How To Write A Personal Profile: 7 Tips + Examples

When a hiring manager first receives your resume, they spend 6 to 10 seconds reviewing it. Given this short attention span, you should use every opportunity to make the most prominent skills and achievements noticeable at the first sight. A personal profile, also known as career summary, helps you do just that. This short section at the top briefly outlines your years of experience, skillset and achievements. It is meant to grasp the recruiter's attention and inspire them to read the entire resume.

Personal profile writing is confusing for many reasons. Some job-seekers use it to reiterate their skills and experience once again. Others fill it with unnecessary self-descriptions like proactive, motivated, hard-working. In today's article, our resume writers are going to share tips for writing a persuasive profile that sparks interest and draws attention to your strengths as an employee.

Want a flawless resume by tomorrow? Professional and certified writers of Resumeperk.com can assist with writin of your CV personal profile as well as other resume sections. A writer works on resume content, design and keywording, and is open to your comments and suggestions. We work with English-speaking writers only and can develop your brand-new custom resume within 24 hours.

Do you need a resume personal statement?

Does every job-seeker needs a personal profile? If you open some career blogs on the internet, you will find that the opinions vary. However, our resume writing agency with 12+ years of experience recommends that you always include a personal statement. It gives you a priceless opportunity to summarize what's unique about you as a candidate and how your superstrengths are relevant to the job.

There are exceptions, though. A recent graduate or a person switching careers will benefit more from a resume objective. Unlike a CV profile, objective statement is focused on the person's career goals and what they plan to bring to the table if hired. If you lack experience in the target field, you probably don't have much to brag about in a personal profile. In this case, you use an objective to focus on transferable skills and explain how you can benefit the employer.

The elements of a strong CV profile section

3-5 sentences in length

Personal statements are meant to be concise. Their goal is to briefly market your skillset and professional highlights. Since the resume has a 2-page limit, keep the profile to 3-5 sentences and bullet points. Such a strict limitation requires the ability to prioritize facts and determine what's most valuable for your target position.

Tailor it to your desired job

Effective resume writing requires targeting, and a personal statement is no exception. Remember to slightly target the skill set and qualifications you describe in a summary. Different employers want different work expeirence and specialization, and personal profiles should reflect that. Targeting a personal profile every time may sound daunting, yet, this is the only working strategy to pass the ATS and get noticed.

Speak through facts and evidence

Saying that you are highly skilled and have great communication skills is the easiest thing to do. Yet, recruiters want facts and evidence. Instead of saying you have strong sales skills, write "Awarded Regional Sales Manager multiple times". Instead of claiming that you're a proven leader, say "Led a team of 30+ software developers with 100% of deadlines met". Facts sound more persuasive and draw more attention.

Include valuable educational credentials

Apart from workplace accomplishments, academic achievements also worth of your attention. If you have a degree from prestigious school, a certification which is valued high in your industry, or were awarded for superior academic performance, mention it in your CV personal profile. This is particularly important for entry-level professionals who don't have much career accomplishments yet.

Use context

Context and details can say a lot about our experience to a recruiter. Simply writing that you're a marketing professional sounds somewhat vague. If you write that your work experience encompasses employment with small marketing agencies where you completed projects for large manufacturing customers, it would be a better example. If such context meets what the employers is looking for, you'll have a better chance for an itnterview.

Insert high-value keywords

Since the profile is placed at the top of your CV, keywords you use here will value more than the keywords at the bottom of the page. Review the job description to understand what qualifications the company seeks in the first place, and use them. Don't staff the entire section with keywords, though - you write for human recruiters in the first place!

Proofread carefully

Hiring managers don't tolerate typos and grammar mistakes. 59% of them will reject a resume with typos. So, it's a good idea to proofread the document paying special attention to CV personal statement. Read the document aloud to faster identify issues or use an online spell checker to get rid of typos, poor punctuation and incorrect grammar.

CV personal profile examples

To get inspired for writing, take a look at examples of personal profile below:

Software Engineer CV profile example:

Enthusiastic Software Enginer with 7+ years of experience in website and commercial application development. Experienced in advanced software development methodologies and processes that contribute to application design as well as in identifying process bottlenecks. Has a track record of reducing downtime by 20% while ensuring that 100% of projects are completed ahead of time.

Office Manager CV personal statement example:

Result-oriented Office Manager with 3+ years of experience handline a wide range of administrative, supervisory and executive support tasks. Extensively experienced with budgets, payroll, and capable of meeting office organization needs as well as offering cost-effective, innovative solutions to employer challenges. Ensures compliance with organizational goals while coordinating resources and boosting team productivity. In a previous role, researched new office supplies vendor, reducing expenses by 15%.

What not to include in your personal profile?

To compose a powerful personal statement, try to avoid the following common mistakes:

• Don't copy and paste job descriptions from experience section. CV profile is meant to summarize what you have to offer a potential employer, not to repeat the same content that a recruiter can find below in a resume.

• Don't include personal information. If you mention age, marital status or personal reasons why you want to work for a company, they won't accept your resume. Include professional-related information only if you want an interview.

• Don't overuse buzzwords. Adjectives like hardworking, team player, organized, able to work under pressure, enthusiastic sound like buzzwords to recruiters. Use self-descriptions carefully and try to rely on facts.

• Don't list too many skills. If you include management skills, ability to work undependently, eye for detail, project management, conflict resolution and other skills in a row, this will spoil the impression. Choose 2-3 skills and prove them with examples.

• Don't lie! Of course, you may write that you have a degree from Stanford, but the truth will reveal after a simple background check. Don't risk your reputation and only write true facts.

How to write a LinkedIn personal statement?

If you use LinkedIn profile for job search, avoid copying and pasting text from your CV profile. LinkedIn summary should be written a bit differently. Here's how:

• Write 2-4 short paragraphs. Unlike the resume, LinkedIn personal statement doesn't have length limitations. Thus, you can go into deeper detail about your extensive experience or particular skills and interests.

• Use the first person. Resume is written in third person, and a CV profile is no exception. On the contrary, you need to use the first person in LinkedIn summary. Otherwise, you will sound too formal.

• Write as you speak. Since LinkedIn is a social media, you needn't use formal language that you've used on a resume. Instead, use a conversational tone and write as if you were speaking to a colleague or a potential employer face-to-face.

• Show your character and hobbies. In addition to business achievements, skillset and career goals, show your personality as well. You may include a joke, list interests and hobbies, or show your personal qualities in other way.

• Add multimedia content. LinkedIn allows you to add videos, articles or images. Support your self-descriptions with evidence and attach any content that can tell more about you or serve as samples of your work.

Let our expert writer improve your resume

Our website has a team of 100+ writers who are ready to resolve your resume challenges anytime. Our writer can compose a persuasive CV personal profile, list work experience and education in a way that speaks to the needs of your target employer. We offer a customized resume service which means that a resume is created exclusively for you, and the writer keeps working until you are satisfied.

In addition to resume composition, we can help with a cover letter and LinkedIn profile development. We use the best key practices in resume development to help every candidate get noticed for their dream job. Any questions left? Contact our customer support via chat and receive an exclusive 20% discount off your order.