Biography examples: short, long and about yourself

Mini biography example: retired school teacher

Shanta Joshi taught mathematics in a government school in Satara for thirty four years. Former students remember her for Saturday doubt classes she held for free. She now runs a small library from her front room.

Brief biography example: farmer turned entrepreneur

Gurpreet Singh grew wheat on his family's land near Ludhiana until falling prices pushed him to try something new. He planted a small patch of strawberries, sold them at a roadside stall and, within five years, was supplying fruit to hotels in three cities. Today he trains other farmers in his village to grow high value crops on part of their land, and he still works the stall himself every Sunday.

Short biography example: community nurse

Mary Thomas has worked as a community nurse in rural Wayanad for nineteen years. She travels to tea estates and tribal hamlets on a scooter, carrying vaccines in a cool box. During floods she set up a temporary clinic in a church hall and treated more than five hundred people in two weeks. Her colleagues call her the nurse who never misses a village.

Sample biography: cricket coach

Imran Shaikh played district level cricket as a fast bowler until a back injury ended his playing career at twenty three. He turned to coaching and started a net session for children on an empty plot in Malad. Eight of his students have since played state level cricket. He coaches every evening and charges nothing to children who cannot pay.

Long biography: Kamala Reddy, social worker

Kamala Reddy was born in a village near Warangal, the third of five children of a cotton farmer. Girls in her village rarely studied past Class 5, but her mother sold two goats to pay her fees at a town high school. She walked six kilometres each way for four years.

After completing a degree in social work in Hyderabad, Kamala took a job with a small trust working on child labour. Her first task was to count working children in the brick kilns outside the city. The number she found, more than nine hundred, shocked the trust into opening its first evening school.

Over the next twenty years she built that single classroom into a network of eleven bridge schools. Children studied for a year with her teachers and then joined regular government schools. Kamala insisted on meeting every parent personally, often late at night after their shifts ended.

Her work was not always welcome. Kiln owners threatened her, and twice her school was shut down. Each time she returned with more parents beside her.

In her later years Kamala trained young social workers and wrote a handbook on running bridge schools in Telugu. She never married and said the schools were her family. When she died, former students, now teachers, drivers and nurses, filled the street outside her house.

Kamala's life shows how one stubborn person can change what a whole district expects for its children.

Example of a short biography of yourself: college student

I am Tanvi, a second year B.Sc. student in Nashik studying botany. I grew up in a family that runs a plant nursery, so I learned the names of plants before I learned my times tables. I am now researching drought tolerant grasses for my college project and volunteer at the city's seed bank on weekends.

Biography sample about myself: job seeker

My name is Karan and I am a mechanical engineer from Rajkot. After graduating, I spent two years at a pump manufacturing unit where I worked on the assembly line before moving into quality checks. I like solving small problems that save big money, such as reducing rework on one valve by changing the order of steps. I am looking for a role in production planning.

Biography about myself example: homemaker returning to work

I am Sunita, 42, from Kanpur. I studied commerce and worked as a bank cashier for five years before stepping away to raise my two sons. During those years I managed household accounts, ran our society's maintenance fund and taught myself spreadsheets. Now that my sons are in college, I am ready to return to work in an accounts or office administration role.

Third person biography of yourself: club newsletter

Ali Hassan joined the city cycling club three years ago after his doctor suggested more exercise. He now leads the Sunday beginners' ride and has completed two 200 km rides. By day he is a pharmacist, and he says the only thing he enjoys more than cycling is the breakfast after it.

Class 5 biography: my grandfather

My grandfather is Mohan Lal. He was born in a small village in Rajasthan. He worked as a postman for thirty years and rode a bicycle to deliver letters. He knows the names of everyone in our town. Now he grows tomatoes on our roof and tells me stories every night.

Class 9 biography project: a local hero

Rekha Patil drives the only ambulance in our town. She started driving after her brother could not reach the hospital in time during an accident. For twelve years she has kept the ambulance ready day and night, and she has trained three more drivers. Last year the town council gave her an award, but she says the real award is every patient who reaches hospital on time.

College application biography sample

I grew up in Guwahati in a joint family of fourteen people, which taught me to listen, share and argue politely. In school I led the debate club and started a reading corner for younger children in our colony. I want to study psychology because I keep noticing how differently people react to the same news, and I want to understand why.

Resume biography example: logistics supervisor

Raghav Nair is a logistics supervisor with ten years of warehouse experience in Chennai. He manages a team of forty and introduced a barcode system that reduced picking errors by half. He holds a diploma in supply chain management and speaks Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and English.

Executive biography example: hospital director

Dr. Farida Ansari is medical director of a 250 bed multi speciality hospital in Bhopal. A paediatrician by training, she moved into administration after leading the hospital's response to a dengue outbreak. Since then she has opened a neonatal unit and cut emergency waiting times by forty percent.

Sample military biography: retired officer

Colonel (Retd) Prakash Thapa served thirty years in the Indian Army, including postings in high altitude areas and two United Nations missions. He commanded an infantry battalion and later trained young officers at a military academy. After retirement he set up a coaching centre in Dehradun for students preparing for defence entrance exams.

Actor biography sample: theatre actor

Neel Bhatt is a theatre actor based in Mumbai who has performed in more than thirty plays in Gujarati, Hindi and English. He trained in a drama school in Delhi and started his career in street theatre. He also runs acting workshops for school children and voices characters for radio dramas.

Company biography sample: family business

Founded by two brothers as a single sweet shop in Indore, the business now runs six outlets and a packaged snacks unit employing 120 people. It still uses the founders' original recipes for its best selling namkeen and sources milk from farms within fifty kilometres.