Universities receive an abundance of applications for a small number of placements. As an example, the University of Bristol received an average of 14.4 applications per available place on the university's Health Sciences course for the year 2016/2017.
Competing with so many other students for one course place makes your personal statement so important.
It's your chance to stand out from the competition. It's your chance to convince admissions officers why you should get the place on the course?
Likewise, recruiters get inundated with applications for job openings.
According to a recent study, an average of over 250 people apply for each advertised job.
With this in mind, your employment personal statement needs to seriously sell you. It needs to make a powerful impact on hiring managers and show that there is no better candidate than you.