How To Write A Profile: Steps, Tips And Types Of Profiles

Updated 11 February 2023

The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed's data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.

A profile is a brief description of a person or organisation, usually written in a resume, article or document. It provides detailed information about a person or company, often sharing the background as a story and allowing readers to gain a better understanding of the person or organisation. Knowing how to write an article can help you increase reader interest in your company or present yourself more professionally. In this article, we explore how to write a profile, tips to make the profile more compelling and the different profiles.

How To Write A Profile?

Follow these steps to learn how to write a profile:

1. Conduct research on the subject

Before writing a profile, it is very important to perform thorough research on the person or organisation for which you are creating it. Understanding their point of view and the field can help you write a profile that is more appealing to the readers. There are many ways in which you can research the other person including reading through their websites, professional networking sites, talking to people in the field, reading their blogs, articles and publications. This preliminary research can help you in the following ways:

Writing content that is related to the field or company
Drafting a resume to align your goals with that of the organisation
Attaining a better understanding of the company and their culture
Preparing the right questions to ask

2. Focus on answering the question

When conducting an interview or sending a questionnaire, the type of questions you ask can affect how much the person reveals to you about the company and their point of view. There are two types of questions: open-ended questions that help you gain an in-depth answer along with their perspective and closed-ended questions that give you a "yes" or "no" answer. During interviews, it is always better to ask open-ended questions, which would help you gain more information and in-depth details to write a good profile. Here are a few examples of open-ended questions:

What are the factors that can help your company progress further?
What are your most significant accomplishments?
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?

3. Stay focused on your topic

When interviewing a person to write a profile, it is important to ask questions only relevant to the subject. Keeping the questions precise and asking one question at a time can let them do most of the talking to create a good profile. You can ask follow-up questions and clarify after the person finishes their answer, which helps the person speaking maintain their flow and thought process. You can make notes on interview questions during your preliminary research, demonstrating your interest in the person or organisation.

4. Keep a record of all interviews

Recording your interviews is good practice. Making notes during an interview can distract you from the conversation and also break the flow of the speaker. It is also very difficult to make notes on everything during the interview. If you are performing several interviews, it is possible to forget important pieces of information. When recording an interview, you can keep yourself engaged in the conversation and verify the facts later before finalising the profile.

5. Create a profile-specific theme

When writing a profile, a particular angle or focus can attract the attention of many people. When writing a profile for a company or a popular person, it is possible to have many other profiles written for the same company or individual. In such cases, developing a theme or presenting details with a different focus than the others can help make the profile interesting and unique, attracting a large number of readers. You could also begin the article by telling a portion of the person's journey and then writing about how they got there.

6. Use quotations

When you interview someone, they might say something powerful and relevant to everyone in the field. Using these sentences as quotations can attract the reader's attention. Anything a person says can be a quote and using meaningful quotes creates a greater impact on the readers. But, the quote requires to blend in with the rest of the profile. If you are writing a profile as part of your resume or statement of purpose, you can quote one of your beliefs or someone you admire.

7. Start writing

Once you have completed all of your research and interviews, use them as a starting point for your profile. You can determine the length of the profile before you begin. You can also choose the points of focus and the word limit for each, and even the order in which they are required to appear. An outline or storyboard can help you keep a consistent pace as you write the profile, with a clear beginning, middle and end. Setting a completion deadline can assist you in finishing and editing your work to your satisfaction.

8. Fact-check and proofread

The final step of writing a profile is checking the accuracy of all the facts within it, along with fixing all the errors that you might have made while writing it. To ensure all your facts and quotations are correct, you can refer to the interview recordings. All names of businesses, people and technical information are required to be spelled correctly. Often, it is difficult to spot errors in your work. To avoid missing anything, you can have someone else read your work and provide recommendations and feedback.

Tips For Writing A Profile

Here are a few tips you can follow when writing a profile:

1. Read other profiles

Reading other profiles can help you gain a different perspective and also understand your competition. It can also help you decide on a theme or the standing point of your profile. Understanding why someone's work is popular can help you improve your own. For example, if an article is popular for its writing style, you can try to incorporate that in your work. When writing a profile for a resume, reading other profiles can help you understand the pattern of the profile and the standards required by the institutions.

2. Try to understand the work environment

When trying to understand how a person is or company functions, it is good to be in the same environment with them. It can help you gain valuable insights and a better understanding of the work. As part of your research, you can also question a few people in the company.

3. Consider using visuals

Visuals entice readers to go through the profile and help them become more engaged. You can include images such as graphs, executive officers or founders, and work environments when writing a profile of a company or organisation. Depending on the company, you may or may not include your image when writing a resume. Before applying for a position, it is critical to review the company's resume template.

4. Write a strong introduction

This attracts the reader's attention and makes them interested in reading the entire profile. An interesting fact about the company or individual, or a quote from one of the interviews, can engage readers. The introduction is also required to use the theme of the profile. By treating the profile as a story, you can make the profile more enjoyable, interesting and captivating.

Types Of Profiles

Depending on the type of profile you are required to write, the steps might vary. Here are a few types of profiles:

Professional profile: This is a small section in your resume that gives a brief overview of your skills and interests to the recruiter. Summarising your interests and aligning them with the company's ideologies can attract the recruiter's attention. Professional profiles are usually up to 4 sentences.
Candidate profile: If you are a recruiter, you might require to make candidate profiles. This generally entails the open positions of the company and the ideal candidate they seek for that position while also mentioning their technical and communication skills, ideologies and work behaviour.
Business profile: Business profiles can include individual and company profiles. You can make individual profiles for successful people running a business or working in a company, which helps the clients trust the company. Company profiles are used to explain the business, its plan, core values, objectives, history and current projects that give the reader a general idea of the company.