An attention-grabbing bio is one of the important aspects so that you are called for an interview and accepted for a job. In order to prepare an interesting and quality biodata, first determine the information that you will present. After that, prepare a bio in a professional language style so that your educational background and experience are worthy of consideration. The last step, take advantage of creative abilities so that your biodata display looks the most special.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Deciding What Information to Present
Step 1. Determine the type of bio that you will prepare
There are 3 types of biodata that are commonly used: chronological, functional, and combined. Choose the right type of bio before you start writing.
- Chronological biodata is used to provide information on work experience in chronological order starting from the last job to the first job. Besides being easier to read, potential employers will know your complete work history, including information on whether you have ever been unemployed. Therefore, do not make a chronological bio if you have not worked in a certain time span. Use a chronological bio to describe promotions and what skills you've developed over the course of your job.
- Functional biodata is used to describe skills and abilities that may be useful to prospective employers without including date, place, and years of service so that there is no disconnection of years of service. Although functional biodata can be used to emphasize certain abilities and skills, many employers do not like this biodata because it does not reveal the fact if the applicant has been unemployed or underachieved in a career. Use a functional bio if you are fresh out of college, want a career in another field, or are looking for work as a freelancer.
- Combination biodata is a combination of functional and chronological biodata. In addition to presenting work history in chronological order, there is a separate section to inform various skills, volunteer work, and relevant courses or training. Use a combined bio if you're looking for a career in a new field, but with lots of experience that you can take advantage of. If your experience is still limited, don't use a combined biodata because it can give the impression that you want to cover up an unsatisfactory work history.
Step 2. Enter complete information about yourself
In every bio, there is some important information that you should always include. Write down the following information when you create your bio:
- Contact information consisting of name, phone number, home address, and email address. Write in full the words that are often abbreviated, for example: street, kelurahan, and sub-district. Provide an email address using your full name to appear professional.
- Include educational background that you have and are currently pursuing. Write the name of the school, GPA, faculty, department, and minimum passing grade standards. Also let us know if you have ever received an academic award or taken a relevant course. For example: if you want to work in the health sector and have a certificate in cardiopulmonary resuscitation training, provide this information in the education history section.
Step 3. Determine the work history that needs to be included in the bio
You don't have to write down all the work you've ever done. List work experience that demonstrates career advancement and skills. Therefore, first determine the work history that you need to include in your bio.
- Customize your bio for the job you want. For example: if you want to work in marketing, write down all jobs related to marketing.
- Many applicants make the mistake of listing all work experience including jobs that have nothing to do with the desired field. If you want to work in the field of publications, business owners are not interested in reading the work history of applicants who were waitresses last year. He will be impressed by applicants who have work experience as a journalist and have been a campus magazine journalist for 3 years during college.
- If you are looking for a career in a new field, submitting an application with relevant work history is not easy. Even if you remain an employee for years, your tenure is likely to be cut off if irrelevant work experience is removed. Therefore, express the experience as something useful. For example: You want to move from a service company to an advertising field with 3 years of working experience as a waitress in a luxury restaurant. Instead of ignoring service experience, explain that you are using the waitressing profession as a learning opportunity so that you are able to interact with customers and understand what they need from the restaurant business and these are invaluable skills in marketing.
Step 4. Add supporting information
Do not let your biodata less effective because of the selection of work history. Write down your skills as supporting information so that your bio is worthy of consideration.
- Write the title “Supporting Skills” to inform other aspects that are not related to work history.
- If you speak a foreign language, have a certificate or license, include it in your bio, but make sure the information is relevant. For example: to apply for a job in the field of law, a certificate of sewing course does not need to be included.
- Awards or publications are also very useful, especially if you want to work in education.
- Skills in using various computer programs are needed in almost all fields of work. List professional work experience requiring these skills.
Step 5. List transferable skills
Even if you apply for a job in a different field, the experience you gain while working can usually be used in another field. For example: as a recent graduate and have worked as a waitress, you already have experience serving customers and communicating, even if the job is not relevant. Write the title “Skills” to describe the skills you have acquired from having worked for a number of years, but which cannot be included in your general work history.
- Under the heading “Skills”, write “Interpersonal communication skills” because almost all jobs require collaboration with other people. Work experience in the service sector equips you with the ability to listen actively, overcome differences, express opinions with respect, and provide the best service to customers.
- Write down the ability to plan and perform management. “Management skills” are abilities that every employee must possess, including those who work part-time for a small salary. In the general skills section, explain that you are capable of solving problems well, meeting deadlines, and tackling multiple tasks at once.
- In job advertisements, leadership is usually one of the requirements to apply. Describe your leadership skills in the general skills section. For example: if you have to supervise a new employee, explain that you have experience coaching or counseling subordinates.
- Lately, prospective employees are expected to be able to use social media. If you have a personal blog or Twitter account, include it in your bio too, but make sure the content is quality.
Part 2 of 3: Writing Biodata
Step 1. Choose the right words
Biodata is a means to appreciate yourself. Use words that make a positive impression and are able to express your experience well.
