Bio

Quick reference

• 00:05 Our work with professional business writing moves on to your professional bio,
• 00:12 the short biography that summarizes your story highlights for business purposes.
• 00:19 It's a great idea when you're working on your resume and cover letter
• 00:23 to also prepare a bio appropriate for your current stage in your career and then keep it
• 00:29 updated as time moves on. The idea is to condense your resume
• 00:35 and draw from your cover letter, bringing life to both in a quick read that will serve a variety of purposes
• 00:41 for many audiences. Beginning with...
• 00:44 The job application process
• 00:47 especially if you're working with a recruiter
• 00:49 or a longer hiring process, you might need to create this kind of a personal statement. A bio will also be useful as an internal communications
• 01:00 document for an employer, for instance it could be part of your employment file when you're being considered for a promotion.
• 01:10 Professional to professional communications
• 01:13 also require a bio; a project report or investor deck might feature of the bios of all the contributing team members.
• 01:25 Bios can reach to a very wide audiences as well. Customer facing materials like staff listings and catalogs for example or facility web sites.
• 01:37 You will often find yourself writing your first bio to meet that specific request or a particular purpose.
• 01:44 Like the bio shown here for Ken Puls; he is the GoSkills tutor for the Microsoft Excel course.
• 01:55 This is actually a super easy way to begin writing your bio: start by asking about any required formats are suggestions for content
• 02:04 from whomever is requesting if from you.
• 02:08 One long paragraph is the standard length. As long as you're writing, why not create shorter
• 02:15 version too though, as one with more detailed information like Kens here just to have on hand.
• 02:22 Write in the third person.
• 02:24 That means writing as if you were speaking about someone else. You can see how can does this from the start
• 02:32 with his first words, "Ken is a certified management accountant who never remembers life without spreadsheets".
• 02:42 A good bio will summarize your career in short order beginning with
• 02:47 your current position or
• 02:48 your most recent role if you're not employed.
• 02:53 Be sure to focus on major business posts and highlight accomplishments.
• 02:58 You don't have to have a lot of space to work within a bio to keep the most impressive things forward, like how NASA's made use of Ken's
• 03:07 web site and how he has won prestigious awards from Microsoft.
• 03:14 Include something unique about yourself or a worthwhile perspective
• 03:18 if you have space. Although not all bios allow for personal information
• 03:23 some make a point of including it. You should keep a general and sincere for example here we have a
• 03:29 quote from Ken about how the power of Excel software still amazes him.
• 03:35 So whether it's your very first bio or you have an experience of a veteran and you now have some strong reminders on
• 03:44 how to bring your business highlights to life in a story that has the power to speak about you personally
• 03:51 from the third person perspective.
• 03:53 And it can go beyond both your resume and your cover letter.

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