How To Write a Powerful Personal Statement on Your CV

Sometimes also called a personal profile or a CV summary, a personal statement distills your entire CV down into a short paragraph at the top of the page that contains your most important information and most impressive details. This article will cover several tips to help you write a compelling personal statement and boost your chances of scoring an interview. Need more help? Check out some CV examples for inspiration.

Describe Yourself

First, introduce yourself by describing your current job title or situation. You might say that you are a recent graduate looking for your first professional role in your field of study, or that you are an experienced project manager hoping to take on bigger and bolder projects. Or, you could say that you are seeking to make a career change, return to the professional world after raising your family, or otherwise summarize your current professional or educational situation.

Outline What You Can Offer a Company and Your Career Goals

Then, tell a potential employer exactly what you have to offer. This might mean detailing how many years of experience you have, any special certifications or honors that you hold, or just mentioning a few of your strongest skills. If you do not have a wealth of professional experience, you can lean on your academic achievements as well as your hard and soft skills.

Whether you are experienced or not, briefly outline your career goals as well, in terms of what you hope to gain from working at the company that you are applying to.

Highlight Your Biggest Wins

To really make your personal statement stand out to recruiters and potential employers, showcase your biggest wins and most impressive accomplishments from your current or past roles. Whenever you can, quantify these achievements with hard data to make them even more impactful.

For example, you might say that as a sales manager, you developed a new inventory technique that cut overhead costs by 35%. Or, perhaps you consistently exceeded the department sales goals by at least 20% each quarter and won the ‘Best Salesperson’ award twice as a result.

Tailor Your Personal Statement to Each Job Application

Finally, take the time to tailor your personal statement (and your entire CV) to each job application instead of using a generic CV. To do so, mention the company and the position that you are applying to by name in your personal statement. Also, look for keywords in the job description that indicate what the employer is looking for in a candidate, and use that same language in your CV. Address as many points from the job description as you can. This might include years of experience, certain hard and soft skills, certifications, language requirements, and/or degrees.

Tailoring your CV in this way shows potential employers that you took the time to carefully read the job description and create a customized CV and personal statement. It shows respect for their time and for the job application process, which in turn can boost your chances of being called for an interview, and, ultimately, of getting hired for the position.