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You can input up to 5000 characters in the ‘Essential and desirable criteria' for the role text boxes. A character countdown will show you how many characters you have left to use.

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Application writing tips: How to cut down on words

Posted in: Advice , Applications , Tips & Hints

Gone over the word limit? Don’t know which sentences to sacrifice? This article has been written for those of you who are concerned that you might compromise your work with the delete button. Whether this is a job application or a personal statement, this problem is common across all written formats. Consider the points below to assist you in your decision-making.

Scour your application for redundant words

Read each sentence and see how many words you can delete without losing meaning. For example, where you have written “I have chosen to apply to this role because…” you could say “I am applying to this role because…”. It only removes two words but if you continue doing this for each sentence those words will really add up (or subtract down).

On these lines, somewhere in your application you might have described your responsibilities or aims of your project by saying ‘the aim of this project was to identify…’ but instead you could delve straight in and say ‘I identified…’. You would simultaneously cut down on words and produce a more active voice.

Remove repetition

If you have mentioned how organised you are more than once, don’t! You can use the Ctrl + F function on your keyboard to search for words you think you have overused. It will locate each word and offer you the opportunity to replace or delete.

Try the combine method

If you have written about an experience in one section and mention the same experience again in a later section, think about whether you can combine it all into one single section. You might find you save some space if you are not introducing the experience a second time but continuing from the first mention.

Be wary of textbook talk

If you have described something, say a statistical technique, then ask yourself, does this read like a section in a textbook? Do they know this information already? Am I just trying to prove my knowledge? If the answer is yes to these questions, then what you wrote might qualify as a candidate for deletion.

One paragraph; one goal

Finally, stand back and observe the structure of your application. Ensure each paragraph has one overarching point. If you see any information that diverges from this point, or simply doesn’t add anything, consider removing it.

By the end, you should have a polished application where every word matters!

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Creating the Perfect CV for NHS jobs

I know you must be excited about how to proceed now that you’ve completed a series of hurdles to get to where you are now. The next obstacle to face: getting a job. This is not an easy task. Sure, far be it from me to tell you that there are not thousands of job openings available and that the NHS is not hoping that many doctors apply, but there is one thing you must keep in mind- how you create a perfect CV for NHS jobs to present yourself is extremely important.

Table of Contents

Why do I need a CV for NHS jobs then?

So you may be asking yourself that already. Not every job advert asks for a CV, but some do, and there is no harm your keeping one handy just in case, especially if you get called in for a job interview, or an HR wants it for documentation.

Also going through this article you will find out what things makes a difference in your NHS jobs application. It can also help you populate answers in the online application form in your NHS jobs profile.

Different parts of the CV

Ensure your CV is professional, succinct, and well-laid out . The skeleton of your CV for NHS jobs will consist of:

• The objective/ Profile
• Your educational qualifications
• Any training courses/certifications
• Medical experience/jobs held
• Research/ Audit/ Clinical governance done
• Teaching experience
• Management/leadership experience
• Team working
• Volunteer work/ Extracurricular experience
• Linguistic qualifications

The list what I’ve made here is of my own making; feel free to work with the order you feel comfortable with. If you’ve noticed, you can fill a few of these headings with what you’ve put in your NHS jobs profile. The only difference is that there is no word limit here. Also, you might be wondering I don’t have this or that, what do I write here- no worries. I’ll cover everything to the best of my ability.

1. Header

Let’s start with the header. It is made up of-

It would be ideal to ensure you have a professional email, something preferably with your name in it rather than a ‘ fun ’ email. For instance, try for an email like [email protected] versus [email protected]. It would also be a good idea if you were to provide a local UK mobile number and address. Please ensure the address you provide can be proved by a tenancy agreement or a letter or a something to that extent as your employer may need it to be verified. If you can’t manage that, just give any address that you can prove (home address is absolutely okay).

2. Objective / Profile

Next is the objective . What you need to explain here is, briefly, what you’ve done so far (related work experience) and what you hope to do in the future, and why you are applying for this job; a summary, a quick look . For example,

“I have completed my internship training/worked as a medical officer/ [your post] for [duration] at [hospital name]. I rotated through various specialties/ worked in [this] department. Out of all these specialties/ During working there, I discovered my interest in [that] field because this offers [reason]. This is why I’m applying for this job. Being organised and working hard, I want to see myself as a better doctor in the years to come.”

Sharp. Simple. Short.

You will get to explain the whole thing in the following headings, but this introduction gives the reader a fair idea about you just at the start.

