Step 8 – Keep to the word count

KEEP TO THE WORD COUNT

Personal statements for job applications nearly always have word count/character limits but they can vary quite a lot. Check the word limit before you start writing your statement. You can do this by filling in the rest of the online application and getting to the section with the personal statement. The open text box that you are required to fill in will show you the word or character limit once you start writing in it. Once you know the word limit, it is a good idea to save your application, and draft your personal statement on a separate Word document. This way you can email it to your Faculty Employability Adviser or anyone you know who would be willing to look over it for you before you send it. It is important that it is presented well, with no grammar or spelling mistakes! Start by writing your statement, making sure you address all the points on the Person Specification, then see how many words you need to reduce it by once you have finished. It is easy to reduce the word count once you have covered all the points: F Read through and check for any repetition you can remove. F Take out unnecessary words and make your language more concise, for example: Change: “I was part of a large team for a project as part of my Ancient History module during my undergraduate History degree” to “As part of a team for a University project in Ancient History”

Or just simple changes like “all of the customers” to “all customers” can add up to reduce the word count significantly. If the word count is low and the Person Specification is long, it can be challenging to address all the points with full examples. In this case: F Double check if it is indicated which points are being assessed in your application. Remember the example in Fig.1 of the Graduate Research Associate earlier. This showed that some of the points would be assessed in the interview, so you would not need to address them in the personal statement. F The points at the top of the list on the Person Specification tend to be the most important (things like “experience and understanding of how a sales department works” or “experience of working in a helping role in a social care environment” and become more generic as they go on (“positive attitude”, “willingness to travel”). The more important points near the top will require more detail and others further down can be addressed more briefly.