ow to write CV profiles,

personal statements, career

aims and objectives.

A Career Aim, Personal Statement or Profile can be a useful way of

flagging an interest and skills for a particular career on your CV,
particularly if you have no relevant degree or work experience to give
your CV focus. When profile is used used on this page it can be
assumed that personal statement could have been used in its
place. A profile is only part of a CV so this section should be read
in conjunction with our CV examples.

What do you call it?

My own
CAREER PERSONAL PROFILE? preferred title
OBJECTIV is simply:
E? PERSONAL STATEMENT?
PROFILE
CAREER KEY ATTRIBUTES?
AIM?
ABOUT ME
CAREER
ASPIRATI
ON?

CAREER
GOAL?

Focuses Focuses on your skills & short

on the achievements. and to
type of the
work you Tells an employer who point.
wish to you are and what you can
get into. do for them. contain
sa
Steer away from vague sentenc
skills such as e or
communication, two
about
Focuses more on the the typ
specific competencies such e of
 work
you
are
aiming
for.

a few
lines
about
the
attribu
tes
which
make
you
suitabl
e for
the
as persuading and
role.
negotiating, lateral
thinking, time
You can
management, planning, d
even ca
ecision-making, business
ll it
awareness and the other
nothin
skills on our skills pages.
g at
all. If
it's in
the
usual
place at
the
start of
the CV
you can
just
have an
un-
named
paragra
ph.

Is it necessary?
 It's not necessary to have a profile but if you do, it must
be lively and succinct!

The information can be included as part of your covering

letter instead.

It can be a useful summary particularly if you are sending your

CV to recruitment agencies where a letter may become
detached.

They tend to be most used and effective for fields where

there is a lot of competition for places and your CV really
needs to stand out from the
crowd: PR, advertising, management consultancy, the
media, events management and similar fields.

Are personal statements a waste of space?

Why employers think the personal statement is more

important than qualifications

What is the difference between a personal

statement and a covering letter?
A profile is a short introduction to your CV, whereas a covering
letter is a one page letter going into much more detail about why
you are suitable for a specific job and organisation. There will
inevitably be some overlap in content, so try to write any similar
content using different words (use a thesaurus) and from a slightly
different perspective.

Because your profile will be on all your CVs, you normally just
mention the particular job sector you are applying for jobs in (e.g.
publishing). A covering letter is normally used to apply for a specific
advertised vacancy and so will focus on a particular job (e.g.
editorial assistant in a particular publishing company). Sometimes
you may send out a speculative covering letter with your CV and
here the focus will be broad, just like in the profile, as you don't know
which jobs might be available.

Profile Content Covering Letter Content

State the JOB State the JOB youre applying

SECTOR youre for e.g. editorial assistant.
applying for e.g.
publishing Where you found out about
 Summarise it (advert in The Guardian
your strengths. newspaper etc. - organisations
like to know which of their
When you're advertising sources are being
available to start successful)

When you're available to

start work (and end if it's
a placement)

Why you're interested in that

type of work

Why the company attracts

you (if it's a small company say
you prefer to work for a small
friendly organisation!)

Summarise your
strengths and how they might
be an advantage to the
organisation.

Relate your skills to the job.

Mention any dates that you

won't be available for
interview

Thank the employer and say

you look forward to hearing from
them soon.

What if I have no idea of what job I wish to

go in to?
In this case it might be better not to include a profile. An unfocused
profile is worse than none at all. However, a carefully worded
summary of your key strengths and attributes will enhance your CV.

How long should it be and where do you put

it?
No longer than six lines - some sites suggest a maximum
of 4 lines. It must be short and positive with your key
 strengths, skills, experience and interests. It is mean to be an
appetiser rather than to give the employer indigestion! The
time to elaborate and give evidence for these is later in the CV.

Place it at the start of the CV. Recently I've seen some CVs
with the statement half way through the CV or at the end. This
seems to defeat the object, which is to give a concise
introduction to your aims and skills.

Start with a short description: "A highly motivated graduate

who has just completed a Law degree at the University of Kent"

When badly written, they are vague with sweeping

generic statements: "I have
good teamworking and communication skills" sends selectors to
sleep as it appears so regularly.
Use a Thesaurus or see our Skills Map for better words to
use!
Learn to use action words to brighten up the content.

Analyse your core strengths. A profile is a sales tool: a

concise summary of why they should take you, so you should
include brief details of your major selling points, especially
those that are important in the job you are applying to.

CVs sent to recruitment agencies can benefit from a

statement as a covering letter may become detached. Some
agencies send you for unsuitable jobs and a career aim can
help to prevent this. However the career aim here needs to
be fairly broad or you may get submitted for few vacancies.
Avoid Buzzwords!
Buzzwords make you sound like just another faceless candidate, a
plastic applicant with no real personality who just cuts and pastes
from other people's CVs. According to a survey by LinkedIn here are
the top 10 overused buzzwords used in LinkedIn Profiles in the USA in
2010

1. Extensive experience
6. Proven track record
2. Innovative
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
3. Motivated
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial
4. Results-oriented

5. Dynamic

In other countries extensive experience was most used in the USA,

Canada, Australia, dynamic was most common in Brazil, India,
Spain, motivated was the most common one in the UK whereas
in France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, innovative ruled the roost.
For more about this see the LinkedIn Article Stop Using These 16
Terms to Describe Yourself
The 2013 list of overused buzzwords in order were: Responsible,
Strategic, Effective, Creative, Innovative, Expert, Positive,
Passionate, Driven, Dynamic

THE GOOD ......

