PS Tip 93: Business personal statement

If you’re going to take my advice on any specific personal statement type, let it be this one – I’ve written numerous business/business management personal statements, and it also happens to be the subject I studied at university.

Business personal statements are an interesting case, because it’s a very broad subject – People apply to study business for a whole range of reasons, and your reasons can (and should) form a central part of your statement.

For instance, if you dream of starting your own cupcake business, by all means say so… But go further, and explain which aspects of the course you think will help you to do that. If you want to be director for a large technical company, take a look at some of the course options that you’ll encounter in the later years of the course, explain why you’d be excited to study those subjects and how you think they’ll benefit you in the long term.

It will also help your cause if you keep up to date with business news; particularly news that relates to a specific industry that you’re interested in. Business is too broad a subject to simply say “I’m interested in business because…” – you need to go deeper and identify the areas you want to learn about, and how they might help you to achieve your career aspirations.

Finally, it’s worth noting that almost any work experience that you’ve done can fairly easily be related to a business course – even work for voluntary organisations. Work ethic and drive and universally desirable characteristics, and the problems faced in one organisation are generally applicable to another. Whatever experience you have, use it.

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