Business owners put a lot of time and thought into crafting marketing language for their companies. But, what about your personal brand? Have you put time and effort into your professional bio?
If you struggle with writing about yourself, these steps will help guide you. Our professional bio template makes it even easier to craft a sparkling new biography, highlighting your skills and accomplishments.
What is a professional bio?
A professional biography is a brief summary of your professional experience, skills, and accomplishments. It’s typically between one and two paragraphs, but may be shorter (a couple of sentences) or longer depending on your experience, profession, and field, as well as the bio’s purpose.
If relevant, the bio may also include a statement of professional values, educational history, and personal details such as hobbies or other interests.
Think of your professional bio as an introduction to your professional identity, with the content depending on the outlet where it’s published. For example, you might include a short professional bio on your company website or Linkedin company page to pitch yourself to prospective clients and demonstrate your expertise in a particular area. If you’re submitting one along with an article about conflict management in the workplace, then you might include information about having a master’s degree in mediation and conflict resolution.
In short, a professional bio establishes your authority in a particular area, demonstrates your qualifications, and highlights your achievements and experience.
Professional bio template
You don’t need to be an incredible writer to craft a good professional bio. Our template includes fill-in-the-blank professional bios for use in a variety of situations, so you can input your details and quickly generate a great bio.
Elements of a professional bio
Professional bios typically start with the subject’s name and relevant accomplishments before highlighting their professional background and experience. It concludes with a few personal details.
Keep in mind, however, that strong bios customize these elements and chronology based on the subject’s unique professional life, goals, and intended audience.
Here’s an overview of the most common elements included in a professional bio, in typical order:
- Name
- Most relevant professional experience, professional title, or professional objectives
- Current position, including job description and primary responsibilities, if relevant
- Professional background, including previous job titles
- Professional accomplishments, including relevant awards, achievements, or publications
- Professional skills
- Educational history, including applicable degrees held
- Personal details, including hobbies or interests, family life information, and city or state of residence
How to write a professional bio in 5 steps
Actors say the most difficult role to play is yourself—and for many people, the most difficult type of writing is about yourself. Writing your own bio, however, follows a straightforward process. Here’s a breakdown of key steps:
1. Identify your goals
Start by identifying where to publish your bio, who your target audience is, and what your goals are for the piece. This information will help you determine your bio length, point of view, tone, and content.
If you belong to a professional organization that plans to publish member bios on its website, your goal might be to promote your business to an audience of industry peers. In this case, you might select a third-person point of view, adopt a more formal tone, and focus on how your professional experience supports your company’s mission.
You might write a first-person version to post on your own website and create an even shorter LinkedIn bio and X bio.
2. List key elements
Brainstorm and list pieces of information that might appear in your bio, including professional achievements, awards, relevant skills and experience, previous and/or current employer, current job title, and relevant personal interests. Consult similar bios for inspiration. At this step, the elements don’t have to be set in any particular order. Use your target audience and goals to determine what type of information to list.
Revisit your résumé or CV to make sure you haven’t omitted any key achievements or experiences.
3. Draft your bio
You’re now ready to begin writing. Although there is no hard-and-fast rule for content order, professional bio templates typically highlight your current professional activities and any particularly relevant accomplishments in the first sentence, move through background and experience, and conclude with a few personal details. If you’re stuck, use this framework as a guide.
4. Get professional feedback
Some professionals hire a freelance writer to review their drafts, or even to create their professional bios from scratch. If you plan to outsource the entire process, you can provide a writer with your résumé, a list of key elements, and any model bios you selected. If you’re seeking feedback on a draft, provide the key elements of a professional bio as well as your draft version.
5. Revise and proofread
If writing your own professional bio, set your draft aside for an hour (or overnight). Then give it a fresh read, asking yourself if the story it tells about your accomplishments and experiences aligns with your goals for the bio. If not, adjust relevant details and framing. If so, you’re ready to proofread.
You can double-check your work with a digital spelling and grammar checking tool and read your bio aloud to yourself. You can also ask a colleague, friend, or team member to read it, checking for clarity and comprehension.
Professional bio vs. résumé: What’s the difference?
A professional bio includes many of the same elements as a résumé, but the two are dissimilar in formatting and style.
A résumé is typically much longer (a page or longer), broken into sections, and offers a detailed summary of your full professional career and experiences, with bulleted points. By contrast, your professional bio gives a snapshot of key elements, written in a narrative, storytelling style.
Professional bio examples and types
Professional bios vary in length, tone, and point of view (such as the use of first- or third-person pronouns). Your LinkedIn profile summary, for example, might include a two-sentence first-person bio that highlights your personal brand, overviews your professional skills, and lists your personal interests. Meanwhile, your business website bio might use third-person and focus on your professional brand and relevant achievements.
First-person bio
First-person bios use the first-person pronouns: I/me/my. These bios tend to feel less formal (for instance, using shorter sentences, emphasizing personal goals and missions, and using more conversational language, such as contractions) than third-person bios. Typically, these bios are published on platforms that represent your personal voice, such as your personal website or social media page.
