Resume – Profile Statement
You are going to capture attention or you’re not.
You are going to develop a sense of curiosity or you’re not.
You are going to engage at an emotional level, or you’re not.
Much of the impact will be created at the start and your start is all about your profile statement. It’s possible that this is the only thing that is read by the recruiter, so it has to be amazing. Remember bounded rationality. The idea that there are forces at play that have a negative impact on their ability to focus on all the elements of your pitch.
Your profile needs to leverage character and competence as a competitive advantage and you need to build a compelling profile, that’s interesting and action oriented. Shaping a profile is an art, that involves developing the words to use, the structure for presentation and the way to bring emphasis and draw attention to important information.
Developing a great profile, also helps you to clarify what your key messages are going to be and how you might answer the question “Tell me a little bit about yourself“. It’s one of those questions that seems to come up in the interview process.
What is a profile statement?
A study revealed that, on average recruiters spend 8.8 seconds looking at yourresume. We have to give them a reason to read on. People start a resume with a statement of purpose, something like:
I am an experienced project manager, with a background in running projects to a value of 300 million in the oil and gas sector. I have successfully led teams of people in the achievement of project outcomes, consistently bringing project in on time, on scope and on budget. I am looking for a role with a large oil and gas related business where I can showcase my talents and skills and make a significant contribution to the success of the organisation.
The bottom line is (purely from the perspective of the reader), who really cares. The fact that you are applying for this role tells me that you are interested in what we have to offer. If you weren’t, then you wouldn’t apply. It’s hardly the most compelling start to a resume, stating the bleeding obvious. So, what we want to do is start our resume off with a personal profile, on that makes the reader sit up and take notice. It needs to cover a number of areas including;
- What you describe yourself as?
- Role and industry experience.
- High level capability, looking at broad competency.
- Character traits and working style.
What does a good profile do for me?
A good profile allows the reader to feel that they know you, giving insight into your background and experience, but also allowing them to see past that and into the type of person that you are. We are not one dimensional (work), but rather the sum total of all of the environmental, experiential and broadly speaking, life related stimuli, that makes us unique and, in some ways, idiosyncratic. It’s important that the reader is given insight into our personality, our traits and our default behaviours, such that they understand the likely positive impact you will have on the environment or the team.
In other words, you become predictable and safe. Importantly, a good profile gets my resume off on a positive note, gives me a clear picture as to what my value proposition is and establishes a strong position to leverage off, becoming a preface to other elements of the resume. More importantly, it reflects strong self-concepts and imbues the writer with a sense of confidence about what it is that they have to offer.
It could be something like:
I am an astute and commercially motivated General Manager with more than 20 years’ experience in senior and national organisational and strategic development roles, for both international and national sales, manufacturing and service organisations. I have broad experience in designing, developing, implementing and facilitating organisational strategy, sales and marketing performance, financial management, HR and performance development, organisational growth and leadership.
My management approach focuses on getting the best out of people, with a style built around personal empathy, honest and open communication and a genuine commitment to the organisation and the development and maintenance of internal and external relationships. I have a confident, natural and friendly approach, which lends itself well to collaborative teamwork and the creation of a positive culture built on high performance principles.
Having undertaken complex and sensitive change work in culturally diverse environments I have developed strong analytical skills balanced with a pragmatic and practical approach to implementation. I bring intuitive and critical analysis to the table; understanding how organisational culture and individual engagement propels company profitability. My implementation style is hands on and progressive. This proactive style reflects a desire to take action and maintain momentum, culminating in a breakthrough into new ways of thinking and improving individual and organisational performance.
Language is important
You may notice that I have highlighted a number of things and bolded them. This is to bring attention to the words that have been selected, to get across certain ideas. These are what we call ‘semantic words’, that is, they have been carefully though about and chosen for a reason.
In some cases, these semantic words have focused on capability and in some cases, we have focused on character. What we are trying to do, is to use language to stimulate a sense of connection and to help the reader understand how I might fit into their context.
Let’s have a look at the specific words or derivations of words. In the profile, we are trying to get across certain ideas. In this example, we can assume that the person is;
Industry: Familiar with sales, manufacturing and service.
Primary Roles: Senior Management.
Competence: strategy, sales, finance, HR, commercial, designer, developer, implementor, facilitator, communicator, team player, focused on positive culture, has analytical skills and is focused on profitability.
