Who Am I to Tell You How to Write a Personal Profile?

That’s a fair question, and before I start telling you how to write a personal profile, I ought to explain why I think I’m qualified to do so.

I’ve spent over forty years in business, employed people, interviewed hundreds of candidates, built successful companies and, for many years now, worked as a professional CV writer. I’ve helped everyone from school leavers and graduates to senior executives, directors, business owners, ex-military personnel and police officers secure interviews and move their careers forward.

To date, I’ve received more than 184 five-star reviews, and if you take a look at my Client Reviews you’ll see exactly what people say about working with me.

During that time, one thing has become very obvious.

Most people don’t have a poor career.

They simply don’t know how to sell it.

That’s particularly true when it comes to writing a personal profile, sometimes called a professional summary or personal statement. Whatever you choose to call it, it’s one of the most important parts of your CV, yet it’s often the weakest.

I can’t tell you how many CVs I’ve read where the opening paragraph says exactly the same thing. People describe themselves as hardworking, reliable, motivated, enthusiastic and excellent team players. They all sound perfectly reasonable until you realise the next twenty CVs say exactly the same thing. If every profile sounds identical, none of them stand out, and that’s the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to achieve.

The truth is, your personal profile is probably the most important paragraph on your entire CV because it’s the first thing an employer is going to read. Before they’ve looked at your employment history, qualifications or achievements, they’ve already formed an opinion about whether you’re worth reading any further.

That’s quite a responsibility for a paragraph that’s often no more than seventy or eighty words.

The biggest mistake people make is believing their personal profile is about themselves.

It isn’t.

Yes, it’s about your career, your experience and your skills, but it has to be written from the employer’s point of view. Employers don’t recruit people because they want to help someone progress their career. They recruit people because they have a problem that needs solving. They need somebody who can improve productivity, increase sales, lead a team, solve technical problems, develop people or look after customers. Your personal profile has to convince them that you’re capable of doing exactly that.

I often read personal statements that start by telling me what the candidate wants.

“Looking for a challenging role where skills can be developed and career progression achieved.”

There’s nothing wrong with wanting those things, but from an employer’s perspective it doesn’t answer the only question they’re asking.

“What can this person do for my business?”

It’s a subtle difference, but it completely changes the direction of your CV.

A strong personal profile talks about experience, achievements and the value someone can bring to an organisation. Instead of telling an employer what you hope to gain, it tells them what they’ll gain by employing you.

That doesn’t mean your profile should become a shopping list of achievements either. Every client who comes to me has a different story, which is why I spend so much time understanding their career before I write a single word. If you’re interested in how I build a CV from the ground up, have a look at My CV Writing Process.

Your personal profile should introduce that story. It should explain where your strengths lie and leave the reader wanting to know more. Think of it as the opening chapter of a book. If the first page doesn’t hold your attention, you’re unlikely to carry on reading.

There’s another mistake I see all the time, and it’s incredibly easy to fix.

Never use pronouns in your personal profile.

Avoid words like I, me, my, we and our. In fact, I wouldn’t use them anywhere on your CV. A CV is a professional marketing document, not a conversation. Writing in the third person immediately makes it read more professionally and keeps the focus on your skills and achievements rather than the person writing it. Save the first person for your cover letter, where you’re writing directly to the employer and explaining why you’re applying for the role.

I also believe people spend far too much time telling employers what they are instead of proving it.

Don’t tell an employer you’re a good leader.

Show it by explaining the size of the teams you’ve managed.

Don’t tell them you’re organised.

Show it by talking about the projects you’ve delivered, the deadlines you’ve met or the improvements you’ve introduced.

Don’t tell people you’re customer-focused.

Explain how you’ve increased customer satisfaction, retained key accounts or improved service levels.

There’s an old saying that actions speak louder than words, and that’s just as true when writing a CV.

One final point before we move on.

Please don’t compare yourself to other people.

One of the things I hear all the time is, “I haven’t really done anything special.”

Very few people believe they’ve had an interesting career because they’re looking at it from the inside. What feels normal to you often looks very impressive to somebody else. I’ve had clients apologise because they thought they hadn’t achieved very much, only to discover they’d managed large teams, controlled significant budgets, delivered complex engineering projects or made critical operational decisions. They simply didn’t recognise the value because they’d been doing it for years.

That’s exactly why I encourage clients to stop thinking about job descriptions and start thinking about achievements. If you’re not sure what employers actually want to see, you’ll find plenty of practical advice throughout my CV Writing Guides, including how to write a stronger CV Personal Statement.

Your personal profile isn’t about trying to be somebody else.

It’s about helping an employer understand the value you’ve already built throughout your career.

If you can achieve that in the first few lines of your CV, you’ve already given yourself a much better chance of securing an interview.

If you’d like a second opinion, the National Careers Service also offers useful guidance on CVs and job applications. Just remember, guidance is one thing. A CV that genuinely reflects your career is something entirely different.

So, What Should You Actually Write?

This is usually the point where people get stuck.

They sit staring at a blank screen wondering where on earth to start. The temptation is to write the first thing that comes into your head, and that’s normally something along the lines of, “A hardworking individual with excellent communication skills.” We’ve already established that’s exactly what thousands of other people are writing, so it isn’t going to make you stand out.

Instead, forget about writing your personal profile for a minute.

In fact, I’d go one step further.

I never write it first, and neither should you.

I always write the personal profile, professional summary or personal statement last.

There’s a very good reason for that.

By the time I’ve finished writing the CV, I know that person’s career inside out. I know what they’ve achieved, what they’re genuinely good at, the responsibilities they’ve had, the size of the teams they’ve managed, the projects they’ve delivered and, just as importantly, the type of role they’re applying for. By then, the CV is telling a story, and the personal profile simply becomes the introduction to that story.

