How long should a personal statement for a job be?

Follow the form's limit. Without one, usually one to two pages: enough to evidence every essential criterion.

Should a personal statement be in the first person?

Yes. Write "I" and describe what you did. Shortlisters can only credit your own actions.

Can I use the same personal statement for several jobs?

Reuse examples, not the whole statement. Each job's criteria differ, and a statement written for its person specification scores better.

How to Write a Personal Statement for a Job Application (UK)

In a UK job application, a personal statement (or supporting statement) is not a profile at the top of your CV. It is your evidence that you meet the job's criteria, written for a shortlister who will tick them off one by one. This guide covers how to plan it from the person specification, how much to write for each criterion, and an example from a council application.

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Start from the person specification

Before writing anything, copy out the essential and desirable criteria from the person specification or job description. That list is your outline: shortlisters score your statement against it, usually only shortlisting people who meet every essential criterion.

For each criterion, note your best evidence: a qualification, or a time you did it, and what happened as a result.
Mark any criterion where you only have a claim, not an example. Those are the gaps to work on first.
Decide the order: the person specification's order is easiest for the shortlister.

Write each criterion as evidence

For each criterion: one sentence that says you meet it, then a short example of what you did, then the result. Use "I", not "we". Put numbers on results where you can: how many, how much, how fast. Keep it to the point; a shortlister reading 80 statements rewards the one where the evidence is easy to find.

Instead of	The shortlister needs
"I have excellent communication skills."	When you explained something difficult, to whom, how, and what happened.
"I am highly organised."	A caseload, deadline or project you organised, and the outcome.
"We reduced rent arrears."	What you did yourself, and by how much arrears fell.
"I have experience of customer service."	A specific situation you handled and the result for the customer.

Example: Housing Officer, city council

Criteria: managing a caseload of housing or customer cases; knowledge of housing legislation, including tenancy management; dealing with difficult or sensitive situations, including anti-social behaviour; good IT skills, including case management systems; a full driving licence or ability to travel across the city.

Personal statement, Housing Officer, 227 words

I am applying for the Housing Officer role because I have three years' experience of working with tenants in a housing association and I want to bring this to the council's tenancy team.

In my role as a Tenancy Support Officer, I manage a caseload of around 180 tenancies across two estates. I plan my week around visits, rent arrears cases and repairs, and I review my cases every Friday so that nothing is missed. Last year I reduced arrears on my patch from 6.1% to 3.8% by contacting tenants as soon as a payment was missed and helping them apply for Universal Credit housing costs.

I keep up to date with housing law and I have a good understanding of tenancy management.

I often deal with sensitive situations. When neighbours complained about noise from a flat, I visited both households separately, listened to each side, and agreed a written plan with the tenant whose son had moved back in. I worked with the anti-social behaviour team to monitor the situation, and the complaints stopped within two months without legal action.

I use our case management system every day to record visits and actions, and I am confident with Word, Excel and Outlook. I recently helped two colleagues learn the new arrears module.

I am organised, calm under pressure and committed to helping tenants keep their homes.

Why it scores this way

Caseload management is evidenced strongly: 180 tenancies, a weekly review routine and arrears down from 6.1% to 3.8%.
The sensitive-situation example shows listening to both sides, a written plan and joint work with the anti-social behaviour team, with an outcome.
IT skills are evidenced with daily use and helping colleagues learn a new module.
Gap: housing legislation is only claimed. Naming the legislation used day to day (and an example of applying it) would turn it into evidence.
Gap: the driving licence or ability to travel is missing entirely, an essential criterion a shortlister would mark as not met.

Before you send it

Our checker reads your statement against the criteria you paste and marks each one evidenced, weak or missing, with the three fixes that matter most. It never writes or rewrites your statement.

Every essential criterion has a sentence that proves it.
No paragraph is only adjectives about yourself.
You are within any word limit.
Nothing in it is generic enough to be about someone else.