How To Write A Personal Statement For Your CV?
The personal statement of a CV, also known as the career objective, personal profile, or professional profile is an invaluable part of a resume that many job applicants miss by a mile.
It is a concise paragraph placed at the top of the document, right below the name and contact details. What’s the point? Well, it provides the recruiter with a compelling overview of you as a professional by discussing these three pivotal aspects:
- Who you are
- How befitting you are for the role and the value you can add
- Your career aims
How to Write a Personal Statement For Your CV?
At the outset, it might seem challenging to come up with an impressive personal statement to adorn your CV’s top. However, it is not as difficult as you might think. Just follow these easy steps:
- Thoroughly read the job advert and pinpoint the most important requirements and responsibilities.
- Write your CV by emphasizing the skills that give you an edge for the appropriate responsibilities of the job.
- Take the best of the bunch: find the most competent and impressive wins from your CV and frame your personal statement using them all!
The ingredients for a stellar personal statement
Keep your personal statement brief
What should be the word count of a personal statement in a CV? A single paragraph of 30 to 80 words is idyllic. That means about 3 to 6 sentences.
Include the best of your most relevant skills and accomplishments, and don’t repeat yourself. Each word in the personal statement of your CV should be worthy of its spot!
Quantify your achievements
Employers love seeing systematic, measured, and well-defined proof of the skills or accomplishments you mention in your CV. Here are some examples regarding the metrics for your personal statement:
- Did you save your previous department money? How much?
- By what margin did you boost the revenue or sales?
- How large were the financial accounts you have handled?
- How many subordinates have you supervised or trained?
- What is the percentage of the objectives that were met within the target time under your oversight?
Avoid clichéd terms, slang, and buzzwords
To describe yourself, avoid phrases such as:
- A hard-working team player
- Go-getter
- Synergy
- Thinking outside the box
- Go-to person
- Dedicated hustler
- Workhorse
Always use the keywords from the description of the relevant job advert.
Do not use pronouns
Even though while writing a CV, both the first and the third person are acceptable, yet the secret to writing a winning personal statement for a CV is removing the use of pronouns completely. You don’t have to use I, he, or she because their use is implicitly assumed. After all, you’re drafting a CV about your skills and qualifications.
Let’s bring to the fore this line from a CV’s personal statement: “I managed the financial details of more than 1,000 employees.”
It’s a great line that’s written in the first person and promotes large-scale management qualities. You could also write like: “He managed the financial details of more than 1,000 employees.” This is fine as well, but sounds a little odd and might raise some eyebrows depending on the geographical location or demographics of a place.
However, if you remove the pronouns entirely, you get a line that reads: “Managed the financial details of more than 1,000 employees.” This wording is more concise and also helps you avoid being repetitive by using “I did this” or “I did that” multiple times.
Using these four key ingredients, you’re all set for writing a splendid personal statement for your CV!
Why is it Crucial to Add a Personal Statement to Your CV?
By now, you already know how to write a personal statement. But what’s the reason — the motivation behind writing it?
Several studies show that recruiters spend only about 7 seconds reviewing a CV before concluding whether the candidate is a good fit for their requirement/s.
Sitting at the top, the personal statement is the first section recruiters will lay their eyes on. If it is tailored specifically to the job you’re applying for, and effective enough to successfully demonstrate your suitability for the position, you will immediately be seen as the right match — which earns your CV the chance to be thoroughly read.
The lack of a personal statement in a CV means that the hiring manager will need to read through the entire document to determine your appositeness for the job. Instead of dedicating several minutes of their time analyzing your resume, the harsh reality is, the recruiter will simply move on to the CV of the next applicant.
So, to set yourself apart from the competition and make your resume stand out, you need a powerful personal statement in your CV!
