Personal Statement

[Hoink]

Hi,

I'm in the process of applying for a new job in IT and am being asked to submit a personal statement. I've never written one before so have done some searches and am hoping for some advice.

The guidelines:
Enter your statement
For example, give your reasons for wanting the job, your most relevant skills and any transferable skills you have.
Not to exceed 1200 words

1200 words seems a lot for a personal statement. What do you think? I have gone for:
- short paragraph on my current role
- technical skills
- soft skills
- why I want the job

I have made sure I cover key points from the advertised role description and use their terminology.

This comes to 320 words and flows well. Have I gone too short? Am I missing anything?

ETA; should I include a key achievements paragraph?

Thanks

Edited by Hoink on Thursday 13th April 22:08

[rog007]

A personal statement is still effectively, like a CV, a sales brochure. Look at a good sales brochure and you'll see what works; walls of text don't!

There's a whole heap of other theory and proven practice behind a first class personal statement that a short response on a thread precludes me from sharing effectively, but answering your question; less is certainly more.

Good luck!

[simonrockman]

There is lots of good stuff on YouTube about writing a university UCAS personal statement, I'd watch some of those for pointers.

One important aspect is to give examples to back up your claims.

So instead of "I pick up new techniques and skills quickly", It becomes "In my first Agile project I implemented xxx, yyy and achieved zzz".

Simon

[Hoink]

Thanks both, I will have a look. I miss the days of just sending in a CV.