personal profile within the recommended length to avoid the risk of waffling
Be straight to the point
Focus on positive details
The Don’ts
Avoid pigeon holing yourself to one type of career or one type of person unless you wish to achieve only one specific goal
Master how to write a personal profile without including unnecessary details such as marital status and how long you have been without a job
Avoid going over to the top, instead, try to keep your profile simple, avoid negatives and more specifically in the opening paragraph.
It is equally important that you avoid buzzwords in your statement. This paints you as just another employee, a plastic job seeker who doesn’t have a real personality. Buzzwords create a negative impression about you, as a person who is only good in copy and pasting the CVs of other people.
How to write a personal profile – writing style
As earlier mentioned, it is always a plus to master how to write a personal profile that is effective. A personal statement should be concise for it to be effective. For this reason, avoid too much text as it acts as a large block that many readers tend to skip. Readers are always interested in catchy short bursts of details.
Therefore, when writing a personal statement, pass your message across to the reader in five lines. This makes the statement concise and not complicated.
Additionally, use the ‘‘smart’’ third person in your writing. It works effectively by making your profile one of a kind based on the fact that the tone is punchy and the first words used in smart third person writing is usually a verb.
Smart third person writing style also helps you to focus on your positives, the main idea and something that is complete and successful. It is also a very neat way of getting the desired information across to the target audience without making your statement too distant or personal.
The writing style also means that you eliminate at least one irrelevant word in your sentence and include a punch word in your profile.
How to write a personal profile and the things to mention
A personal profile features different categories hence the need to understand how to write a personal profile that paints the picture of who you truly are. For this reason, it is essential to include
Personal qualities in the statement such as self-motivated, adaptable, an eye for detail and creative among others
Skills– state your communication skills, managerial or management skills, design skills and problem solving skills
Experience-excellent track record, ten years in management, wide experience in ……and extensive background in…
As you write a personal statement, remember that this is not the place to seek sympathy or to be humble. This is usually your only opportunity to be noticed and tell a potential employer exactly who you are and why you deserve a chance in his or her organization. State what you can do for a potential employer and the value you can add to the organization.
Do not go over the top and avoid giving an impression of arrogance to a potential employer. The rule of thumb is to be honest, professional and to be true to yourself. All details in your profile should be short and straight to the point, relevant and can be backed up with details.
It is also imperative to place your statement just below your personal details even though this doesn’t really matter. Always remember to include it somewhere in your CV and in a logical manner.
Lastly, always go through your personal statement and ensure it fits your cover letter and resume. For this reason, take time to read over the statement to ensure it truly matches your experiences and skills stated in the cover letter and resume. Ensure the profile acts as a summary of your skills and your career objective.
Read your statement out to check whether it is flowing, whether the tone is professional and whether it is not too wordy.
Check for possible spelling, grammar and typo errors to ensure the statement you send to a potential employer is flawless.
Examples of Personal Profiles
Example 1…Fashion
An intelligent, responsible and experienced person in children fashion wears in small and large department boutiques. Adaptable, very creative and bright person with excellent eye for design and visual detail… For this and other great examples of personal profiles click on this link.
Example 2
Amy Bucksheath
14th, Wychurch Road, Canterbury, Kent. CT2 7SJ.
Tel. 01227-764521
Email..ab999@kent.ac.uk
Profile …Job Seeker
A responsible and adaptable graduate seeking a public relations entry level position which will utilize my communication and organizational skills developed through my experience with Kent Rag and promotional work during my vacations… Click here to view the whole personal profile and other examples.
Example 3…
Project Manager
I am an ambitious and energetic person who has developed a responsible and mature approach to any task that I undertake, or a situation that is presented to me. As a graduate with three years’ experience in management, I work excellently with others to realize set objectives at any given time and with a lot of excellence. Follow this link to view the above personal profile among other useful statements in various fields.
From the above tips, you should now know how to write a personal profile without any difficulties.
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Online Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/how-to-write-outstanding-cv-profile
http://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/how-to-write-a-personal-statement-for-your-cv
http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/CVProfiles.htm