First person / third person…what to use on your CV

Having worked with jobseekers on their CVs for almost a decade now - both directly via my CV Makeover Expert business and through workshops and seminars - one question I get asked pretty much all the time is:

“Should I write my CV personal profile in the first person or the third person?”

The answer is….it depends.

There was a time (around when I wrote 7 Keys to a Winning CV in 2011) when I would have said, “Don’t even consider writing it in the first person – do you know how unprofessional that sounds on a CV?!”...but now I’ve mellowed a bit with age ;-)

What’s the difference anyway?

Before we go into why it depends, it’s probably a good idea to explain the difference between the two forms.

The first person is when you talk about yourself as you. Typically on a CV personal profile that will involve lots of “I’s”. For example:

"I am a highly dependable communications graduate with five years’ experience in the media. I am self-driven and motivated with a track record of driving publications to success with innovative ideas and application. I am currently looking for a challenging role to continue to utilise my skills.”

The third person, on the other hand, is when you refer to yourself as if you’re talking about someone else. Now there are two ways to do this: there’s the way where you sound like a weird serial killer…and then there’s the other way.

The weird serial killer* way is when you say something like this:

"Mildred is a highly dependable communications graduate with five years’ experience in the media. Mildred is self-driven and motivated with a track record of driving publications to success with innovative ideas and application. Mildred is currently looking for a challenging role to continue to utilise her skills.”

The other third person way is where you simply remove the references to yourself altogether. So you’ll have a statement like this:

"Highly dependable communications graduate with five years’ experience in the media. Self-driven and motivated with a track record of driving publications to success with innovative ideas and application. Currently looking for a challenging role to continue to utilise skills.”

(As a side note, I would lose that last sentence completely from your profile statement….but that’s another post altogether.)

Pros and cons

So which style should you use? Well it all depends on where you are in your career and what you want to achieve with your CV. There are pros and cons to each method.

Pros of first person

• It’s personal
• It’s direct to the employer
• The employer already knows it’s you writing the CV so why pretend?

Cons of first person

• It can sound boastful
• It’s subjective so it makes everything you say sound subjective (i.e. that’s your opinion of yourself so of course you’re going to say good things)
• It’s frowned upon by certain recruiters (so you may miss out on a job without knowing)
• It’s only suitable for some types of jobs and industries
• The higher you go up the career ladder, the less desirable a form of communication it is

Pros of third person

• It’s the generally recognised and accepted method
• It’s objective so it sounds like it’s someone else singing your praises
• It comes across more professional
• It’s suitable for all types of jobs and industries

Cons of third person

• Some think it’s pretentious
• If written incorrectly (like the weird serial killer version), it can sound like someone else wrote your CV for you*
• In some countries (Finland for example), a third person profile is not the norm so your CV will go down like a lead balloon

*(A side note on someone else writing your CV for you – that’s perfectly acceptable (of course I’d say that, that’s what I do as a business!) as long as they know what they’re doing. Just like a good book editor is an asset to an author, a good professional CV writer will always maintain your voice and enhance who you are and what you’re about.)

So in conclusion, it’s up to you to decide whether you use the first person in your CV personal profile or the third. Whichever you choose, the important thing is to make sure that this section of your CV is engaging because it’s your first chance to sell yourself to your future employer. If you don’t manage to engage the employer here, it’ll be your last chance too.

(*Disclaimer: the weird serial killer thing is a joke. I have no idea how weird serial killers write the personal statement part of their CV).

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YOUR TURN: Have you used the first or third person on your CV personal profile? What are your reasons? Feel free to share...

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PS:

* If you’re a mid to senior level professional looking to change your job or career this year, I can help. Contact me at [email protected]  / visit www.cvmakeoverexpert.com.

* If finding a new job is your goal this year, you can pick up a copy of my book, The Science of Successful Job Hunting, at www.jobsciencebook.com.

* For speaking engagements, CV and other job-related workshops, visit my personal website at www.mildredtalabi.com.