Need to know how to write a professional bio on yourself? You’re not alone. Bio writing is a difficult and intimidating task. It forces you to prioritize what are the most important about yourself and your carrer. Is not an easy task to boil down your entire professional life into a few paragraphs that is clear, concise, and works for you and your audience.
#1 Keep it short and simple
When writing a bio, remember the difference between bio and biography.
Bio = short. Biography = long.
#2 Always write in the third person
What this means is that you write your professional bio as though someone else is talking about you. So instead of writing "I am" and "I graduated", you would write "Joe Doe is" and "He graduated".
Use your full name (first and last) the first time. After that, it's up to you whether you want to refer to yourself by your full name, just your first name, or just your last name. Here are some tips to keep in mind about the use of your name:
- first names are friendly and informal, while last names are more conservative and formal
- use your first name if you are trying to develop a relationship with your reader
- use your last name (e.g. "Doe graduated from" instead of "Joe graduated from") if you want your reader to have a more proffesional iimpression of yourself
Also, consider the norms of the industry you work in: a personal coach may choose to use just the first name, whereas a medical doctor may choose to use not only his last name but also his title "Dr. Doe".
But, remember, whichever form you decide to use, keep it consistent throughout your bio.
#3 Briefly highlight your main achievements
The key words here are "briefly" and "achievements". The purpose of a professional bio is to demonstrate your professional expertise and credibility. Remember that this is nor a resume, a professional bio only needs to cover the "highpoints" of your career.
Think about it in this way: "your professional bio is a little advertisement for you". And as you may know, advertisements should be are memorable and highlight the best features with very few words.
Ideally, your professional bio has to address the main questions that your readership whats to know about you. The basic information that readers want answered in your professional bio are:
- Who you are...
- What is your expertise and how was aquired...
- What type of person you are..
#4 Personal information
Personal information, such as where you're from, who you live with, and what you like doing in your spare time) is normally optional. But this is the place where you can stand out and show a little bit about the type of person you are, and entretain the reader.
Remember that there is nothing worst than a boring bio.
Some people say that personal information is not relevant in a professional bio, because it has nothing to do with the job. That may be true, but I find that most readers like getting a sense of who you are outside of your professional role.
#5 Don't be bland - let your personality show
Since your professional bio is an advertisement for you, make it reflect the real you. If you're a down-to-earth person, use unpretentious language. If you have a particular passion, let the reader know about it. If you love to joke around, include some humor in your bio.
#6 The longer bio, or website bio
As mentioned before, when writing a professional bio for a website you can make it a little longer if you wish.
If you choose to write a longer bio, make sure you break it into short paragraphs of about three sentences each. This is an improtant tip since studies show that when people are faced with a large block of text, especially on a computer screen, they find it harder to read and end up scanning over it quickly.
By making your paragraphs nice and short, you'll increase the likelihood that people will actually read your bio. And that is what you want, remember that this is an ad of yourself.
Now get going on your own bio. And remember, thou shalt not bore.