- Look for words that are commonly used in biodata on the internet. You can search by category, for example: control, improve, clarify, manage, improve, and many other important terms that are usually listed in biodata.
- Describe some tasks at work in impressive words. For example: since you worked as an assistant editor of a magazine and were responsible for customizing articles, write in your bio: “I am in charge of reading articles from contributors and then checking the grammar and quality of the content. If there are changes, I always discuss with the author and editor before the article is published.”
- You can develop this statement to make it more impressive, for example: “I am responsible for ensuring several aspects of each article submitted by contributors, for example: clarity of meaning, sense of language, and grammar. In this regard, I always work closely with the authors and fellow editors to improve the quality of the articles.”
Step 2. Try to provide quantitative data
In addition to listing a range of skills, also provide specific supporting data.
- If you've worked for a company, include accurate business revenue figures. Instead of just informing: “I managed to increase my operating income during 2013” also provide accurate data, for example: “I managed to increase my operating income in 2012 from Rp120,000,000 to Rp340,000,000 in 2013.”
- Support information with quantitative data. If you have been a teacher, provide information: "I once taught English 5 days per week to 18 high school students with a schedule of 4 sessions per day, 1 hour per session."
- If quantitative data is not available, provide information on working hours. For example: if your job requires high creativity, demonstrate your competence by providing data on how long you worked. If your performance is based on work performance, explain how long you train each day to achieve your best performance. If you work in writing, share the number of words per day you write to give potential employers an idea of your daily level of writing productivity.
Step 3. Prepare biodata in the form of lists and paragraphs
Biodata describing skills can be made in the form of a narrative by writing a short paragraph below the work history or in the form of a list explaining the skills point by point. The best option is a combination of the two. Start by describing your general work history in a few sentences followed by a list of tasks you have performed during your time at work.
Part 3 of 3: Determining the Right Display Settings
Step 1. Try to prepare a one-page bio
The length of the bio should not exceed one page. So, consider carefully what needs to be included. If the number of applicants who need to be selected is very large, the prospective employer may ignore the biodata that is longer than one page because he has to read the biodata one by one to determine the applicants who are eligible to be interviewed.
Step 2. Use an easy-to-read font in size 12 or 10
Choose the standard font size and shape that is usually used to write biodata.
- Choose a font that is easy to read and suitable for submitting job applications. Do not use italics or decorative fonts.
- Fonts commonly used to write biodata, for example: Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, and Georgia. However, if you're applying for a job that requires creative skills, choose a more artistic, but easy-to-read typeface, for example: Bookman Old Style, Garamond, Goudy Old Style, or Century Gothic.
- You can provide more information if you use smaller letters, but not less than 10. Potential employers may not read hard-to-read bios.
Step 3. Use formatting and punctuation consistently
The use of punctuation for writing biodata is not universally defined, but you must use punctuation consistently.
- Biodata in the form of a list usually uses sentence fragmentation and does not need to end with a period. Although there are no fixed rules, use punctuation consistently. If you end the title “Work History” with a period, do the same when writing the heading “Supporting Experience”.
- Leave a space. You can reduce the spacing for more writing experience, but this makes the bio hard to read. Space the two sections consistently throughout the document.
- If you use the list format in the work history section, use the same format for the support experience section.
Step 4. Use creativity to make your bio look the most special
The bio should sound professional, but not boring. In addition, add creative things to make your bio look the most attractive.
- Give it a color, but don't choose a color that is too bright or too dark to make the text difficult to read, for example a primary color that is too light or yellow. Biodata will look more attractive if you shade the title of each section in blue or purple.
- Create an online bio or personal website so potential employers can get more information about you, especially if you want to work in a field that requires creativity.
- Put a monogram to include your initials in the top corner of the bio as a finishing touch.
- Look for various biodata formats on the internet so that you can make the best biodata.
Step 5. Use a different format than usual
Creating a bio will be safest if you use a standard format, but you will need to explore slightly different formats to make your bio stand out the most. If you're applying for a job in a creative field, use a format that doesn't sound casual, but is easy to read.
- Jobs that require creativity place a high priority on formatting when creating documents, for example: in the field of graphic design, a biodata with a traditional, mediocre format can be considered boring by potential employers. Consider the field of work you choose to determine the format of the bio. Many applicants get interview opportunities because they send biodata according to the field of work they want. For example: a woman applying for a job in the scrapbooking sector. He prepared a bio with a background image of a series of interlocking paper clips and a paper label attachment tool. Although he was not hired, his bio was very interesting and he was given an interview.
- If you are not looking for a job in a particular field, create a bio in a standard format and an attractive design. To be more creative, look for biodata formats and examples on the internet, for example on the Flickr and Pinterest sites.
- Don't make a bio that is too creative. While an eye-catching design is one way to make your bio stand out the most, don't use too much creation and formatting to mask the content. Make sure your bio is easy to read without compromising the design.
Tips
- If you use email to send your bio, send it as a PDF. The format of a document created with the Word program can change if accessed using a different computer so that it is not the same as the format you are using.
- Prepare some biodata according to the job you want, especially if you have the opportunity to apply for several job vacancies.
