Recently, although the real borders between countries have not yet fully opened, online borders have basically disappeared – education and courses in colleges, international programs and work for international companies are available like never before. But in order to get the desired place, you need to go through the selection process, and before that, submit an application and a package of documents required. And a personal statement is oftentimes one of such documents.
Many graduates, applicants and their parents are lost because they do not know what to write and how to write this document. At the same time, many companies and organizations ask their applicants not only for a resume, but also for additional documents, such as a personal statement.
Sometimes people pay a lot of money to agencies to compile this document, although the writing is not difficult, and a person who speaks English at B1-B2 level can write a personal statement on his own, having correct and clear instructions and an understanding of the purpose of this document. Students, applicants and job seekers often turn to us at the essay-editor.net online service for help in preparing for job interviews and drafting documents. And personal statements are one of the important elements of the curriculum. In this article, we will take a detailed look at the process of creating a personal statement, and you will get detailed instructions on how to write it. You will learn what this document is about and what information it should include, and you can write it by yourself.
What is a personal statement and what is it needed for
It is no longer a problem to write or edit a personal statement just like any other college assignment. Such a service as essay-editor.net will make it to where any student from all over the world can get an online personal statement and any other type of a college assignment fast and easy due to the professionalism of the company and its excellent editing skills of each and every editor working for it.
A personal statement is a document often used as a supplement to your main college, university, or CV application. The purpose of the personal statement can be defined by the phrase: “to present and sell yourself.” Tell about yourself: reveal your motivation, describe your skills and achievements, explain how you differ from other applicants, what makes you stand out and why the choice must fall on you.
Depending on the purpose, the personal statement may have different forms and tasks. Personal statement for employment is usually drawn up in a separate paragraph at the beginning of the resume. For admission to the university, you will need a separate document in the form of an essay or answers to questions. Below we will look at the features of each of them.
How to write a Personal Statement (step by step)
1. Carefully study the list of documents and requirements for them. Make sure that you need to compose exactly the personal statement; what format, volume, what you need to specify, what questions to answer.
2. Think about the specialty, profession you want to learn or the position you are applying for. Make a list of the qualities required for this profession and consider which ones you have. For each quality, remember an example from your experience, how you showed it, so as not only to list, but also to support it with specific situations and achievements:
What qualities and skills are important for a good… (doctor/ lawyer/ teacher/editor etc.)?
Which of them do I have?
How do they help me in life?
How can I highlight them in my personal statement?
3. Analyze your experience, the successes that you are proud of and that can confirm that you are a really worthy candidate. What am I proud of? What are my greatest achievements? How can I highlight them in my personal statement?
What am I proud of?
What are my greatest achievements?
How can I highlight them in my personal statement?
4. If you act and make decisions based on certain beliefs or values that are important to the profession you want, write that down too:
What is important for me?
What do I believe in?
What are my core values?
How can I highlight them in my personal statement?
5. Then, from the entire set of information that you wrote down, choose the most important thing that really characterizes you. Make a plan for your work – what strengths you will focus on.
6. Write your personal statement, observing the requirements for the amount of text, document design.
7. Get ready for the fact that this can be a long and difficult process. You may need to rewrite several drafts, do some editing, and create several versions. After several times proofread the document, make all changes, correct mistakes. You may need the help of a professional to give you objective feedback on your work and suggest improvements.
Tips on how to write a personal statement
Remember that the purpose of this essay is to give additional information about you, so avoid information already provided in the application (admission letter) or resume (CV).
Demonstrate your skills in effective self-presentation – how you may briefly present basic and relevant information about yourself. Having limited space and number of characters, you will show your ability to separate the important from the unimportant.
Avoid vague wording and unsupported statements. For example, if you say “I am flexible and open-minded”, explain why, illustrate it with situations and examples from your life.
Tell us about your passion and interest in the area of expertise, in the profession in human language, using the example of a personal situation or history related to it. This will give you the opportunity to move away from the formal tone (however, not to cross the line of unacceptable informality), and the employer to understand how much you correspond to the corporate culture of the company.
If you are writing a personal statement for a job, remember that the recruiter receives hundreds of resumes and other documents daily, so it is up to you as the applicant to provide as much information about yourself as possible, in the most concise manner. Usually when applying for a job, a personal statement is not asked for as a separate document, but you can very well include it in your resume or Cover Letter in the form of a small, easily read paragraph that will attract the attention of the recruiter.
Difference Between Personal Statement and Admission Essay
If the requirements for drafting a document specify exactly which questions you need to answer and which topics to cover, this greatly simplifies your task. And such a document is often called an admission essay. It assesses your ability to give a clear answer to a given topic and apply your personal experience in your answer.
In the personal statement, you mention the information about yourself that you consider necessary to provide for evaluation by the admission committee or recruiter. In both documents, it is important not to repeat what has already been written in other documents.
Conclusion
Changing jobs or entering a college is an important stage in life, and the excitement that is present in getting the documents ready is easy to understand, especially if they concern not only professional facts and formal details, but also personal ones. Personal statement is just such a document. It varies depending on the purpose, the place of filing and your personal circumstances and level of development. Therefore, if a resume, for example, remains practically unchanged, you add new experience there, deleting old and irrelevant jobs, then a personal statement is a changing document that changes and develops with you, with your experience, life and professional beliefs and views, values.
Therefore, if you are applying for positions in international companies or foreign universities (in case you are an exchange student), it is important to be able to write a personal statement and modify it depending on the purpose. You can, of course, pay a custom writer every time for writing in which you do not participate, it can even work, but it is important to acquire your own knowledge and skills, over time they will definitely pay off.