How to Write a CV Personal Statement: A Guide

Key Elements of a CV Profile

Picking the right balance of elements for your CV profile is crucial to making it concise, engaging and readable. Your personal statement should reflect your skills and experience, indicating that you have what it takes to do the job. However, it should also showcase some unique characteristics and strengths that set you apart from other candidates.

An effective, engaging CV summary should include a concise summary of your qualifications and mention relevant skills and experience. It should also demonstrate a track record of success and achievements. In addition, it provides a chance to showcase a unique value proposition to make your application stand out from the crowd.

The ideal CV personal statement is no longer than two to three sentences. It can be a challenge to distill your qualities, achievements and experience into such a short paragraph, but it can prove a useful exercise in economy, requiring you to succinctly summarise your unique selling points for employers.

Personal statement vs CV summary and CV objective

A CV personal statement is a concise paragraph you can include at the top of your CV, which showcases your key skills, experience and achievements. The paragraph is typically no longer than three sentences, and is tailored to each specific job you apply for, to show the employer what you can offer in the role.

A personal statement is similar to a CV summary. There aren’t many discernible differences between the two, and both provide a brief insight into the skills and experience you can offer the employer. A CV objective is slightly different, as it’s more focused on your career plans and ambitions.

CV objectives can be more useful for junior and entry-level applications, where you don’t have much experience and are planning your career pathway. They can also be useful for career changes, or if you’re applying for a role at a more senior level than your current position. It can communicate your readiness to step up and your plans for the next stage of your career. A personal statement, on the other hand, is suitable for any stage of your career and focuses more on your unique skills.

Benefits of Including a CV Personal Statement

Your CV personal statement offers various benefits that can help your chances of success. Because hiring managers tend to spend so little time reviewing each CV, it’s crucial to capture their attention quickly. Your CV summary provides the opportunity to do this with a short, easy-to-read paragraph. If your CV personal statement is interesting and engaging, the reader is much more likely to continue to study your CV in depth.

Your CV summary or personal statement allows you to focus on what you consider to be your greatest strengths and qualities. Whether these are your qualifications, your skills, your experience or your personality, you can choose what you believe is most likely to make a positive impression with the hiring manager. Your statement can also help to differentiate you from other candidates as it’s one of the few sections of your CV where you can add personal opinion and insight. Without a personal statement, CVs can be dry, factual documents that are difficult for employers to distinguish between.

How to Write an Effective CV Profile

There’s an art to writing an effective CV profile or personal statement. It requires practice to create one with a minimum word count and a maximum impact. Take a look at these tips for creating the ideal CV personal statement for every job application:

Tailor your CV profile

The first thing to note is that the most effective personal statements are tailored for each specific job application. It’s impossible to write a personal statement that you can re-use for every job application, without drastically compromising its effectiveness. You might have a basic form and structure ready, and your statement might be similar between applications for similar roles, but be prepared to edit, tweak and amend your statement for every single application.

When writing your personal statement, firstly read the job description and make sure you understand the key requirements for the role. This will help you decide what to focus on in your paragraph. The job description should contain a list of essential and desirable skills and experience. Match these with your own experience to decide what to mention in your profile. 

Use action verbs

Use action verbs to give your statement a punchy, purposeful tone. For example, instead of writing ‘I’ve worked as a manager for a financial consultancy firm’, write ‘led a dynamic team of financial consultants’. As well as creating greater impact, this can help you to keep your statement focused and concise.

Mention the target company

One of the most powerful things you can do in your CV profile is mention the target company by name. This shows you’ve tailored your CV personal statement specifically for the role. You can easily reference the company name in the part of your profile where you state your reasons for applying and ambitions for your career. Try referencing the reputation of the company, its standing in the industry or its track record as a good employer. This will show you’ve done your homework on the company and have valid reasons for applying to work there. 

Keep it original

You might have space to mention one or two key skills, achievements and experiences in your statement. While you’ll want to make sure your profile mirrors the job description, you’ll also want it to appear fresh, original and unique to your skill set. So make sure you strike a balance between the key requirements for the role and your own strongest features, leaving some space to mention a unique quality or achievement that sets you apart from the competition.

Choose a narrative voice

A stylistic decision for your CV profile, and the rest of your CV, is which type of narrative voice to use. First person or third person are the typical choices. First person is where you refer to yourself as ‘I’, followed by the appropriate verbs (for example, I am a qualified accountant…’), while the third person uses your name, followed by the matching verbs (for example, ‘Amelia Dimmock is a qualified accountant’). Whichever you choose, remember to be consistent with it throughout your profile and CV.

