Lekan Otufodunrin, Media Career Specialist and ALI Media fellow writes of the facts and insights needed for writing compelling short personal profiles and autobiographies
When asked to write short autobiographies or profiles of themselves, what most people do, is fill the paragraphs with the schools they attended, their degrees, where they presently work or former work places, positions they have occupied and awards won.
There is nothing wrong with this approach, especially when the organisations asking for the briefs have other ways of knowing your true worth and accomplishments. Schools attended and other indicators should give a good idea of who you are, but sometimes they are not enough to sell you to the organisations or individuals who want more facts to back your claims.
You are presently a top manager where you work or have been an Editor, so what? What does your job schedule entails, what have you accomplished? What makes you outstanding among your contemporaries?
An African proverb says if you don’t know how to blow your trumpet, nobody will blow it for you. Except you don’t have a success story to tell, you will be shortchanging yourself when your profile reads just like a compilation of data without interpretation.
It’s good to be modest, but don’t fail to add that true adjective that aptly describes your accomplishments or the story behind your titles.
You work or you have worked in a media house that is a top one, don’t fail to say it is the leading newspaper, widest-circulating or award winning media organisation, depending on which one describes your company.
What have you accomplished in your present position or the ones you held previously?
Read these two paragraphs from the biography of the Controller of Publications of The Punch Newspapers, Joseph Adeyeye in the compilation of biographies of the inaugural class of ALI Media Fellows to understand the point I am making. Take note of the words in capital letters, they speak volumes of the outstanding roles Adeyeye and others mentioned later have played in the media houses they presently work.
“Under his editorship (2007-2013), Punch PUBLISHED EXPOSES on political and private-sector corruption; CAMPAIGNED to stop Nigerian legislators’ large allowances, and RAN stories that FORCED government to prosecute police involved in extra-judicial killings. During the period, the paper WON 25 of Nigeria’s coveted journalism prizes for editors and reporters.
“In his current role, Adeyeye SUPERVISES Punch’s editorial and digital management team comprising editors, managers and more than 100 staff. He was the INITIATOR of a plan that RESTRUCTURED Punch’s digital operations along systems and content lines, and HELPED the paper regain its position as Nigeria’s MOST POPULAR online newspaper after two-year hiatus.”
Other fellows also had unique insights about themselves which justified their selection for the fellowship. Here are three more examples to learn from.
Pheladi Gwangwa, (South Africa) Station Manager, Primedia Broadcasting
“Under her leadership at Primedia Broadcasting 702 PROSPERED and GREW its audience from a listenership of 238,000 to the current 823,000. This gave the station an opportunity to GROW its gross revenue from about R70-million in 2005 to the current R320m”
Wallace Kantai, (Kenya) Business Editor, Nation Media Group
“Wallace Kantai is the Business Editor at NTV, one of Kenya’s LEADING television stations. He also serves as host of the NTV Business Agenda show, the HIGHEST rated business programme on Kenyan television. Kantai has interviewed and interacted with many WORLD business leaders and policymakers. He has also moderated HIGH-LEVEL round tables”
Ngiphiwe Mhlangu (South Africa), Channel Editor, eNCA
“In 2013 she was appointed Channel Director for eNCA. During her tenure she RETURNED the channel to the status of the MOST-VIEWED English-language news broadcaster in Southern Africa, despite the launch of two new competitors in the sector.”
The next time you get the opportunity to write your short biography or profile; don’t forget to highlight the highpoints of your career. As much as possible, do what my journalism teacher, Professor Olatunji Dare used to tell us in the feature writing class at University of Lagos, “SHOW, DON’T TELL”.
Journalists are supposed to be story tellers who tell stories of other people very well, but as the Coordinator of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism noted at a recent media event, not many journalists know how to tell their own stories.
Who else should be able tell your success story better than you? It should be you, not another person.
- ALI Media Fellows are selected journalists from Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa participating in the ALI Media Fellowship programme (Cultivating Financial Excellence in Africa Media ) made possible through a partnership with Bloomberg Media Initiative Africa, underwritten by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
