The Reader doesn’t give a–

Da*n about who you are, unless you remain concrete and highly relevant.

When I wrote my first Personal statement for college applications, I was made aware of this fact. Whoever had the misfortune of reading my college personal statement likely had the further misfortune of reading hundreds like it, of drastically varying quality. After the ten dozenth emotional story, the reader’s mind would become inured to cloying pathos and blustering ethos.

Thus, as many of my fellow scholars have noted, companies have implemented algorithms to sift through personal statements and cover letters. No buzz words? No job! Made it past that barrier? Your meticulously crafted personal statement will get read for about five to seven seconds, before it is either blessed or binned. I was well aware that the readers didn’t really want to read all those personal statements, but I had no idea it was that bad.

This has once again changed my views on the Personal Statement. It has evolved from a narrative piece describing your interests and desires, to a tangentially narrative piece describing your experience and ability. There is no room for romantics in the chess game between employers and employees; To win this round, you will have to know the opponent as well as you know yourself. One can show that he knows his opponent by doing research and by enlisting spies– I mean, connections– to give him the inner workings of their organization: important names, important projects, important procedures.

As for the knowledge of oneself, well, that will come with experience and practice. Magdala and Dr. Hill are both extremely knowledgeable on the subject– possibly too knowledgeable: by the time the event had ended, we didn’t have enough time to write our own personal statements during the workshop. I do hope we have another workshop, so I can have a chance to apply what I’ve learned!

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