CV Builder

Video Transcript: Personal Profiles

Narrator: In this video employers explain what they look for in a personal profile.

Dan Harris, MD, 1st Place: The question of personal profiles on CVs? They certainly do add value if they’re done well; done badly they can do a great disservice to the rest of what could actually be a good CV.

Louise Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer, Palm Tree: When you’re beginning your personal profile I would say “don’t cut and paste somebody else’s”, start with bullet points on who you are and ask your friends for some feedback and then make a paragraph that is really you.

Natasa Patterson, client Services Manager, Call Britannia: I’ve read many generic personal profiles to the point where I’ve thought I wish people didn’t do this. If one is to write a personal profile, why not make it personal? Why not talk about the person you are rather than the things you’ve done because the employer is going to read your CV anyway, they’re going to find out about what you’ve done, the experience you’ve had. Your CV is your pitch: you are selling the whole of yourself, so why not make it personal. I’d say that’s probably the best advice I’ve been given and the best advice I’d give to someone else. Say you’re bubbly, vivacious, what you enjoy, without revealing too much, but just enough to get them interested.

Dan Harris, MD, 1st Place: To make it specific to the role, or if you can’t do that, then the industry which you’re going for and amplify the points, which actually make you a stand-out candidate. Think of it as a synopsis for the start of a good book: summarise what’s going to be in the rest of the document and make the person reading the CV want to read on.

Clare McIntosh, Head of lateral Recruitment, Morgan Stanley: Your opinion of a personal profile changes depending on what it actually says. If it is very specific to what you’re looking for, so it highlights in a couple of lines that person’s experience: I am a French speaker, I have C++, it draws attention to that experience and then you will go and look further into the CV. If it is a general, cheesy, waffle strap line you generally go “well is the rest of the CV going to be like that as well?” and perhaps you don’t delve deeper. So a tip would be just be really specific and address the job that you’re applying for.

Chris O’Connell, Co-founder, Timothy James Consulting: I think it’s very important to write a personal profile, we certainly do that with every single CV that we introduce to our clients. In terms of a candidate doing it for themselves it’s very important to highlight, probably in bullet point format, their key achievements and their skills. The profile, for me, is about a short description and some bullet points, it can’t be too wordy, too lengthy.

Kirsty Scuffil, Recruiter, LeisureJobs: The first thing I look for in a CV is the presentation, so everything is set out nicely and catches my eye,  but the personal profile, I specifically think, is the most important: tells me a little bit about the person, where their passion lies, what their ambitions are and it’s all in one paragraph, summarised yourself. So I think it’s really important that the personal profile reflects the person that you are.

Narrator: Employers have differing opinions on the personal profile, but they all agree that it should be short (no longer than one paragraph), that it should be relevant to the employer, but above all that it should reflect who you are.

Audio Transcript: Effective Personal Profile

A personal profile is a short, summary of your CV, a bit like a synopsis for a book. It’s an opportunity to highlight your best points and make the employer want to read on. Here are some tips:

• Keep it short – between five and six lines
• You need to make it really about you, so don’t copy and paste someone else’s profile.
• You need to make your profile personal –so talk about your passion and your ambition.
• You need to make it specific to the role. Use your profile to amplify the most relevant parts of your CV

Structure your profile using the following three sentences. 

• Explain who you are and summarise your experience.
• Describe your skills and the value you offer an employer

Get across what you are looking for from your next role, what you hope to achieve