Many of us do not like talking about ourselves, but in a personal statement or interview, it is vital!

In applying for a role, a candidate needs to think about their fit for the new position.  A key part is understanding  how their prior skills, either the same sector or in a different industry, can be useful for this position.

Your personal statement is vital is ensuring that the hiring manager knows why you are a good fit for the position, particularly if this may not be obvious from your CV or previous experience.  So you really need to think about how you can get your application to the next stage; a first or second round interview.

Three quick tips from our teams to achieve this.

Take some time and list your strengths

We all have an idea of things that we are good at, or at least we think we are good at.  However as we learn skills or our career changes over time, these skills may change or deepen.

Take some time and think through your strengthens.  If you can, speak to a colleague or a mentor to validate if they agree with your list.  Our team will also look to understrength your strengths when they are developing your personal statement as well.

Having put together your list, you need to revisit the list and understand what are the key strengths and how can they be evidenced.

Review the job description

Now that you have a list of strengths develop, it is crucial that you map the applicable strengths to the job decription of the role that you are applying for.

As an example we have taken a job description for a sample role.

The candidate needs to review their strengths against the skills and personal qualities requried for the position.  “Have excellent communication skills” is one of the skills mentioned for this specifc role.  If this was you and you were applying for this role, how would you evidence this skill?

Examples

• Regularly present to colleagues in your team or wider organisation
• Providing training to new or experienced staff on new procedures
• Require to provide clear instructions to internal or external teams to support daily workload

It is not only about having a list of strengths, it is about having the list of strengths that make sure your application stands out.

Evidence your strengths

Your personal statement is absolutely critical is showing why your are right candidate for the role.  An recruiting manager will be able to see this from a range of factors, including your personal statement.  This is particularly important if you are seen as a “non traditional” candidate for the role.  However even from those with experience in the area or sector, a strong personal statement is vital to ensure that your secure the position.

It is vital to be able to back up your strengths with clear examples.  The well known model is S-T-A-R and is applicable across all industries and positions.

• Situation:  Background – provide an overview of the scenario
• Task – Drill down into the specifics – what had to be done
• Action – What did you do and talk in detail about how your strengths help here
• Result – What was the outcome.  Help the reader to understand why your strengths helped with this outcome

If you need to ensure that your personal statements gets you to stand out from the crowd, come talk to our team.

Remember we offer a 100% non question asked refund guarantee if you do not want to proceed after the initial review call.