A personal profile or personal statement is a short introductory paragraph to your CV in which you describe who you are, what your strengths and skills are and what you are looking for. As straightforward as this might seem, the personal profile can still be quite tricky to get right and, since it sits at the top of your CV, there is a lot at stake.

Here's what you should avoid at all costs if you want the person reading your CV to carry on doing so:

1. Too short
'Recent Social Studies graduate looking for a new challenge.'

Your personal statement should ideally be around 4-6 lines long. Not only is the above example too short, it also hardly tells the reader anything at all. You want to relate the most pertinent information about yourself, emphasising skills, experience and ambitions that are relevant to the role you're applying to.

2. Too generic
'Self-motivated and dedicated HR manager. Born leader with a commercial focus who's passionate about finding solutions and has a proven track record of performance management.'

The use of buzzwords like 'self-motivated' isn't just cringe-worthy – would you talk about yourself like that in real life? – it also doesn't prove anything to a hiring manager. Provide them with more tangible evidence of your skills and achievements by giving examples of when you excelled in the past; when and how did you make a positive impact or inspire positive change?

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