Use present, past, future
- Present: what you do now (or study), in one or two sentences.
- Past: one or two experiences or achievements that are relevant to this role.
- Future: why this job, at this company, is the next step.
Example: experienced candidate
“I'm a customer success manager at a software company, looking after around 40 business accounts. Before that I spent three years in support, where I cut our average resolution time by a third. I'm most proud of building our onboarding programme, which reduced first-year churn. I'm applying here because you're growing your enterprise team, and that's the part of the job I enjoy most.”
Example: fresher
“I've just finished a B.Com at Delhi University, where I specialised in finance. During my internship at a mid-size accounting firm I helped prepare monthly reconciliations for eight clients, and my final-year project analysed working capital for listed FMCG companies. I'm applying for this analyst role because I want to build that analysis into a career, and your graduate programme is known for strong training.”
Avoid
- Starting from school or your hometown.
- Repeating your CV line by line.
- Personal details that have nothing to do with the job.
- Going past two minutes.