With the upsurge in online job applications, employers are increasingly requesting personal statements to accompany your CV. This can be a daunting task. Unlike a cover letter, the structure of this is undefined, as is the length in many cases. Essentially, you are asked to produce a freestyle piece of writing to persuade someone to offer you a job. You need to write an interesting piece that grabs and maintains the reader’s attention, while succinctly convincing the employer that you have the skills, qualities and experience they are looking for. In this article, our specialist consultant at PAGE AND STONE offers tips on how to structure and write an effective personal statement.
General points for personal statement writing
Keep an upbeat, optimistic tone throughout. Try to stand out (without being outlandish), and keep it an interesting read for your potential employer. The most effective personal statements will portray a motivated, ambitious, and hard-working character, but also someone people get along with. A common mistake is to write about yourself chronologically. It is important to remember that, unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the reader will even get to the end of the statement. Therefore, it is important to grab the employer’s attention immediately and impress them from the beginning. Keep your most impressive, recent and relevant achievements and experiences at the beginning of your statement. If they are impressed, they will keep reading and will get to other supporting aspects of your application later in the statement. Remember, wherever possible, to back up skills and qualities you are advertising about yourself with evidence from your experiences. Try to think out of the box with this – while your major achievements will be clear and the skills gained from these may be very obvious – sometimes vital skills and experiences are gained through less obvious moments in your career. While the best advice is to have your best achievements at the beginning, don’t forget to end on a high in your final paragraph!
The structure of a great personal statement
Begin with a high impact paragraph describing yourself concisely in as impressive terms as you can, while putting across your passion for the role you are applying for. Highlight your achievements, key skills and personal qualities in one or two sentences, and how you feel this matches the job. This should be followed by a short section describing why you want to do this job and what you hope to achieve in the position, as well as what you can offer to the company. It is advisable to mention how the position fits in with your overall career ambition.
Depending on the type of role you are applying for, it can be beneficial to begin with a paragraph detailing your most recent position or specific experiences or projects you have worked on and how this has shaped your specific skills or career motivations. This is particularly beneficial in the case where you are applying for a specialised role for which you have very relevant experience. A good example of this would be if you had taken on a project at your current employment and this has inspired you to move your career in that direction as a result. Whether you want to start like this depends very much on the job you are applying for.
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Where specific skills and personal qualities are required, you may need to think harder about the experiences in your career that developed your skills. Qualities such as communication, teamwork, multitasking, problem-solving and ability to work under pressure are commonly listed on person specification. You will need to provide evidence from your work experience that you have the listed skills. As mentioned previously, it can be beneficial to think beyond the obvious here, and consider times in your career or education where you have felt challenged, and how you gained personal qualities through this. Again, if you cannot find evidence for a skill or quality do not worry, just do your best to provide evidence wherever possible and always write positively.
Another high impact paragraph is required at the end. Here you need to succinctly draw together the key points you have made about yourself and summarise why you are the perfect person for the position. Highlight why you are valuable to the company and how the position is valuable for your career progression. Here can be a good place to describe where you see yourself in the future, leaving the impression that you are motivated to succeed and progress in your career.
Help is available!
To write a brilliant personal statement, you need to be a great writer and understand tricky writing techniques. Here at PAGE AND STONE, our highly skilled personal statement specialist can provide you with a great value consultation and editing service to make your personal statement the very best it can be. Contact info@pageandstone.com
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