A good professional bio starts with its purpose: know who will read it and what you want them to think of you. Write it in the third person, and keep three versions ready: a one-sentence micro bio, a short paragraph, and a long version.
There are many occasions when a short bio serves you well: when you apply for a job, publish a guest post, or want to connect with other professionals online. It tells people who you are far better than a column of bullet points that starts with your date of birth.
Here are the simple steps to follow when you write your professional biography.
Start with your purpose
Ask yourself why you are writing this bio, and who your audience is. Base the first draft on what you want your readers to think of you, because a bio has the power to shape that. A bio for clients of your freelance work reads very differently from one for a piece of fiction you published, or from a funny bio that you send to friends for a special occasion.
Write in the third person
Most professional bios are written in the third person ("Maria Lopez is a designer who helps small businesses"), and in most cases you should do the same. The third person does two things for you. It sounds objective, even though you wrote it yourself. And it makes you a storyteller: like the narrator of a novel, you step back and look at someone's life from the outside. (A first-person bio can still suit a personal blog or a social profile. More on the three points of view in first, second, and third person.)
Keep 3 versions of your bio
There are micro, short, and long bios for different purposes. In the professional world, you may be asked for any of the three, so it is a good idea to have all of them ready.
- The micro bio is a one-sentence pitch, for example for a social profile or the line under a guest post.
- The short bio is a medium-length paragraph that covers what the reader needs to know, in concise detail.
- The long bio sums up everything relevant about you: your career, your achievements, and what drives you.
For the micro bio on a social network, see also writing a social network profile.
Add some personality
Every bio should be as unique as the person it describes, so it is up to you to add a bit of personality. Make it unexpected or humorous if that is your style. You want people to be interested in what they read, and perhaps even to talk about it later.
When your draft is done, check it with the Spell Checker, so that you catch the small errors before the person who reads your job application does.