The Profile normally
AMY BUCKSHEATH starts straight after the
personal details on the
14, Wychurch Road, Canterbury, Kent.
CV (these will be missed
CT2 7SJ.
out in all the other
examples to save space.
Tel. 01227 - 764521 email
See our CV examples to
ab999@kent.ac.uk
see how the profile fits in
with the rest of the CV.)
Profile
An adaptable and responsible graduate Clear career aim and
seeking an entry-level position in public evidence of some
relations which will utilise the involvement in PR
organisational and communication skills related activities whilst
developed through my involvement at university. This is
with Kent Rag and promotional work informative, factual and
during vacations. focused on the job in
question and gives
During my degree I successfully information that
combined my studies with work and encourages the reader to
other commitments showing myself to delve further into the CV.
be self-motivated, organised and
capable of working under pressure. I "Successfully combined
have a clear, logical mind with a my studies with work and
practical approach to problem solving other
and a drive to see things through to commitments". Public
completion. I enjoy working on my own Relations is largely
initiative or in a team. In short, I am about juggling lots of
reliable, trustworthy, hardworking and different tasks
eager to learn and have a genuine successfully, so this is an
interest in PR. important piece of
evidence that she will cope
Education ........ (CV with the demands of the
continues here) job

Summarises key
attributes that make her
suitable for PR
jobs: initiative,
 drive, team-player,
hardworking, meticulous,
motivated.

Nice snappy ending to

the profile

This statement is very

THE AVERAGE ......
Personal Statement
I am an energetic and enthusiastic
person who enjoys a challenge and
achieving personal goals. My present
career aim is to work within IT because
I enjoy working with computers, I
enjoy the environment and I find the
work interesting and satisfying. The
opportunity to learn new skills and
work with new technologies is
particularly attractive to me.
bland: too vague and
makes broad general
statements.
This is a good example of
where it would be better
to use no statement at
all as it adds nothing to
the CV. If you are not sure
leave out the profile and
use your covering
letter to sell your skills
instead.

It should
AND THE UGLY! be Personal Statement
NOT Personnel!
Personnel Statement
I am a dynamic individual with CoMunication is spelt
excellent teamworking and wrongly here - should be
comunication skills. coMMunication.
I would like job in business.
Avoid hackneyed
phrases such as "I have
good communication
skills and work well in
a team" They sound
vague and vacuous, send
selectors to sleep.

A very vague career

aim.

Statements such as "I

am a dynamic
 individual" can sound
arrogant unless well
written, and more
importantly backed up
with evidence later in the
CV, otherwise they can
sound just like hot air!
Although see
our Confident Covering
Letter to see how this
strategy can be made to
work effectively

MORE EXAMPLES

Profile
I am looking for management training
which offers me the opportunity to Fairly broad career
develop new skills while strengthening objective: she's trying to
those I already possess. keep her options
open here.
My degree in History has enabled me
to develop good organisational skills, Sells the skills she has
an analytical/logical approach to tasks gained in her degree.
and the ability to work under pressure.
I am able to work well both on my own Summarises her main
initiative and as part of a team. strengths and relates
these to her work
My main strengths are adaptability, experience.
dependability and the determination to
get a job done as proven by my varied Nice last line about self
work experiences in retail, catering, improvement. Employers
hospitality work, teaching and patient particularly like graduates
care. I try to learn something new from who are up for new
every experience because I believe challenges.
there is always room for self-
improvement both personally and
professionally.

This focuses on the

About Me applicant's disability, but
I have a visual impairment (full details rather than deterring the
are available on request), but this has selector, it sells the skills

not in any way prevented me from
successfully completing a demanding
degree course and further education
qualifications. Far from being a
disadvantage, this has increased my
awareness of the needs of others and
has increased my determination to
succeed and to persevere when
obstacles are placed in my path.
she has gained from
overcoming her disability ;
awareness of the needs of
others, determination
and perseverance. It is
short, to the point and
effective.
Interesting title: About
Me. This is a more
informal title that might
work well in the creative
and media fields.

Personal Statement
A graduate with strong communication
and organisational skills gained in
nursing, now seeking to move into a
career as an analytical chemist. Whilst
my degree is in forensic science a large
majority of the course consisted of
chemistry, as highlighted by the list of
modules completed on my course
shown below. I feel I have learned
more than just the theory behind
Forensics but also many fundamental
skills for my career and life.

As I am a mature student I have other

qualities to bring to the work place
such as good team work, organisational
skills, efficiency and I am very
meticulous, I show pride in all the w