Three lengths, three use cases:

50 words — Twitter / quick blurbs

Maya Chen is a senior backend engineer at Acme, focused on real-time pricing systems. Previously at BetaCo. MIT '20. Based in NYC.

Use for: Twitter bio, conference speaker thumbnails, anywhere with a tight character count.

100 words — LinkedIn About / company directory

Maya Chen is a senior backend engineer at Acme, where she leads the team that builds the company's real-time pricing engine — a system that processes 12K events/sec at 99.99% uptime. Before Acme, she spent three years at BetaCo working on data infrastructure for ML pipelines. She holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science from MIT and is based in Brooklyn. Outside work, Maya is a co-organizer of the Brooklyn Backend Engineering meetup and runs a small newsletter on distributed systems patterns.

Use for: LinkedIn About section, company team page, podcast guest bio.

150 words — Speaker bio / conference program

Maya Chen is a senior backend engineer at Acme, where she leads the platform team responsible for the real-time pricing engine — a system serving 50,000 enterprise customers at 99.99% uptime. Before Acme, Maya spent three years at BetaCo building data infrastructure for ML pipelines, and started her career at GammaTech as a backend engineer working on distributed storage. She holds a Bachelor's in Computer Science from MIT and is based in Brooklyn, NY. Maya speaks regularly on distributed systems and reliability — recent talks include QCon NYC 2024 and StaffPlus Summit 2025. She co-organizes the Brooklyn Backend Engineering meetup and writes a small but well-read newsletter on systems patterns. Off-screen, she's an avid climber and reluctant runner.

Use for: Conference speaker pages, panel discussions, book contributor pages.

What to include

  • Current role (company + title)
  • One specific accomplishment or focus area
  • One previous role if relevant
  • Education (if relevant for the audience)
  • Location
  • One personal note that humanizes (hobby, side project, place)

What to skip

  • Generic adjectives ("dedicated," "passionate," "results-driven")
  • Buzzwords ("synergistic," "innovative," "thought leader")
  • Listing every job
  • Vague self-praise

First vs third person

  • Third person: more professional. Default for speaker bios, company pages, conference programs.
  • First person: warmer. Good for LinkedIn About, personal websites, casual blogs.

How to update

Every time:

  • You change roles
  • You complete a major project worth referencing
  • A specific number changes (e.g., system scale, team size)
  • You speak somewhere notable

The bigger pattern

A short bio is a small but compounding signal. People read it before meetings, before podcast appearances, before speaking gigs. Tight and specific wins.

Sorce auto-applies to 5M+ open jobs — 40 free swipes a day. Build your career, then build your bio around it.

For more: career trajectory, how to find LinkedIn URL, professional email example.