Each section of your CV – the work history, achievements, level of education, skills and so on – should stand out on its own merits. However, using a CV profile, personal profile, career objective summary or a competency statement is an effective way of ensuring that the purpose of your CV is absolutely clear to the reader from its very beginning.

When prepared correctly, a personal profile adds real value to a CV. Conversely, when it is inadequately planned and poorly written it can instantly disqualify you.

So how you go about ensuring your CV hits home?

First of all, it is helpful to understand the terminology. A personal profile can indeed be called precisely that and you can create a section at the very head of your CV which is entitled 'Profile'. Please note that calling it 'Personal Profile' is superfluous and unnecessary. In this profile you would display some or all of the following elements:

• A brief prose summary of your career, with particular emphasis on your current activities.

• A list of competency statements. A competency statement is a short description of your experience with a particular skill or employment function - e.g. sales knowledge, financial knowledge, technical knowledge, organizational skills, motivational skills, leadership qualities, etc. Save details for the CV by keeping the competency statements as brief as possible.

• A career objective statement - i.e. what you want to do and how your previous work experience or education prepared you for it. The career objective statement can be as precise or as general as you like and it will usually depend on the type of position you are applying for.

Any or all of the three elements above could be combined under a general profile header. Alternatively, you could split them up into discrete sections. In either case, remember to save the detail for later inclusion in your CV.

The key to making a personal summary work lies in closely analyzing an employer's requirements and mapping out your experience, skills and objectives onto these as precisely as possible. Using responsive language - i.e. feeding back to employers the same language and terms they themselves used - is one of the most important ingredients in constructing a winning CV profile.

For more information on how to write a CV and CV profile preferred by 93% of Recruiters and Employers, visit the CV Profile specialists.