Another option is to use silent first person, which omits the ‘I’ pronoun (for example, instead of writing “I am a qualified accountant with 10 years’ experience’, you simply write ‘qualified accountant with 10 years’ experience)’. This is typically the cleanest, most suitable narrative voice for your CV, as employers won’t expect you to write in complete sentences using pronouns throughout your application.

Quantify your achievements

As with every section of your CV, it’s essential to provide evidence to support the claims you make in your personal statement. Consider adding numbers, percentages or specific outcomes that showcase the skills and achievements you’re highlighting in your profile and demonstrate the impact you’ve made. Think about the most impactful statistic or outcome you could mention in your CV to prove your worth to employers, and reserve this for your CV personal statement.

Recommended length and structure

The ideal CV profile is a short paragraph of no more than 50 words. The typical structure is two to three sentences. In the first sentence, mention your job title, years of experience and one key skill or quality (for example, ‘An innovative product designer with 16 years’ experience at an award-winning design agency’). In the second sentence, reference one or two additional skills and career achievements. Finish with the third sentence, outlining what type of role you’re seeking, why you’re applying or how the role fits with your career ambitions.

Formatting tips

Use a clear, professional font and ensure the line spacing makes the paragraph as easy-to-read as possible. If you choose to use coloured text or a coloured background, make sure there’s a strong contrast between the two, as this makes it easier to read. Leave white space around the CV profile paragraph to distinguish it from other sections and enhance the overall look and feel of the CV.

"There’s an art to writing an effective CV profile or personal statement. It requires practice to create one with a minimum word count and a maximum impact."

Examples of CV Profile

Below you can find some examples of CV personal statements to use as inspiration. Remember, it’s important to tailor your CV summary or personal statement for each job application. Even similar jobs or identical job titles require a tailored approach to your personal statement and CV as a whole. Different employers might favour different skills and experience, or they might be searching for the right candidate to fit into their team, the dynamic of which may differ from that of their competitors.

Below you can find several example CV profiles, including for various types of jobs, and different career situations. You will also find a comparison between an effective and ineffective CV profile, so you can see the difference:

Customer service CV profile

Managerial CV profile

Human resources CV profile

Supply chain CV profile

Career change CV profile

Entry-level CV profile

Return to workforce CV profile

Effective vs ineffective CV profile

Here are two example CV personal statements for accountant applications. The first includes several common mistakes or ineffective elements, which are corrected in the second example:

Example 1:

Example 2:

In the examples above, you can see an ineffective CV profile versus a more effective version. Note some of the features of the ineffective version:

• Non-specific language
• Uses clichés
• Focuses on responsibilities, not achievements
• Fails to offer evidence of impact
• Mentions what the company can do for them, not the other way round

Meanwhile, the effective version has these features:

• Is specific about experience and skills
• Uses clear, professional language that’s free from cliché
• Focuses on achievements
• Provides evidence to support claims
• Mentions what they can offer the company

Common Mistakes to Avoid in a CV Personal Statement

If you want to write a CV summary that makes a positive impact and improves your chances of progressing to a job interview, take a look at these common mistakes to avoid:

1. Writing a generic or vague summary: it’s almost impossible to make a strong impact by using the same summary for every job application. Read and understand the job description, and tweak and edit your CV personal statement accordingly. This means every CV summary is tailored to the job spec, as well as keeping the content fresh and up-to-date.
2. Including irrelevant information: your CV personal statement should be distilled to the most essential skills, experience and achievement. Every sentence and, indeed, every word of it should be designed for maximum impact. If your profile is too long, or it includes information that’s not strictly relevant to the job in hand, your chances of success may be compromised.
3. Focusing too much on personal objectives: you might want to mention your own personal ambitions and career objectives in your statement. This can be powerful, especially for junior roles where you don’t have lots of relevant experience. However, as you gain more experience, this becomes less useful. Concentrate on highlighting your relevant skills, experience and achievements.
4. Overusing buzzwords or clichés: it’s important to ensure the content of your personal statement shows how you meet the job description. However, avoid buzz words, industry jargon and clichés as much as possible. Use original language and make sure your statement demonstrates what makes you a perfect and unique candidate for the job.

Key Takeaways for Writing Your CV Personal Statement

A strong CV personal statement can make or break your chances of successfully passing to the next stage of the recruitment process. Write your summary with the job description in mind and focus on highlighting two or three key skills, experiences and achievements. Make sure you tailor your profile for every job description for maximum impact. A well-designed CV can help your personal statement to stand out. CVwizard offers a range of CV templates and resources to help you craft a winning CV. Sign up and follow the simple steps to create a professional-looking CV today.