What to write in the ‘About me’ section of your CV

What ‘About me’ is actually for

The recruiter spends 6 to 10 seconds on the first read of your CV. ‘About me’ is the section they read first, and it often decides whether they carry on to your experience.

That means this section shouldn't summarise your life. It should answer one question: "Does this person fit the job?" In 40 to 80 words.

Think of ‘About me’ as a 30-second elevator pitch. What would you say if you had 30 seconds in the lift with the head of HR?

The structure that works

Three sentences cover almost everything:

1. Where you are now: your current role, years of experience, your main focus.
2. How you got there: one or two important stops, or a concrete result that is relevant.
3. Where you want to go: the kind of role, environment or problem you are heading towards, tailored to the job.

Sometimes you need a fourth sentence that adds a specific result or niche expertise. Rarely more.

Three examples, from poor to good

Example 1: Product owner

Poor:

"Experienced and ambitious product owner with a strong work ethic and a passion for user experience. Thrives in dynamic teams and delivers under pressure. Looking for new challenges where I can develop further."

This could appear on any product owner's CV. It says nothing.

Better:

"Product owner with 6 years of experience in B2B SaaS, mostly in fintech and logistics. Have led 3 product launches and a shift from monthly to continuous delivery, which cut time-to-market by 40 per cent. Looking for a role at an early-stage company where product decisions are based on customer conversations and data, not intuition."

Now the recruiter knows what type of product, for how long, what the big achievement is, and what kind of culture you are looking for. This is concrete.

Example 2: Newly graduated data engineer

Poor:

"Motivated and eager-to-learn graduate from NTNU with a bachelor's degree in computer science. Interested in data analysis, machine learning and programming. Looking for a role where I can grow and contribute."

Generic. It could be any graduate. The recruiter learns nothing about you specifically.

Better:

"Computer science graduate from NTNU (bachelor's, spring 2026), specialising in data analysis and distributed systems. Built a hobby app for grocery prices in Trondheim that handles 200,000 data points a day, and used it to learn PostgreSQL, Python and basic pipeline building. Looking for a junior data engineer role, ideally in a team that takes data quality seriously."

Here you highlight your background, a concrete project with numbers, and a direction. At this level, the project matters more than your degree.

Example 3: Senior manager

Poor:

"Visionary and results-oriented leader with more than 15 years of experience across industries. Has built teams and delivered strong results. Looking for a new role in strategic leadership."

Cliché upon cliché. No numbers, no direction.

Better:

"Sales director with 15 years of experience in B2B technology, most recently as Head of Enterprise at a Norwegian SaaS provider, where I built the sales department from 3 to 14 people in 4 years and tripled ARR. Before that, 7 years in a similar role at Visma and SAP. Looking for a leadership role at a growth company where I can build an international team and own the GTM strategy from the ground up."

The recruiter now knows your field, the calibre of your latest achievement, your previous companies, and what kind of role you want.

What to cut

Air these words and phrases out of your ‘About me’:

• "Experienced and ambitious", everyone is, or claims to be.
• "Strong work ethic", impossible to prove in 40 words.
• "Results-oriented", who is process-oriented?
• "Dynamic", it is never clear what it means.
• "Passion for X", a cliché. Show instead that you have spent a lot of time on X.
• "Thrives in teams", of course. Everyone has to work in teams.
• "Looking for new challenges", vague, says nothing about what.
• "Humble but confident", posing language.
• "More than 10 years of experience across industries", say which industries and what you did.
• "Generalist with a broad background", the recruiter immediately suspects you are a specialist in nothing.

Phrasing that actually convinces

Swap clichés for concrete nouns:

Instead of...	Write...
"Results-oriented"	"Increased conversion from 12 to 18 per cent"
"Good at building teams"	"Grew the team from 3 to 11 over 2 years, with 0 voluntary departures"
"Technically skilled"	"Core skills in Python, SQL and dbt"
"Strategic thinker"	"Owned the GTM plan and prioritised 40 features across 4 segments"
"Communicative"	"Wrote technical documentation read by 200 developers"

Nouns weigh more than adjectives. Numbers weigh more than claims.

Tailor it to the job

Every second you spend tailoring ‘About me’ to a specific job is time well spent. 5 minutes per application can move you from "we'll take a closer look" to the interview pile.

Tailoring isn't rewriting. It means swapping 2 or 3 words per sentence, and perhaps the last sentence entirely.

Basic version:

"Product owner with 6 years of experience in B2B SaaS. Led a product launch that grew from 0 to 4,000 users in the first year. Looking for a role at an early-stage company where research and data drive the decisions."

Tailored to a fintech company focused on compliance:

"Product owner with 6 years of experience in B2B SaaS, the last 3 years in fintech. Led a product launch with integrations to 4 Norwegian banks and full FINKS compliance, which grew from 0 to 4,000 users in the first year. Looking for a role where compliance and customer experience are seen as two sides of the same coin, not opposites."

Same candidate, much stronger positioning.

Common mistakes

Too long. 6 sentences are not more convincing than 4. Every extra sentence drowns what matters.

Too general. If you write something that fits 80 per cent of the candidates in your field, you haven't tailored it enough.

Too modest. Don't talk yourself down. "Some experience with..." is weaker than "3 years of experience with...".

Too much self-promotion. "Best in class", "exceptional", "outstanding" are red-flag words. Let the results speak.

Copied from LinkedIn. A LinkedIn bio is written for a wider audience. The ‘About me’ on your CV should be sharper, more direct, and always tailored to the specific job.

If you use the third person

Some people prefer the third person because it feels more formal:

"Product owner with 6 years of experience in B2B SaaS, mostly in fintech and logistics. Has led 3 product launches and a shift that cut time-to-market by 40 per cent."

This is acceptable in Norway, especially in more formal industries. Choose one style and keep it throughout the CV.

The first person is more common in modern technology, start-ups and creative industries. The third person is more common in consulting, the public sector and traditional industry.

In summary

40 to 80 words. First sentence: where you are. Second: how you got there, with one concrete result. Third: where you want to go. Possibly a fourth for niche expertise.

No clichés. Concrete numbers and nouns. Tailor it for every application.

If you wrote ‘About me’ like the average candidate, it says nothing. If you wrote it like the best 10 per cent, it is half the difference between you and the other applicants in the same pile.

Carry on with the rest of your CV in the main guide to writing a CV.