Character: astute, best out of people, personal empathy, honest and open communication, genuine commitment, confident, natural, friendly collaborative, positive, analytical, pragmatic, practical, intuitive, critical analysis, hands on, progressive, action, momentum, new ways of thinking and improving.
Structure is important
Notice the way that the profile has been developed and the way that words are used with each other, to build and develop ideas. In each of these statements, I have used the power of 2 and 3, in order to emphasise certain characteristics or elements of personality that support a competency.In his book ‘Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer’, Roy Peter Clark provides insights to the magic of the number three. He makes the following statements about the power of threes:
The “encompassing” magic of number three … in our language or culture, three provides a sense of the whole. In the anti-math of writing, the number three is greater than four. The mojo of three offers a greater sense of completeness than four or more”.
He goes on to mention that words can be used in the following ways:
- use one for power;
- use two for comparison or contrast; and
- use three for completeness, wholeness and roundness.
In this profile, you can see that elements of competency have been supported by descriptors that bring life to the skill. In other words, they tell the reader how you execute that skill, as opposed to simply relying on their understanding of what you might mean.
… confident, natural and friendly approach or intuitive and critical analysis.
It is also important to use words that are interesting in nature. Getting out the Thesaurus and looking at different ways of expressing a commonly used word, can often make you appear more interesting and appealing, on top of creating an impression that you are widely read and expressive in your communication.
Profile examples
Example 1: I am a tertiary qualified, results driven Government Executive with strong business, political and financial acumen. I am a transformational leader with natural enthusiasm for innovation, in depth knowledge and awareness of regulatory obligations, and the ability to facilitate significantly improved community focused outcomes. I have specialist skills in strategic positioning and in resolving organisational challenges and driving operational improvement. My career to date has involved approaching highly complex problems with objectivity and creativity, culminating in the design and delivery of solutions based on collaboration and strong engagement. My signature strength is ensuring tactical outcomes while maintaining a razor focus on the delivery of strategic outcomes.
My engagement and personal alignment creates a powerful driver for the development of motivated, performing and engaged teams. I facilitate this process by providing context, mentoring, personal example, complimented by an understanding of our people, and what they are trying to achieve.
My values based approach is central to my practice, where respect, integrity and professionalism are critical to all that I do. I am passionate about my work and enjoy approaching it with creativity and aspiration, with a management style that is based on my belief that people are at their best when they feel they are being given opportunities to grow and are supported in doing so.
I am a highly analytical and strategic thinker, with a unique and insightful view of organisational performance. Whether it is culture, processes, business models or individual behaviours, my ability to understand and influence these forces leads to the successful achievement of desired outcomes at both strategic and tactical levels.
Example 2: I am a career banker with over 35 years’ experience of leading and managing teams in areas such as Retail & Wholesale Banking, Securitisation, Cards & Payments Systems, Wealth, Change & Technology. My signature style involves forming and leading high performing teams to deliver on their commitment to help customers ‘get ahead’. I have an extensive background in Cards and Payment platforms, complimented by a passion for watching people develop and grow.
Having experience in multiple delivery methods, including Agile, Dev Ops and the more traditional Waterfall, I can work with methods and teams to find efficiency in operating style and to produce results. I encourage and back team members to ‘have a go’, embracing diversity of thought and empowerment as our way of working. I like to push the boundaries of the way that we work, and if we don’t quite get things right, that’s okay, if we learn and improve from the experience.
I am driven by maintaining focus on practical and serviceable customer outcomes. I believe in using technology as an enabler to help deliver products & services, enhancing the brand of the business through exceptional standards of customer service.
I would describe building and maintaining relationships as not only extremely important to me, but an area within which I excel. I have exceptional interpersonal and communication skills and pride myself on being a keen listener and confident negotiator with internal and external stakeholders.
We need think about every word that we use and how we structure them into sentences. The only thing that I have to convince you of my capability is the resume, so it needs to be first class and really interesting. It starts with a profile that makes me worthy of further consideration, establishing curiosity and connection between the writer and reader.
Cool Stuff
How to prove you can do the job, even without direct experience. https://lnkd.in/duvU_XA
The 6 words to eliminate from your professional vocab. https://lnkd.in/dfDcpMa
What’s next?
One of the areas that people seem to have a lot of trouble with, is the area of achievements. Talking about what they have done during their career, of which they are most proud, seems a stretch. Building achievements into a resume, that are interesting and worth reading, is also complex, with many people writing long winded and poorly written achievements. Let’s have a look at what constitutes an achievement and how to write them.