Posted on 24 March 2011

Yesterday I wrote about how my autobiography has changed over the last few years from being “hireable” to being “professional but personable.” One of the things I didn’t get much into was the challenge of presenting yourself in a short but sweet fashion. My short but sweet bio is, “I’m station manager of CFUR Radio and researcher for the CBC show Daybreak North. I play road hockey and dodgeball, and I have a lot of pets.” It does the job. But I wanted to share some that I think do the job better. Three of the best come from the past and present team of Tumblr:

“I’m Marco Arment, founder of Instapaper and former lead developer of Tumblr.”

–marco.org

Short and to the point. The “about” maintains the brevity:

“I’m Marco Arment, and I’m a web and iPhone software developer in New York City. This is where I write and share. This is my personal site and it does not represent the viewpoints of my employer.

I’m the creator and sole developer of Instapaper, which launched in January 2008.
From its inception in late 2006 through September 2010, I was the cofounder and lead developer of Tumblr.
Previously, I was a developer at Vivisimo in Pittsburgh.
I conserve exclamation points and avoid semicolons.”

Even the “colour” at the end gives you an idea of how succinct he likes to be.

topherchris is community outreach at Tumblr, and he’s able to fully reflect that on his homepage:

“I work at Tumblr.

I live in Manhattan.
Dinosaurs are awesome.”

His about is pretty much the same, but with a sales pitch:

“I’m topherchris. I’m an internet jackass.

I do awesome things at Tumblr. You should sign up and follow me.”

The best one goes to Tumblr’s creator, who simply uses a quote:

“Mr. Karp is tall and skinny, with unflinching blue eyes and a mop of brown hair. He speaks incredibly fast and in complete paragraphs” – NY Observer

One sentence, that says very little, but does link to a full-length profile on him, which tells you he’s the sort of person someone would write a full profile about. Unfortunately, this only works if someone else has written a full-length profile on you that you can link to.
Some other goods ones:
David Noel

“Hi, my name is David Noël. Hands up for all things tech, entrepreneurship, music, internet, remarkable people & ideas. Hands back down to type about it.
Airplanes, vinyl and freckles are awesome.
I’m the SoundCloud Evangelist. These are my favorites
I live in Berlin and would love to fly in a chopper some time. Questions? Fire away!“

James Cridland:

“I am a radio futurologist.
… a consultant, writer and public speaker who concentrates on the effect that new platforms and technology are having on the radio business.”

David Eaves (Twitter version):

“Connecting: public service renewal, public policy, open-source, open data & government, negotiation, collaboration, life, fun and rockband drumming.”

And a couple of shout-outs to my colleagues in Prince Rupert (excluding the ‘cv’ portions):
Carolina de Ryk:

“My Mum has this story. On my third birthday, which falls on the same day as CBC’s anniversary, Mum found me on the phone leaving this message: “Hi CBC, I really love listening to you with my Mum. I’m calling to tell you that we have the same birthday.”
That, my Mum says, was the beginning of everything.”

George Baker:

“George Baker is a true southern-boy living up north: he doesn’t fish, he doesn’t hunt and he doesn’t even own a pair of gum boots. But he does enjoy learning from, covering and being a part of the Northern B.C. community.
…
George lives in a house-shaped orange on top of a hill in the ‘City of Rainbows’, Prince Rupert. He has a cat named Hemingway, and a pick-up truck named Chevy.”

All of these are sparing, but communicate who the person is in two paragraphs or less. Quick, succinct, to the point. Any that you’d like to share?

Filed under: how to, misc, writing