How to write your CV Profile text
80% of employers read the CV first when flipping through the pile of potential employees for a given position . In addition, 83% read the same profile text , in which you have, to the best of your ability, briefly tried to sell yourself.
Thus, the profile text is central when you need to make your future employer hungry to meet you and let your competencies unfold in practice.
You have a short time and few words to capture the recipient’s attention for a recruitment purpose. These few words should ensure that exactly you get through the eye of the needle and have the opportunity to articulate your skills in a personal conversation.
In addition to your headline, your profile text is the most striking feature of your application, as it is placed at the top of the CV. Therefore, through your profile text, you need to create interest and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
The text in the profile
Profile text, professional profile and summary – dear child has many names. In fact, they all cover to some extent the same thing for a resume: a summary of your qualifications and key competencies.
A concentrate of the value you bring to that position as well as your motivation for applying for the position. It’s the little text that acts as an appetizer for your future employer.
The profile text thus serves as a brief summary of what you can do, who you are and what you want according to the specific position.
Advice for drafting the accurate profile text
1. Know the company right down to the bone
Research. Do your homework. In this way, you can in your profile text let your word be reflected in the company’s values - of course without compromising on your own. It is important that you take the time to familiarize yourself with what kind of company you are going to apply to, so that your profile text hits the company as best as possible.
As previously mentioned, your profile text is a concentrate of your competencies, however, you can better target your competencies when you have your knowledge foundation well-founded beforehand.
You can also incorporate buzzwords into your text that are related to the company and the position in question. Here, however, it is important to be careful not to directly copy the company’s phrases and ways they describe the company.
2. Keep your resume profile text short
41% of the companies surveyed spend only 1-2 minutes reading their resumes. This is an indicator that you have enough minutes to convince your future employer with thoughtful words. It requires you to determine which of your competencies you want to focus on.
You can advantageously keep your profile text within 10 lines, whereby you can quickly, but well and accurately, give an impression of yourself and your competencies. Your profile text on your resume can be seen as a thumbnail version of your application.
3. Do not just leave your profile text backward
A profile text is a summary of competencies, a kind of summary of your work and educational life. And yet not quite. You may know the concept from your school days, from the back of a book or something third – the purpose is the same: A summary describes an action backwards and acts as a boil. It does not look ahead. However, this is not entirely the case with a profile text.
You must write down the competencies you have acquired as well as the experiences you have acquired – but you must also state how these competencies and experiences can be expressed in the given work context that you want to fill in the future.
4. Target your profile text
You have few lines to describe your competencies and your experience according to the position and the company.
You may find that you need to weed out your favorite phrases, favorite rhetoric, and some skills to make your profile text as concrete and concise as possible.
Thus, you need to select those of your competencies that suit the position in question. However, it may be that the competencies that must allow life in one context are relevant in another. Therefore, you need to target your profile text to the given position and change it from time to time; from position to position.
Feel free to include the name of the company in question as you look ahead in your profile text. Your language and the content of your profile text should be reflected in the recipient, which is why it is important to differentiate in this.
All companies are different and it may seem lazy to simply reuse their profile text.
Show your ambition for the position in question by really making an effort in the preparation of the material you submit, including your CV and profile text. This allows you to demonstrate early on in the recruitment phase that you are eager and committed.
5. Use examples in your profile text
You can not avoid listing competencies and characteristics in a profile text, but it is fundamental that you also demonstrate that you have practiced and can practice these competencies. These examples should serve as evidence for the claims you make in listing your competencies.
Let’s assume that you write in your profile text that you are proactive and thereby optimize workflows, then you can formulate it in the following way, so that you integrate an example in your articulation of these competencies.
When you write this in the profile text, it could also be reflected down through your resume and the experiences you have had. If you are a recent graduate or for other reasons do not have much experience in the labor market, you can exemplify your competencies according to results and way of working in an educational context.
Get help writing your profile text
Do you find it challenging, despite the above advice, to find the words and have them written down on the piece of paper in front of you? Are your fingers not yet eagerly stroking the keyboard? Fortunately, you can afford it.