A professional profile can help to focus the first page of your CV. It offers an overview of your professional life in one short paragraph or section, typically using less then 100 words. It prepares the reader for your career history and in some ways determines how your CV will be read. A profile can also be used to state a career objective and to anticipate the covering letter.
There are at least four different types of profile statements:
* Personal Profile: a summary of your personal strengths and attributes
* Career Profile: a summary of your professional life and career highlights
* Qualifications Profile: a summary of your professional qualifications
* Career Objective: a summary of what you are seeking from a job application
It is possible to combine all four types in a single profile. Here is an example from a prison manager's CV:
Security and custodial care professional with over nine years experience in mission security and prison management working in demanding international contexts. Law graduate, qualified police officer and published instructor. Proven skills in team leadership and project management in field mission environments involving close liaison with UN agencies, governmental and regional law enforcement bodies, and NGOs.
Seeking challenging position in custodial care management in an international setting. (optional)
This profile contains a mixture of personal, career, qualifications and objective statements. It contains both general and specific information. It would be possible to edit this profile for use in different applications.
A profile can be combined with a 'Key Skills' or 'Qualifications Highlights' section at the top of a CV. Such a combination is particularly effective if you are doing a functional CV with a view to moving into a new career area.
Profile features are especially important when you do not wish your career history to be the first thing that catches the eye of the reader.
Profiles take a lot of time and thought. Here are a few things to look out for when writing a profile:
Avoid Over-used words
Some adjectives are so frequently used in profiles that they have little effect. They are best avoided. Such words include:
intelligent, hard-working, conscientious, enthusiastic, sociable, reliable, good-humoured
These words might sound OK coming from your referee, but they are less effective when describing yourself. Look for more precise adjectives which say something individual about you, preferably words that arise from your career achievements and interests.
Preview your Career History
In your profile use the keywords which will come up again in your career history. In the profile above, this would be words like 'security', 'custodial care', 'liaison', 'management'. These words might also anticipate the target job. It is also useful to give some time overview of your career so far ('nine years experience').
Vary your Sentences
When summarising your career there is a temptation to fit everything into one sentence. There is no need to do this. Break your profile into three sentences and make sure that one of them is short and concise (see sentence two in the profile above). It is of course also possible to present your profile as a series of bullet points after a single headline or professional title.