3. Educational Qualifications

Isn’t it just a boring table with columns and rows.

Yes and no. You will definitely put everything in your CV for NHS jobs in a table, but there are so many ways you can format it to stand out and get your information across. For example,

• Make a border less table, everything looks well aligned minus the ugliness of the crowded lines.
• Put the years you obtained your degrees in the first column rather than your degree or institution.
• Bold the degree names, and write the institution’s name under that, and the year you obtained it in another column in the same row.

You can follow past to present or present to past. I personally think present to past is a better idea.

4. Training courses / Certifications

Same thing goes like educational qualifications. Make a table preferably as the same format as above.

There is always a debate about whether or not to attend any sort of a BLS course beforehand to bolster the CV for NHS jobs. One can argue that it is a waste, but I found more response in my interviews after doing one, and it only cost £35 to attend for a validity of one year. Follow this link to sign up for an  Adult Basic Life Support course . Courses like ILS/ALS/ALERT can be done after you’ve started working as many trusts cover the cost, but if you still wish to complete them, ensure they are ResusUK certified .

If you’re taking ALS soon, check out our post on how to prepare for ALS.

I have no certifications/training courses!

It’s completely fine. You can just drop this heading and move on to the next one.

5. Medical Experience

This is where you get the chance to explain at length what you told in your profile at the beginning. Here also you can take that present to past approach. Be sure you mention the following things:

• The hospital that you’ve worked in
• Duration of your job
• Your job description there, i.e. what you did there. Make it a bulleted list. You can face a difficulty here sounding very repetitive with “I did that….”, “I followed up patients…”, “I performed these procedures…”. Try dropping the “I” here; “Admitted patients…”, “Performed this…”, “Communicated with people…”, “Helped junior colleagues…” – it tells the same story but comes across as more professional.

One job experience can follow another. Follow the same pattern of describing all your medical experiences in your CV for NHS jobs.

6. Research/ Audit/ Clinical governance experience

Again here, if you don’t have it, you don’t have it . Skip it. Yes, these make you a better candidate, but if you didn’t do it back when you had a chance to do it, what can you do now? You will have greater chances to involve yourself in these activities when you start working in the UK. Audits from back home will also be accepted. If you’re unsure on where to start, see our article on understanding audits and QIPs .

During the interview, if you are asked what do you think you need to improve about yourself? Or what do you think your shortcomings are? – you can just take this opportunity and say you need to take part in audits and research more.

I’ll advise you to read up about audit, research, clinical governance, and related topics and how it helps health care both clinically and non-clinically.

I would highly recommend purchasing and reading the book  Medical Interviews: A Comprehensive Guide to CT, ST & Registrar Interview Skills

7. Teaching Experience

If you have a formal teaching qualification you can mention here with the experience of teaching. But even your informal experience of teaching undergraduates during your ward rotations can also be also mentioned here. You should include when you taught and what you taught them. If it’s informal, there is obviously no proof, but you can still mention it here.

Your NHS jobs profile must have a paragraph there about this. Just work on that as there is no word limit now.

8. Management & Leadership Experience

Same as the NHS jobs profile. If you find it difficult how to write it, here are some tips:

You can give one or two example, elaborating-

• The situation- what happened,
• The task that needed to be done – the challenge,
• What you did- your action that proves the point,
• The response- the outcome of your action.

I’m sure if you’ve worked as a doctor anywhere, you can find multiple examples in your life. Just word it nicely and follow the above skeleton.

9. Team work experience

These actually create the bulk of your CV for NHS jobs. No, these aren’t NOT important. This, including management and teaching experience, paints a picture of how you are as an employee in the workplace.

Follow the same skeleton above to write one or two examples where you’ve showed you’re a good team player.

10. Volunteer work/ Extracurricular experience

If you don’t have it, you don’t have it.

Just make sure to follow the same format as you’ve explained your medical experience.

11. Languages

You know what languages you are fluent in. Also add languages where you have limited  to  moderate proficiency.

No, don’t talk about your football/basketball skills here. It’s nearly at the end of your CV, and to say it  bluntly , you need to sell yourself a bit further. The things that should populate your “Skills” heading are unknowingly given to you. The job description and person specification. Yes, that document has a list of skills that they want from you, it can be anything starting from good communication skills to being tech savvy. Read that and fill this section up accordingly.

If you don’t know where to find the job description and person specification please look here how to apply for jobs in the NHS , to see a breakdown of a job advert.

