Personal Statement

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified)
in
Career Management

Hi all

So I've updated my CV/resume based on the MT guidance and passed the review service. So all is good.

However I am looking for some advice over what to do when a company insists on a "personal statement" or similar as part of their application process. Clear I need to provide one, but as it's not MT recommended for CVs there is no advice on what to do.

Thanks,

Glenn

Submitted by Gwen Pearson on Friday May 21st, 2010 9:05 am

I work with a lot of students applying to graduate/professional schools, and I can tell you what I don't want to see in a personal statement: 
No airy-fairy Lifelong dreams:  "Ever since I was a child I wanted to be an ______".
No detailed Life history:  "I was born in a small town in Iowa...."
Mostly I'm looking for evidence of a driving passion, or some central philosophy that will motivate a person through a fairly grueling process.  In my work capacity, when we're hiring we sometimes ask for teaching or research personal statements from applicants, which again are expected to reflect personal interests and passions that will translate into research and teaching.
My advice would be to sit down, write something, and then put it away for 1 week.
Then get it back out. 
Does it sound like kitten and rainbow speak? Or is it an accurate reflection of your feelings about work and how you relate to the people you work with?
Personal statements are a lot of work, and require some navel gazing. W/out knowing more about the industry/context, I can't give you much more advice than that.

Submitted by Steven Simmons on Tuesday May 25th, 2010 7:55 pm

It sounds to me like they are asking for something above and beyond the resume to try and get a sense of you as a person, and that someone in the company is a fan of Steven Covey.  I believe it was in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that Covey recommended creating a "personal mission statement"  which is what it sounds to me like they are asking for.  You can find Personal Mission Statement generators online but to do it properly, for most of us, takes more work than the online systems require.  Doing it right means doing some real "soul searching/deep thought" to help you understand yourself in order to craft a true personal mission statement   This will take more time than you've probably got for this process, so you'd best use an online generator to get you started and then read/use the book to help you tighten it up and make it more personal.
Steve Simmons
CGEIT, CISA, CISM, CISSP
DiSC = 7115
 

Submitted by Glenn Smith on Wednesday May 26th, 2010 1:05 am

Thanks for all your comments, and great recommendations.