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Can you give me some suggestion on how to write an impressive about me section in my cv?

I know I'm supposed to give relevant information (I'm a scientist, by the way) which is not directly covered by my academic background and career, but basically I don't have a clue about what to include (for example, should I add the description of some traits of my personality?).

I'm particularly thinking about some sections of the second page of this one www.teemeurope.eu/documents/europeanCVformat.doc namely PERSONAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES and OTHER SKILLS AND COMPETENCES and the linkedin profile

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    CV sizes vary broadly from one-page concise versions to extensive 7+ pages long web-page versions. Unless you specify the desired size (and purpose) of your CV, there is no general answer. – Dmitry Savostyanov Jul 3 '14 at 17:40
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    I have never seen an academic CV with an "about me" section. Can you point us to some examples? – ff524♦ Jul 3 '14 at 19:09
  • I'm particularly thinking about some sections of the second page of this one teemeurope.eu/documents/europeanCVformat.doc namely PERSONAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES and OTHER SKILLS AND COMPETENCES and the linkedin profile – user10024 Jul 3 '14 at 20:23
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    relevant information...not directly covered by my academic background and career — What? An academic CV is a summary of your academic background and career; nothing more or less. (If you're asking about a non-academic CV/resume, you're at the wrong site.) – JeffE Jul 4 '14 at 6:12
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    "PERSONAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES" I'd say something like the tools (OS, frameworks, VCS, languages like LaTeX, etc.) that you can use. I like to keep the traceability of my stated skills with my past work done. I don't have an "about me" section, and if I was checking CVs I'd completely skip that section, I'm quite skeptical about everything. My advice may be bad and biased, after all it's about marketing and you are the product, but I think I'm more of a "doer" than a talker and I'd prefer to work with doers, even if talkers seem to get better jobs and better salaries (lol skills: skype :P ). – Trylks Jul 4 '14 at 9:26
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It looks like what you are being asked for here is sort of a hybrid between an academic and conventional CV. I dislike this sort of form filling CV but if its what you've got to do...

Personal skills and similar sections generally are looking for your soft/transferable skills. Good communications, team-working etc. Try and not just state these but add some qualification e.g I'm good team working which I have developed/demonstrated during whatever project or competition or something. It's very easy to say you have some skill but far more convincing if you can demonstrate it. Similarly be prepared to defend anything you say in an interview.

For an academic CV you should focus more on your publications and academic work etc. and keep your personal skills section fairly short. When given silly form type CVs to complete don't feel obliged to complete all the sections. I would definitely just remove the Artistic skills section if I was doing this (I have none!).

Here is a similar template which also has some basic instructions and an example (admittedly non-scientific) http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/documents/curriculum-vitae/templates-instructions

For advice on writing actual academic CVs see http://www.careers.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Academic-CV-2012.pdf

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  • your last link has died – Ooker Apr 1 '15 at 19:18

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