Here’s a real-life example from Aishwarya Iyer, founder of olive oil company Brightland.
Aishwarya’s bio is informal and personal. Instead of listing career achievements, she connects her personal story (sharing meals with family, discovering an ancestral connection to farming) to Brightland’s brand values: “farm fresh” and “bringing purpose to everyday things.”
This bio appears under the About section of Brightland’s website. Its goal is to introduce the human behind the brand and connect with customers, not to get hired for a new job.
If you’re writing a founder bio for your ecommerce store, you don’t necessarily need to go into detail about all of your experience and why you are the best person to run your business. Consider instead how you can connect with prospective customers by sharing a more personal story about your journey.
Rachel Karten, social media consultant and author of the newsletter Link in Bio, went in a different direction with this bio featured on the About section of her website.
Rachel’s bio is a straightforward overview of her experience and accomplishments. Her full name, job title, and location appear in the first sentence. It’s followed by a few sentences summarizing her career and a short paragraph focusing on her newsletter.
For Rachel, who is a consultant, it makes sense to list her previous clients and awards—these are things that may impress potential clients. Focusing on her experience in her field also lends Rachel authority, which is important for readers who might be considering subscribing to her newsletter.
Rachel adds some levity to her bio by starting it with “Hi!” and captioning her headshot “A very serious photo of me!” The tone of Rachel’s profile is light, which is in line with the tone of her newsletter.
Third-person bio
Third-person bios typically begin with the subject’s name and use the third-person pronouns like “they,” “she,” or “he.”
Third-person bios are more common in formal contexts and on publication channels that don’t represent the subject’s voice, such as in a conference program or on a company website. This type of bio typically places a greater focus on experience and education and may use more complex sentence structure.
Here’s a real-life example of a third-person bio from Kevin Espiritu, founder and CEO of Epic Gardening:
Epic Gardening features bios for each of its employees on its website, so using the third-person format for each team member establishes consistency. (Check out Epic’s entire About page to see some great short professional bio examples.)
Kevin’s bio follows a standard format: the first sentence shares his name and job title along with the most important accomplishment he wants to highlight—Epic Gardening is “the world’s most-followed gardening brand and online store.”
Following a brief intro paragraph is a list of accomplishments including Kevin’s social media follower count and published works. The bio ends on a personal note—sharing where Kevin lives and his favorite plants—while maintaining a more formal tone.
4 best practices for professional bios
The professional bio is a relatively prescriptive form, but that doesn’t mean it should feel generic. These best practices can help you create an engaging bio that’s uniquely you:
1. Show, don’t tell
This classic piece of creative writing advice emphasizes concrete description and supporting evidence, and applies to professional bios, too.
For example, instead of “Ali is an expert in social media marketing strategy,” you might show how Ali’s skills have helped companies achieve tangible results. Describe it as: “In her time at Jackalope Albatross, Ali helped the company attract more than 200,000 new Instagram followers and increase revenue from social channels by 75%.”
2. Create multiple versions
Since tone and content vary based on target audiences and outlets, create multiple bio versions that can easily be tweaked for use in various contexts.
For example, you might have an informal first-person version aimed at potential clients that highlights your personal goals, interests, and professional mission. This encourages your audiences to feel a human connection with your brand, build trust, and ground your company objectives in your personal motivations.
You might then create a more formal third-person bio aimed at potential investors that emphasizes your professional experience and educational background to establish credibility.
3. Tell a story
Random facts aren’t memorable—but stories are. Strong professional bios strategically curate and deploy information relevant to a specific goal or theme to create a sense of movement, purpose, and progress. In other words, they tell a story.
If your goal is to land a job, you might tell the story of gaining and honing your skills to become the accomplished professional you are today. If your goal is to demonstrate your authority on a certain subject, you might tell the story of building experience, testing your knowledge, and achieving recognition for your work.
4. Consider your call to action
Professional bios don’t have a traditional call to action, but considering what action you’d like a reader to take can help you create a bio that supports your goals.
For example, if you’d like a reader to visit your online store, mention your store’s name and what the reader can find there. If you’re seeking speaking engagements, include details like organizational memberships, city of residence, or your contact info.
In some cases, you might also include your email address or a link to your online store. This strategy is most common in first-person bios published in less formal outlets, such as on a personal social media page.
How to write a professional bio FAQ
What should you write in a professional bio?
Most professional bios include the following pieces of information:
- Name
- Current position
- Professional background
- Professional accomplishments
- Professional skills
- Educational history
Should I write a formal or informal professional bio?
Many people create both formal and informal professional bios for use in different settings. If you plan to post your professional bio online, know that anyone will be able to see it.
How long should a professional bio be?
Most professional bios are between one to two paragraphs long, but can be longer depending on the platform or outlet and how you want readers to react or respond.