13. Interests

The final personal touch. Now, you can talk about football/ basketball/sports and all. Movies, music, dance, art & culture- anything that you are interested in or anything that relieves your stress- goes here.

Just a tip here, keep it short and professional. You’re not writing a letter to your friend or a dating profile.

14. References

Personally I don’t like the idea of writing all my reference details if not requested specifically, as those are privileged information among myself, my employer’s HR and my referees.

Just type “ Available upon request ”, which is more than enough. You can always email your referees’ details if they request it  later on.

To conclude

It wasn’t that complicated, was it?

The last tip, DO NOT send your CV in a doc/docx format, ALWAYS send it in a PDF format. Foxit reader or most of the readers have the option to make a new PDF from any word document. I personally use Nitro PDF to work with PDFs.

Now that you have a good CV, the only thing that remains is nailing the interview. Check out The Interview: Part 2 of 3 for an introduction to the common interview questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long my cv should be.

In NHS jobs online application, all the text boxes have work limit but when you are submitting one written like this, there is no limit. Make sure you keep it succinct.

What can I put on my CV to make it stand out?

Be yourself and write your own words. Don’t copy-paste of blindly write whatever you see on different blogs and Facebook posts. That’s a sure way that your CV will look like someone elses’s. Follow different structures and fill those by your own words. Use spell and grammar checking software.

What should not be included in your CV?

We have seen people write how backward and underdeveloped their country’s healthcare system is and how great UK healthcare is in their supporting information.  Completely unnecessary . Also talking about personal circumstances and struggles in life should also not come up in your job application. We have painfully read some supporting information where IMGs are practically begging for a job.  Very unprofessional .

Can I get your CV template?

No. That is how your CV will be like hundreds others. Follow the headlines in this article and write a few words to a few paragraphs under each title.  There you go,  you have a template now.

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• HealthJobs Ltd
• 27 June 2018

How To Write A Personal Statement For Your Next Job In Healthcare

• Matt Farrah Nurses.co.uk Co-founder / Co-owner
• Save for later

An excellent personal statement is the key to success in every healthcare job application you make and in this article we look at the steps to follow in order to create the ideal one.

If you’ve written a personal statement before for a previous job application or university course application, you can use ideas and themes from that but you can’t simply use the same one again.

A personal statement must be tailored for each situation, and when you’re applying for healthcare jobs you need to tailor it according to the person specification and job description of the vacancy you’re interested in.

Start with a brainstorm of ideas

If you try to sit down and write your personal statement from scratch by starting with the first sentence, you could find your finished personal statement has no coherence and does not follow a logical order.

By brainstorming your ideas first you can prioritise the points you want to make and assemble all the evidence you want to mention that will back up the claims you’re going to make.

In order to avoid repetition in your personal statement, pick out a couple of points you want to make in your opening statement that really establish you as a serious contender for the job; for example, your qualification or current employment.

Then move on to the centre section where you should elaborate on the all the reasons why you are perfect for the job! Use the person specification and job description from the vacancy advert as a reference and try to check off the points you’re making with the requirements of the employer.

Your closing section should summarise the main points you want the employer to remember you for, especially your professional expertise if you applying for a doctor job , dentist job or any other senior healthcare professional job.

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Put words around your ideas

As you begin to put your ideas into sentences, be mindful of the length of your personal statement. It’s easy to write too much, but you are more likely to be successful if you are succinct and coherent.

It’s essential as you’re writing that you use a variety of examples from your experience to illustrate each point you’re making because you want to demonstrate the range of your experience.

It will also help to make your personal statement as memorable as possible because the employer will have a really good insight into your history and how your experience can make you ideal for their job vacancy.

Proof-read and edit your personal statement several times

When you think you have your personal statement completed go back and proof read it to spot any spelling errors, and to check that the information you have given is accurate.

Your personal statement forms part of your job application so you can be sure that when you apply you are required to confirm all information is correct to the best of your knowledge.

Whether you’re an experienced healthcare professional in a particular field, or you’re applying for your first healthcare assistant job , the personal statement is an essential part of the job application.

It’s your only opportunity to talk directly to the employer before they decide whether or not you are suitable for the job and therefore should be offered an interview.

Try to imagine the questions they will be asking themselves when reading your personal statement and provide clear, concise answers to as many of those questions as you can anticipate.

Once your personal statement has secured you an interview, you'll be wanting advice on how to smash your interview, right? Take a look at how to successfully prepare for interviews in healthcare to find out how to do just that.

