How long should a personal statement be?

40 to 60 words, directly under the headline. Longer and it isn't read; shorter and it says nothing. Write it last, once the rest of the CV exists.

Which phrases should I delete?

“Proactive person keen to learn”, “seeking an opportunity to develop” and “works well in a team and under pressure”: they appear on half of all CVs and level you with everyone else.

First or third person?

First person, plain: “process”, “coordinate”, “reduced”. Third person reads like someone else's file, and “I am a person who…” spends half a line carrying no information.

How to write a CV personal statement

The essentials in 30 seconds

0140 to 60 words, directly under the headline.
02One figure of scale, one of improvement.
03Delete unproven adjectives; rewrite per advert.

Three lines, not a paragraph

A personal statement runs 40 to 60 words, straight under your headline. Longer and nobody reads it; shorter and it says nothing. It's the one block always read, so write it last, once the rest of the CV exists.

The formula that works

Role and years of experience + sector or setting + two hard facts + what you're looking for now. “Accounts administrator with 6 years in industrial SMEs. I process 400 invoices a month at under 0.5% error and closed 3 year-ends with clean audits.”

One fact of each kind

One of scale (invoices, customers, rooms, pallets) and one of improvement (a percentage, a time, a saving). Those two numbers tell a recruiter the size of work you handle, which is all they want from a first glance.

Write it impersonally

No “I am a person who…” and no third person. Plain first-person verbs: “process”, “coordinate”, “reduced”. It takes less space and reads professional rather than like a motivation letter.

Sentences to delete

“Proactive person keen to learn”, “seeking an opportunity to develop”, “works well in a team and under pressure”. They carry no information and appear on half the CVs we analyse — they level you with everyone else.

Rewrite it per advert

Change the role in the headline and one of the two figures so they answer the advert. It's the three-minute edit with the biggest effect on match rate, because the statement is the first thing compared.

Built from four pieces

A personal statement isn't improvised: it's assembled from four pieces in this order. First the role and the years, which set your level; then the setting — sector, company size or client type — which explains the context you work in; then two hard facts, one of scale and one of improvement; and finally a line of intent that connects to the advert.

Write it last, once the rest of the CV exists, because the two figures come from your strongest achievements. If choosing is hard, take your most recent role and ask how much you handled and what improved with you: those two answers are the statement.

Role + real years of experience in that role.
Setting: sector, company size or client type.
One figure of scale: invoices, customers, pallets, rooms.
One figure of improvement: percentage, time or saving.
One line of intent aligned to the advert.

Three complete examples and why they work

Hospitality: “Front of house waiter with 5 years in restaurants doing 120 covers a shift. I run sections of 8 tables, trained 9 new starters on floor protocol and hold a 4.8 average review score. Looking for a section head role in a city hotel.” It names scale, result and destination in three lines.

Administration: “Accounts administrator with 6 years in industrial SMEs. I process 400 invoices a month at under 0.5% error and cut overdue debt from 90 to 38 days.” Technology: “Backend developer with 4 years in SaaS product. I maintain services with 40,000 active users and reduced charge failures by 60% migrating the payments gateway.”

What to delete and how to tailor it per advert

Delete every unproven adjective: proactive, dynamic, driven, used to working under pressure, keen to learn. They appear on half the CVs we analyse, carry no information and level you with the rest of the pile. If a quality matters, prove it with the figure behind it.

Tailoring is minimal and decisive: change the role so it matches the advert word for word, and swap one of the two figures for the one that best answers what they ask. Three minutes of work that raises your match rate more than any redesign, because the statement is the first thing the filter compares and the first thing a person reads.

Delete adjectives with no figure behind them.
The job title, verbatim from the advert.
One of the two figures, chosen for the advert.
40 to 60 words, always under the headline.

Check this before you send it

It runs 40 to 60 words.
It opens with the role and years, not “I am a person who”.
It carries one figure of scale and one of improvement.
No adjective is left without a figure behind it.
The role matches the advert word for word.
It was written after the rest of the CV.

Mistakes that cost you the interview

An eight-line paragraph

Nobody reads it through: a long statement wastes the one block that always gets looked at.

Adjectives instead of facts

“Proactive and driven” distinguishes nothing; two figures place your scale of work in a second.

Writing about what you want, not what you bring

“Seeking an opportunity to develop” spends the CV's best space on you rather than the role.

The same statement for every advert

It's the block filters compare first: without the advert's job title you lose match from line one.

Frequently asked

Questions we get asked most

How long should a personal statement be?: 40 to 60 words, directly under the headline. Longer and it isn't read; shorter and it says nothing. Write it last, once the rest of the CV exists.
Which phrases should I delete?: “Proactive person keen to learn”, “seeking an opportunity to develop” and “works well in a team and under pressure”: they appear on half of all CVs and level you with everyone else.
First or third person?: First person, plain: “process”, “coordinate”, “reduced”. Third person reads like someone else's file, and “I am a person who…” spends half a line carrying no information.