Back to all Personal Statement Examples

Personal statement example

My interest in public relations arose out of my early discovery of the power of words and the way they can affect people’s thoughts and feelings. As a child I wrote poetry and soon discovered the emotional and persuasive force of inventive language. This developed into experiments with journalism during my teens and a course at the Uzbek State University of World Languages in the international journalism department. The course included a module on PR, which introduced me to the subject and fired my imagination. My love of writing developed quite naturally into a passionate interest in the creation of the public image. My working career has all been in this field and I have gained considerable experience of presentation and communication. I should like to study in a British university because of the very high reputation of UK academic institutions, and I know that a degree from a UK university would open the door to many career pathways. But there is another reason for my choice, closely connected to my aptitude as a persuasive writer. I was unable to continue my education in Uzbekistan because I was forced to leave the university after I wrote articles focussing on social problems in my country – a vivid example of the power of words even to threaten governments.

My work experience has mostly been in PR and advertising. At present I work for Human House Gallery, one of the most famous retail outlets in Uzbekistan, with an international reputation. The shop offers designer clothing and Uzbek arts and crafts. I was employed specifically to develop the public image of the business, and given responsibility for web strategy. I redesigned the website to make it easier to use, set up a new marketing plan for the business and also established a Facebook page to send e-newsletters to customers about new products and special offers. I directed web logbooks on new collections, designing the shoot and even acting as a model myself. One of my projects was “Project 365: Journey of a Scarf”, in which each day I uploaded a picture of a model wearing a Human House scarf. Sales rose by 250%! I also set up a campaign to sell organic bags, the profits from which were used to finance tree planting at local orphanages. Earlier this year I represented the firm at a national exhibition in Almaty, and recently was responsible for the firm’s image at the Orient Expo exhibition in Moscow. I am also editor-in-chief of the Fashion Time Magazine, an online journal for which I write articles on fashion as well as managing site content and drawing material from reporters in New York, London and Buenos Aires. In 2007 I set up a blog dealing with women’s rights and ran a competition to find the best journalists on this subject. The competition received much media coverage.

All of my work in PR and image management has given me some very useful training in writing press releases and brochures as well as in researching audience needs and refining targets in the businesses I have served. My hope ultimately is to set up my own PR firm to serve the needs of small companies which usually cannot afford to employ their own PR agent. I am multi-lingual; my mother tongue is Uzbek, but I have fluent Russian and extremely proficient English, which I began studying from the age of 5. I write and speak English with ease and clarity, and much of my work in the shop is conducted in English, dealing with tourists and explaining the goods to them.

I am interested in photography, which calls for great attentiveness to subject and trains one in observation and sensitivity to mood. I also enjoy working for charity groups, and outside my working life and my studies I am also a keen swimmer. I am creative, inventive and responsive to new ideas and I am always keen to learn, reading avidly and following new subjects with real interest. I am ambitious, decisive, dependable and hard-working, and I hope you will consider my application.