Looking for a job in medicine or health care? Next Steps... Create an account. We will help you build a CV as part of that process. This will get you ready to start searching for jobs.

About the author.

I believe people working in healthcare should be able to choose to enjoy work. That is, choose an employer who reflects their values and provides them with a sustainable career. This leads to better patient care, higher retention rates and happier working lives in this most important employment sector.

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How the process of applying works

The working environment in the NHS is unique, so work experience could be especially valuable when planning your career.

This is a general guide to work experience in the NHS. However, every NHS organisation will have its own specific procedures that may differ slightly.

1. Speak to your careers adviser/teacher at your school or college

Many NHS organisations will have agreements with local schools or colleges on work experience placements. Your teacher or careers adviser may be able to help you secure a placement. If you do not have any luck, don’t give up, there are other options available.

2. Contact the trust

You’ll find details of NHS trusts in your area on nhs.uk . Ask to speak to someone in the human resources (HR), voluntary services or learning and development departments and explain that you are looking into a career in the NHS and would like to do some work experience. You may be referred to a specific person within the trust who organises work or voluntary placements.

3. Discuss your placement

It will help if you have an idea of what sort of career you’re interested in. That way the NHS organisation can find you a placement that suits you and where you’ll learn as much as possible. If you’re still unsure about what you want to do, talk to your teacher or careers adviser or take another look at our career mapper quiz or our A-Z section of careers in the NHS. Following your discussion with the trust, it is likely that they’ll send you an information pack and application form.

4. Application form

Fill in the application form as fully as possible and check if there is a closing date. Some NHS trusts treat applications for work experience like job applications, so make sure you don't leave it too late.

Different trusts will have different procedures, but most will have a summary of work placement rules with the application form. If you have a CV, don't forget to include it with your application form. For advice on writing a CV, visit the National Careers Service website .

5. If there are no places

There may be all sorts of reasons why you’re not offered a placement. It could simply be down to a lack of places, a shortage of supervisors or having too many students on placement already. Unfortunately, some trusts just don’t offer work experience. But don’t lose heart; you could always try other trusts in your area and even explore opportunities in private and voluntary healthcare. You can also find thousands of volunteering opportunities in health and social care at do-it.org.uk .

6. Interview

You may be accepted without an interview, but if you are asked to attend it can be a valuable part of the work experience process. Prepare for it just like you would do for any other job interview; dressed smartly, on time and prepared to ask some questions of your own. For advice and top tips on interviews, visit the National Careers Service website .

7. Confirmation letter

You’ll be sent a confirmation letter, health questionnaire, and an honorary contract for you and your parent/guardian to sign if you are under 18. The questionnaire and honorary contracts are legal requirements designed to protect not just you but the patients and staff too. This contract will explain where and when to go for your placement and who to call if you’re sick. There will also be a code of conduct explaining the ‘dos and don’ts’ within the NHS trust.

8. Pre-placement visit

Before your placement starts, you may be asked to come along and see where you’ll be working, meet your supervisor and to arrange for your uniform (if required). Most students find this really useful, and say it makes them feel more confident when they turn up for their first day. You will probably also get your photo-identity badge at this time too. After this, you’ll be ready to start your placement.

Don’t forget to visit our work experience stories section for more information on what to expect on your placement.

9. Your experience

The first thing to remember is to enjoy yourself! Try to get the best out of the opportunity:

• Be polite and punctual. If you don’t know anything, ask.
• Show you care. Seeing a smiling face can make all the difference to a patient.
• Ask for things to do. If you’re helpful you’ll become part of the team quicker.
• Keep a diary of what you do and see as you go along (always remembering patient confidentiality of course). This might really help for your UCAS personal statement or when applying for a job.
• Finally, share your experience with the other Step into the NHS registrants by submitting your story on our work experience pages .

10. Follow up

How was it? You may have an exit interview or an evaluation form to fill in to reflect on what you have achieved and how useful you found the placement. Don’t forget to take a note of your supervisor’s name. They can give you a reference, if you decide to continue your career in the NHS.

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• About Nurses.co.uk
• 28 May 2019

Claire's tips for writing your personal statement

• Claire Carmichael Registered Nurse
• Save for later

Your personal statement could be the make or break of you getting the job - but how do you stand out against other candidates? Claire shares her tips and tricks to help you get writing!

Hi everyone and welcome back!

So this is my top tips for writing those personal statements your job application as a qualified nurse.

So when you go online you'll have this important information section to fill out - this is where you write your personal statement for that job and really sell yourself.

