How to Write a Personal Profile for an Interview

Prepare a personal profile before an interview.
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A personal profile on your resume or cover letter is also referred to as your career objective or simply the profile. Being prepared to talk about yourself during an interview and having your profile prepared in advance can increase your confidence and help clarify your thoughts when you’re under the pressure of an important job interview.

    Step 1

    Summarize your strengths in your profile and show how your skills and abilities relate to the job for which you’re applying. For example, explain how your ability to close sales will lead to greater profits for the company or how your team-building abilities will lead to improved project development. Use a narrative style or highlight each strength and accompanying benefit in a bullet format.

    Step 2

    Keep it short. A profile shouldn’t be longer than six or seven lines. To make the most effective and succinct profile use action words to describe your strengths such as "devised," "created," "completed" and "achieved."

    Step 3

    Touch on your background briefly without rehashing information listed on your resume or application. Indicate the role you hope to play in the company and how your education has prepared you to tackle the job for which you’re applying. For example, ‘'My extensive studies in global finance truly prepared me for this CFO position.’'

    Step 4

    Mention how your training and background have prepared you for just this kind of opportunity. Allow your enthusiasm for the position to show through in the profile by the way in which you relate your previous experiences to the prospects of expanding your knowledge and growing with the company.

    Step 5

    Identify past successes relevant to the job. Don’t rehash what’s on your resume, but use the profile to briefly highlight certain accomplishments of which you’re especially proud and that you want to make sure are noticed by the interviewer.

    Tips

    • Impress the recruiter by including a personal mission statement in your profile that defines your core values and goals. Through research on the business, you can find the company mission statement and align your personal beliefs with those of the company.

    Warnings

    • Avoid industry buzz words that hold no definitive meaning. Common profile terms such as team-player, motivated self-starter, proven track record and innovative problem solver say little about you and actually may work against you because they are so over-used and meaningless.

    Things You'll Need

    • List of strengths

    • Mission statement

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