It’s exactly the same process I follow for every client who comes to my Professional CV Writing Service. I don’t start with the summary because I don’t yet know what the strongest selling points are. I build the CV first, then write the opening paragraph.

Think of it like writing a book.

You wouldn’t normally write the back cover before you’d written the chapters, so why would you write the summary of your career before you’ve actually written your career?

Get your employment history right first.

Build your achievements.

Show the scope of your responsibilities.

Add your qualifications, technical skills and professional memberships.

Only then should you write your personal profile because everything you need is sitting in front of you. If you’re interested in how I gather all of that information from clients, have a look at My CV Writing Process.

Once you’ve done that, don’t rush into writing it.

Go back and read the job advert again.

This is the first opportunity you’ve got to show an employer that you’re exactly what they’re looking for.

Every advert contains clues.

Certain skills, qualifications and responsibilities will appear more than once because they’re important to the employer. Those are the words and phrases you should naturally include in your personal profile, provided, of course, you genuinely have those skills and experience.

There is another reason for doing this.

Most employers and recruitment agencies now use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help sort and rank CVs before a recruiter even looks at them. Those systems are designed to identify candidates whose experience most closely matches the vacancy. One of the ways they do that is by looking for relevant keywords taken directly from the advert.

This is why I say your personal profile should almost certainly be rewritten, or at the very least adapted, every time you apply for a different role.

Please don’t make the mistake of writing one CV and sending it to twenty employers unchanged.

Every job is different.

Every employer is looking for something slightly different.

Your personal profile should reflect that.

It doesn’t mean stuffing your CV with keywords or trying to fool the software. It means describing your genuine experience using the same language the employer uses. If the advert talks about stakeholder management, project delivery, operational leadership or continuous improvement, and you’ve genuinely done those things, make sure they’re reflected naturally in your opening paragraph. If you’re unsure what employers are looking for, my guide to The Best Skills for a CV explains which skills recruiters value most and how to present them properly.

Now let’s talk about something else that separates an average personal profile from a great one.

Scope.

A job title tells me very little.

If someone tells me they’re an Operations Manager, I still don’t know whether they managed five people or five hundred. I don’t know whether they were responsible for a £20,000 budget or a £20 million budget. I don’t know if they led one site or ten, trained new staff, managed suppliers or improved productivity.

The title only tells me where they sat on an organisation chart.

Scope tells me what they were actually responsible for.

Whenever you can, include numbers.

How many people did you manage?

What size budget were you responsible for?

What value of equipment did you oversee?

How many customers did you support?

How many projects did you deliver?

Numbers give employers context, and context gives your experience credibility. They also help distinguish your CV from everyone else applying for the same role. If you’d like to see how this looks in practice, have a look through my CV Portfolio where you’ll find examples across different industries.

Finally, remember what a personal profile is there to do.

Its job isn’t to tell your whole career story.

It’s there to make somebody want to keep reading.

If you’ve achieved that, it’s done exactly what it was designed to do.

For more advice on writing a personal profile, CVs and job applications, the National Careers Service also offers useful guidance for UK jobseekers: https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/careers-advice/cv-sections

Final Thoughts

If there’s one thing I’d like you to take away from this guide, it’s this.

Your personal profile isn’t about making yourself sound clever or using words you wouldn’t normally use. It isn’t about copying something from the internet because it sounds professional, and it certainly isn’t about telling an employer you’re hardworking, motivated and an excellent team player. They expect those things. What they really want to know is what makes you different.

Remember, your personal profile is only a summary.

Its job isn’t to tell your whole career story. It’s there to make an employer stop, read on and think, “This person could be exactly what we’re looking for.”

The rest of your CV then has to back that up with evidence, achievements and, wherever possible, scope. That’s what turns a reasonable CV into one that consistently wins interviews.

Take your time.

Write the rest of your CV first, then come back and write your personal profile. Read the advert again. Make sure you’ve naturally included the keywords the employer is looking for, adapt it for every application and never fall into the trap of sending the same professional summary with every CV. Every role is different, so every personal profile should be slightly different too.

Over the years, I’ve seen people completely transform their job search by making just a few changes to those opening lines. I’ve also seen excellent candidates repeatedly miss out because they were underselling themselves before the employer had even reached page two.

Don’t let that be you.

A well-written personal profile won’t get you the job on its own, but it will give you the best possible chance of getting the interview. Once you’ve got the interview, that’s your opportunity to bring everything on your CV to life.

Need a Hand?

If you’ve read this guide and you’re still wondering whether your personal profile is saying the right things, don’t worry.

That’s perfectly normal.

Most people are too close to their own career to see what makes them valuable. What feels ordinary to you is often exactly what an employer is looking for.

That’s where I can help.

Every CV I write starts with a proper conversation, not a questionnaire and certainly not AI. We talk about your career, your achievements, your strengths and, just as importantly, where you want to go next. From there, I write a completely bespoke CV that reflects you, not a template.

If you’d like to see how I work, have a look at my Professional CV Writing Service and CV Writing Process.

If you’d like to know what previous clients think, read my 184+ Five-Star Reviews.

If your LinkedIn profile also needs attention, I can help with that too through my LinkedIn Optimisation Service, ensuring your CV and LinkedIn profile tell the same professional story.

Or, if you’re ready to get started, give me a call and let’s have a chat.

Your initial consultation is completely free, there’s no pressure and no obligation. We’ll talk about your career, where you want to go next and whether I’m the right person to help you get there.

Sometimes, a 20-minute conversation is all it takes to change the direction of your career.