Draft it up in a text document first

So firstly I would advise just writing this on word document first just because a word document can spell check it for you.

You can sort of adjust and edit it as you go along.

So I personally do mine on Word first and then I copy and paste from Word on to the personal statement.

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Make sure you proofread it and get fresh eyes to proofread too!

Along with this get somebody to proofread.

Proofread, proofread, proofread.

You don't want to make the mistake of making spelling mistakes or saying the completely wrong thing that someone else reading it might not understand, that’s gonna be a little bit embarrassing.

I'm not gonna lie I've done that myself.

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I can't remember exactly what I said but I was trying to say that I had basically had cared for a lot of people with challenging sort of behaviours and aggressive behaviour to show that I was a naturally calm person and can handle myself in those sort of situations and I'm quite good at it and I work really well under pressure.

However, the sentence that I wrote which I didn't realise until after I'd submitted it was something like ‘I have challenging behaviours but I can manage these well’ or something so it sounded like I had the challenging, aggressive behaviours but it wasn't me, it was the patients!

The way it sounded, I just thought ‘oh my god why didn't I proofread this? Why didn't somebody proofread this for me?’ and, oh I was so embarrassed!

Don’t be repetitive

Make sure, in your personal statement, you want to include brand new information.

You don't want to repeat yourself from what's already on the application form.

Put in brand new sparkly information that they're gonna go ‘oh this is good!’

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Do you match the criteria?

Make sure you read the job description and person specification because you're going to need that to include that into this personal statement.

You're going to sort of show how you particularly meet these requirements that they're asking of you in your personal statement and show examples that just shows as well that you've actually read what they want from you and that you can meet those things.

Following on from that, you want to make every single personal statement completely separate from each other.

So if you're applying to quite a few jobs in different areas, you want to make sure that this isn't a generic personal statement.

You have to make it specific to that place that you're applying, which might seem like a little bit more work but you don't want a generic email just going out to everybody.

You want to make it specific and relevant to that particular place and that's going to just help you massively.

I think it just shows that you're taking the time out to be interested in that particular company as well. It's going to go in your favour!

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Sell yourself, sell yourself, sell yourself.

So this is something I get really awkward about, I get really embarrassed with but you know what? You have to go for it.

You have to put all of those feelings aside and just sell yourself because sometimes it is just down to your little bit of confidence that you might have and selling yourself that little bit more that gives you the position over the other person that's got the exact same qualifications as you.

So make sure you sell yourself and write anything that makes you stand out from everybody else because as a nurse you're going to have all the same qualifications or if you're student nurse you’ll have all the same qualifications and experience as your fellow student nurses.

So you want to put in there something extra about you that you've done through university, volunteering and anything like that.

That's going to make you stand out and make this person think ‘okay, she's got something a bit extra than that person’, so just do that, put all fears aside and just go for it!

Also, with this, you want to look into this person spec and have a look what's been listed on the essential or desirable parts.

So you want to cover all of the essential parts in there so that they know that you're meeting those targets.

You can also use subheadings and underline in bold parts just to make things stand out and make it easier for the person to read because if you've got a really long-winded piece of personal statement it might just get a little bit jumbled.

I personally use head little subheadings using the star technique.

So the star technique is something that I learned at University - just to help structure things a whole lot better and answer anything I'm trying to demonstrate out there.

It just helps to mould and keeps me on target of what I'm trying to say if that makes sense.

The star technique just means situation, task, action and then the result of the whole situation.

However I would not put the subhead and star technique with everything listed like that, please leave all that out and just in your mind using the star technique and then write it out nicely.

You could put it there as a draft but then delete it all and just make it flow nicely into a paragraph, but don't put that as a subheading!

So the ‘situation’ part is just explaining the situation briefly.

Then, the ‘task’ is just briefly explaining what you have to do in that situation.

So action is the most substantial part of it, around 50 to 70 percent of it is going to be the action.

This is where you can use examples of when, where, how and why all of that of helped you solve this problem or whatever they're asking you, just to provide an example of how you met that target.

Then the ‘result’ of your actions, you're just going to explain what the outcome was, what happened as a result of this basically, and that's pretty much it for the star technique.

It’s quite simple I think, if you sort of break it down and it just really helps you manage that.

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Why this job?

In your personal statement, you want to explain why you particularly want to work for the company that you are applying to or the area or the field that you're applying to why them specifically, and how you can be a benefit or use to them.

So, it's about what you've got to bring to them but also what they can bring to you and what sort of things stand out for you to actually want to work there if that makes sense.

