Personal statements

When applying for further study such as a Master's or PhD, you will often be asked to write a personal statement (sometimes called a statement of purpose). Read the instructions carefully as different programmes may also ask you to answer specific questions or have their own guidelines. If you are not given a word limit, aim for one to two pages in length.

Before you start writing research the course you are applying to thoroughly. Once you start writing you may want to consider:

• Current studies – how do your current studies relate to the course you are applying to? What topics, projects or technical skills have you done that will form a foundation for the future course. What have you most enjoyed or excelled at?
• Motivation – draw attention to any options you have selected in your current course that show your interest in the subject area you are applying to. Highlight any extra study you have done such as further reading, self-directed learning and attendance at talks/conferences. The values worksheet on our Know your motivation webpage can help you to reflect on your motivation.
• Future career – write about your future career plans and how the course you are applying to fits with them.
• Why this course? – show in your statement that you have thoroughly researched the course you are applying to and know what you will be taking on. Emphasise your fit to the course.
• Work and research experience – talk about previous experiences that you have had during internships, employment or in research projects. Highlight what you did successfully and the successful outcomes of your work.  Write about what you learned from your experience that will help you to be successful in the course you are applying to. The skills audit on our Know your skills page can help you to extract relevant skills you have learnt from your previous experiences.
• Extracurricular activities and interests – use these to show your personality and demonstrate transferable skills such as confidence, time-management and teamwork.

A public sector job is any role that is funded all or in part by tax payer money. Usually these jobs are based at Universities (like research assistant/associate or postdoctoral jobs), the NHS, local councils or in government departments. These roles will often have a structured job advertisement that will contain a personal specification that gives you a list of skills and attributes the employer will be using to shortlist your application. You will often be asked to produce a personal statement that shows you match the person specification. There is an example of this type of personal statement in our CV, Cover Letters and Personal Statements publication.

You should focus on answering three overarching questions:

1. Why do you want to do this job?
   Link your past experiences to aspects of the job you are applying to show you understand what you will have to do and that you know you will enjoy doing it.
2. Can you do this job?
   This will form the bulk of your statement as you need to prove that you can do as many of the skills listed in the person specification as possible. The easiest way to do this is to use headings which are the skills or attributes from the personal statement then provide a STAR story showing how you have used the skill in the past. You can find information and examples of structing STAR stories in the Typical Questions tab of our Application forms webpage. Sometimes you can group skills together that are proven by one example you are giving. The skills audit on our Know your skills page can help you reflect on your skills.
3. Why do you want to work for this employer/in this department?
   Link your past experiences to aspects of the employer to show that you will enjoy working in their environment. This could be related to the products they produce, the clients they work with, the team members you will be working with or the values that they have. The values worksheet on our Know your motivation webpage can help you to reflect on your motivation.

You might be given a word limit for your statement to work toward. If you are not given this, these statements can be quite long and will depend on the number of skills and attributes given within the person specification.

If the role you are applying for is not a public sector job or a programme of study, your personal statement is similar to a cover letter, although usually containing more evidence of your skills to do the job. Focus on answering three overarching questions:

1. Why do you want to do this job?
   Link your past experiences to aspects of the job you are applying to show you understand what you will have to do and that you know you will enjoy doing it.
2. Can you do this job?
   Use the job advertisement to identify the skills you’ll need to do the job and give evidence that you have gain these skills from your past experiences. The easiest way to do this is by telling stories using the STAR story format. You can find information and examples of structing STAR stories in the Typical Questions tab of our Application forms webpage. Often you will gain more than one skill from your experiences. The skills audit on our Know your skills page can help you reflect on your skills.
3. Why do you want to work for this employer/in this department?
   Link your past experiences to aspects of the employer to show that you will enjoy working in their environment. This could be related to the products they produce, the clients they work with, the team members you will be working with or the values that they have. The values worksheet on our Know your motivation webpage can help you to reflect on your motivation.

There is not a set format you need to use to write a personal statement. One way is to focus on each of the three above questions in separate paragraphs, or you can use a chronological, life history style to show your progression.

If you are not given a word limit, aim for one to one and a half pages for a general personal statement.