Use the About page to explain the background that helps readers understand your current work. Select relevant experience, describe responsibilities accurately and connect claims to evidence. Keep personal information proportionate, distinguish interests from services and provide a clear route to the next relevant page.
Choose a purpose beyond filling a template
Write the question the About page should answer. A prospective collaborator may want to understand how your background relates to your approach, while a client may need context about your working scope. The page does not need to recount every life event to feel personal. Start with the present work and choose background details that explain it. This creates a coherent account without treating a longer biography as evidence of greater credibility or professional depth.
Select a few experiences that genuinely shaped relevant responsibilities or interests. Explain the connection rather than listing organizations and credentials without context. A support role may inform how you approach troubleshooting content, but it does not automatically establish expertise in every system the organization used. Keep dates and qualification wording consistent with your CV. If a course, role or project is incomplete, use wording that preserves that status instead of letting abbreviated presentation imply a completed credential.
Describe approach through observable practice
Explain how you work using activities a reader could recognize. You might compare source documents before editing, record unresolved factual questions or ask for a decision owner during scoping. These practices are more inspectable than declaring yourself uniquely strategic or exceptionally passionate. Connect an approach statement to a relevant case or sample where useful. The link should show the practice rather than imply that a polished portfolio image validates every claim in the biography.
Distinguish professional interests, volunteer activities and current services. Someone reading about an interest in a field should not assume you provide regulated or specialist work in it. A current service belongs on its own clear route with scope and suitability information. Keep personal details optional and purposeful; publishing a home address or family information is not necessary to make a professional biography feel authentic. Include only information you are comfortable making public in the context of this profile.
Keep the page connected and current
Provide a short route to selected work, services or a fuller employment history, depending on the reader’s likely next question. Avoid ending with several competing calls to action that have no relation to the biography. Use descriptive links so someone knows whether they are opening a CV, reading a case or sending an enquiry. If a downloadable biography is available, give it enough context to remain accurate when separated from the website and check its version after a substantive change.
Review present-tense statements when roles, availability or scope change. An old phrase such as “currently leading” can outlive the responsibility it describes. Check short biographies elsewhere on the profile too, because inconsistent versions create confusion about which account is current. Do not rewrite historical facts to make a new direction seem inevitable. A useful About page can explain a change in focus plainly while allowing earlier work to remain in its actual setting.
Fictional example: connecting a support background to writing
A fictional writer, Luka, drafts an About page listing every employer and several broad interests. He wants readers to understand his current focus on internal troubleshooting documentation. In the revised invented biography, he explains that earlier support responsibilities involved checking instructions against repeated questions, then describes his present writing process and links to a labelled independent review example.
Luka keeps the full chronology in a separate CV. His interest in organizational learning remains a short personal context line rather than a claim that he offers specialist research services. He omits private family details that do not help the professional purpose. The example shows a relevant biography without inventing a credential, commercial result or expert endorsement.
A checklist for your next step
- State the page’s reader question.
- Choose relevant factual background.
- Describe approach through activities.
- Separate interests from services.
- Review present-tense claims regularly.
Common questions
Must an About page be written in the third person?
No. Choose a voice appropriate to the profile and keep it consistent. Accuracy and useful context matter more than grammatical person.
Should I include every qualification?
Include relevant qualifications with accurate status, and link to a fuller record when readers need more detail.
Further reading
These primary resources provide related background. They do not validate the illustrative example or endorse AliveProfile.
AI-assisted drafting and automated technical checks. Examples are illustrative; no independent expert review or real-world outcome validation is claimed. Read our editorial policy.