Writing A Professional Profile

by Krista

What is a Professional Profile?

A professional profile is an alternative or addition to your job objective. It can take its form in a paragraph that acts as a sort of personal description of your accomplishments, qualifications and qualities or can form a list with bullets to separate your different strengths.

What does it include?

A profession profile makes good use of showing what you've accomplished and the actions you've taken to succeed. Commonly, action words in the past tense strength your description. Such words like "recognized", "accumulated" or "increased" used in combination with your qualifications and experience present right off the bat what kind of candidate you are.
It can also include a professional title of sorts that shows the type of worker you are, this deals with your personal transferable skills and qualities. Examples of this can be "dedicated executive" or "responsible manager" that show how you've taken your skills mixed with your role as an employee.
Some like to use the bullet feature to show their area of expertise. This can include your technological background (such a computer graphics experience, dealing with certain documents and programs etc), transferable skills, or accomplishments you've got under your belt. This listing provides an easily accessible view of what you've done in the past and what skills you have now that can be used at your future job.
Your professional profile gives a brief insider look at the type of employee you are based on your experiences, skills and accumulated knowledge and results.

How does this differ from a job objective?

Your job objective is more of a brief statement of the job you'd like to pursue and has more of a focus on what you are seeking. Whereas a professional profile does more to highlight your strengths and a summary of your experiential background.

Here is an example of a Professional Profile found at monster.ca:

Professional Profile

Accomplished executive with a proven ability to develop and implement real estate strategies that support business and financial objectives. Have led key initiatives that reduced operating budget by $32 million and contributed to 550 percent stock increase. Recognized as an expert in applying financial concepts to asset management decisions.

Respected leader, able to build highly motivated management teams focused on achieving revenue goals. Keep up-to-date with changes in the industry through continuing professional development (earned an MBA in finance/real estate and master of corporate real estate designation).

Areas of Expertise

High-Volume, High-Dollar Negotiations
Strategic/Tactical Planning
Multimillion-Dollar Operating and Capital Budget Administration
Analytical and Financial Skills
Statistical Modeling and ROI Analyses

Including a professional profile, even if you simply lay out your profile as bullet points alone shows your strengths in an easy to read, comprehensive format.

References: Isaacs, Kim. "How to Write a Career Summary". 2008 Monster.ca June 17th 2008