I think that's going to look really good on a personal statement as well.

We're going to put in things like why you're applying for that job, why they should hire you over everybody else and again just using the job description to your advantage to help you do that.

Skills and qualities

Just a few skills and qualities that you can include in your personal statement could be including things such as team working and what you brought to that team.

So, working within the multidisciplinary team in the NHS or on your placements, wherever you've been and or whether you're currently a qualified nurse in a job.

What have you done to that team and what can you bring to this future team that you're applying to?

So all about assessing the complex needs of patients, because it's all about the patient.

You want to make sure that the patient's in there!

Care planning, implementing, evaluating and using appropriate nursing interventions.

You might want to put communication skills, so what sort of communication skills you have, and that you're exceptionally good at understanding confidentiality because we are high on confidentiality in the NHS and healthcare setting.

You might want to put something about, if you've done any, teaching or mentoring as you've gone along.

You could put in something about the NMC code of conduct and what you understand about it, you might want to put in about clinical governance safe medication management, things like that.

Also, probably a little bit about your continuous professional development, so what you've done, extra training and extra awareness days that you've gone to, events, congress conferences, any extra things that you've done to sort of update your own knowledge - put that in there.

Your passion for nursing

And lastly show your passion and enthusiasm around nursing through writing, if you can. Just make sure you put it all in there, make sure you sound amazing and make sure they want to interview you.

So that's it from me!

I hope some of these tips have been useful to you, let me know if you bagged that interview, let me know if you've got any other advice or tips for personal statements - drop a comment below and let somebody else know.

Let's help each other out, and good luck! 

About the author

I am a Registered Nurse with over 12 years healthcare experience including: elderly care, orthopaedics, sexual health / family planning, qualified GP nurse, transgender healthcare and now in my new role as an assistant lecturer (as of Nov 2022). I believe that nursing gets a lot of bad press, so I create blogs and vlogs to help anyone considering their nursing career and to create positivity surrounding our profession as I'm so passionate about nursing.

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How to write a personal statement for a NHS assistant psychologist

By jayne thompson / in family.

A personal statement, sometimes called a profile or career summary, is the section at the top of your CV or a pro-forma job application which summarises your career skills and experience and sets out your ambitions for the future. It is a standard part of any National Health Service (NHS) application. The function of a personal statement is to enable a recruiter to quickly identify whether you are suitable for interview, so it needs to be punchy. If drafted carefully, a personal statement can give your application a dynamic impact.

• A personal statement, sometimes called a profile or career summary, is the section at the top of your CV or a pro-forma job application which summarises your career skills and experience and sets out your ambitions for the future.

Get hold of the NHS assistant psychologist (AP) general person specification. This specification is common to all AP jobs across different specialities and sits alongside the job specification which differs between roles. Read the general person specification and spend some time covering off the requirements. That way you will have done a lot of the groundwork before you come to apply for specific roles. Refer to the Guide to Core Competencies published by The British Psychological Society (see Resources) for assistance.

Read the individual job specification carefully. The purpose of your personal statement is to describe how you meet the exact specifications of the job description. Describe how your skills and experience match each requirement.

Decide whether you are writing in the first or third person. There are no hard and fast rules about this and everyone has their own preference. Try writing your statement both ways to see what flows. Do not interchange the two.

• Read the individual job specification carefully.
• Try writing your statement both ways to see what flows.

Show, don't tell. Explicitly state your experience against each criteria in the job and person specification and then explain what you have learnt from your experience. Saying that you're "adaptable" is forgettable - describing a situation where you filled in a gap in a skill set at short notice is impressive. Phrases like "passionate about" and "interested in" are fluff. Chances are the recruiter will have read them a hundred times before and you don't have room to ramble.

Keep it short. While the NHS does not have a word limit on personal statements, other industries expect a good statement to have impact in just 200 words. NHS job specifications tend to be lengthy, and this requires a lengthier response, but you should still aim to deal with everything in a single page.

• Explicitly state your experience against each criteria in the job and person specification and then explain what you have learnt from your experience.
• NHS job specifications tend to be lengthy, and this requires a lengthier response, but you should still aim to deal with everything in a single page.

Proof read. It goes without saying that your spelling and grammar should be perfect. Your spell check should be in British (rather than US) English.

The personal statement is not just about previous employment experience. Include anything relevant, such as practical work you have undertaken, voluntary work, conferences you have attended, community events and articles you have read or contributed to.

Avoid tired phrases. It goes without saying that you're a good team player.

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