You’ve got an impressive resume listing your many accolades and experiences. Great! You and 1,000’s of other brilliantly qualified applicants. A solid resume is vital, but it only shows what you’ve done not who you are. What to do? Show prospective employers and colleagues what makes you different from the pack. Distinguish yourself by writing a personal bio. Relax – it’s much simpler than you think! Here is the answer to the question “how to write a personal bio” broken down into 5 simple steps
How to Write a Personal Bio:
- First things first – decide on your target audience. Are you writing so that potential employers can get to know how fascinating you are so they want to interview you? To let your students know you’re human? If you want your writing to sound more professional, it would be best to write the personal bio in the 3rd person (even if it’s a bit awkward at first). 1st person is usually fine too, but more informal.
- Be brief! Even though your personal bio can be longer if it’s posted online (in print it’s usually about a paragraph or two), we probably don’t need to know that your pooch Fluffy died when you were 12 unless that incident has some bearing on who you are now. Shorter, more frequent paragraphs are easier for readers to follow than long, rambling ones. Flowery sentences may have worked for Hawthorne and Faulkner, but has no place in your personal bio. It doesn’t necessarily even need to be in paragraph format, but if you’re going to use a list format make it interesting. You have a lot less space to show your personality.
- What to include? Most personal biographies at least touch on all important times of life: childhood, young adulthood, recent successes. It’s important to keep it proportional, however, as you wouldn’t want to write five paragraphs about your childhood and only two about current endeavors. Focus on recent accomplishments, hobbies, favorites (movies, food, whatever you want the world to know). Mention family (spouse, children, parents) briefly, after all this is your personal bio, not theirs. Write little interesting tidbits that are unique to you! Be careful though and remember your audience – you may love the story of that frat party but it looks bad to an employer. Also include stories that make you relatable to readers (I was the typical nerd in high school . . .).
- Stay positive! This is not the place to tell people about the s.o.b. father who left you and the mother who beat you. The goal here is to make yourself noticed in a good way – employers don’t want to hire people who have a chip on their shoulder (be it justifiable or not).
- Pizazz! This is not supposed to be boring (for you or the reader) – include your personality in your personal bio. If you’re tongue-in-cheek, dry humored, zany, or whatever it should show in how you present yourself. Just remember to keep it appropriate and inoffensive – you’re not applying to be the next Jeff Foxworthy. Anyone and everyone will be able to read your bio and this is something that employers will probably look at before they decide to interview you. People with a can-do attitude and cheerful personality look far more appealing than those who are angry and embittered. Make a lasting impression!
Writing a personal bio may be brazen self-promotion, but you have to be your own advocate. Even if you have had some, ahem, unfortunate content of you (photos or otherwise) end up on the Internet, a recent, well-written bio will help undo some previous poor choices. Don’t lie and keep it interesting, professional, and uniquely you. Being pro-active in creating a positive Internet presence for yourself through a short personal biography will impress employers and make you memorable (in a good way).
Please also check out our articles on how to write professional bios or profiles:
- How to Write a Short, Professional Bio On Yourself (Learn from a master)
- 8 Tips to Write a Professional Bio
- 9 Professional Resume Tips
Bethany Stringer is a graduate of Texas A&M University (class of ‘08) and has her B.A. in English Literature with minors in History and Psychology. She is currently working as a decorative artisan’s apprentice, and plans to teach English in Russia in 2010 as a CELTA certified teacher. She owned her own business working horses when she was 17, and still loves riding her horse Romeo. Always appreciating a challenge, she loves sea kayaking and prefers Rachmaninov to Bach.
