A Japanese person said that it is often normal to talk about oneself in the third person in English. This is what he wrote:
For example, when you write a CV or an introduction of yourself, the formal way is to refer to yourself in third person. The same is in academic paper.
Do you think this is true?
In an academic paper you were traditionally supposed to reduce the personal aspect, so instead of saying "I measured", or "Dr X measured" you would use the passive form "it was measured". This sounds a little old fashioned so a normal compromise is to use "we" - even if there aren't multiple authors.
In a CV today I would use "I", "I managed a team of 20 people and was responsible for X"
In most of the academic CVs I've seen, neither the first person nor the third person is used. Bullet-pointed past-tense verb phrases are used instead, as in the following hypothetical example.
Accomplishments:
I don't know whether writing a CV in the first person would increase or decrease your chances of being hired, however. It might make your CV stand out, which can be a good thing.
I think this is a tradition in academia, but is not confined there. You can also see it in family newsletters, group status updates, and so on. Someone may write "Dave has completed the new report design, Jill has authorized the new release dates, and Steven is 90% complete on the website updates" even if one of those three people is actually the author of the sentence. Typically it's used where the information is supposed to be coming from everyone and using I or me would over-emphasize one person in the group. (In the traditional family brag newsletter, it also lets some people feel a little more comfortable than writing "I won another award for my peach pie".)
It would be pretty strange in spoken English or in a non-academic document with a single author, like an email status report that covers only your own work, or a letter to a friend.
