You have come across an attractive job landing. As you have gone through different finance and accounting roles, you will come across the position to serve as your perfect fit. Now, it is time to give your professional persona a particular shape. This implies that you can take help from some relevant finance resume writing tips.
Your finance resume is a crucial page that can either make or break your opportunity of being referred for the job interview. However, what are the odds of making your resume go to the top level? Here are some of the useful finance resume writing tips that can help you escalate your career:
- Skipping the Summary Format: There are several individuals hiring professional resume writers. They usually end up with a summary resume. For the finance & account job seekers, it is not the right format. Most of the hiring manager you will come across would like to go through a reverse chronological format of the resume.
Therefore, it is recommended to place the latest and the most relevant job position at the top while going backward from the given point. Unless you might have a strong reason for listing work experience going back too further, you should aim at limiting your resume to the last ten years. If you have something older than this, you can bring up the same in your interview.
- Matching the Keywords of the Employer: Most organizations tend to filter the incoming resumes with the help of a computer program for weeding out candidates who might not be a good match for the given set of keywords. The filter implies your resume might not be able to reach the hands of the hiring manager.
Go through the job description in detail while looking up for relevant action verbs and keywords. In the finance world, these could include sales forecasting, financial compliance, diagnose, and so more. Make use of the given set of keywords wherever it is applicable in the resume. The more keywords you will make use of, the greater chance you have of going to the top level.
- Keeping the Tone Professional: No use of pictures or clip arts. If you have to include anything quirky, save it for the cover letter, and not your finance resume. You should be as professional as possible when it comes to drafting the perfect finance resume.
- Being As Specific As Possible: Trying to be as specific as possible applies to the items that you will be listing on the resume. Here are some recommendations:
- Try using years & months for the employment dates
- Offer much more than the company name –including the type of accounting firm, its overall scale, and the total number of employees
- Aim for spelling out certifications and skills relevant to the finance industry
- Offer insight into your knowledge of the technical aspects and software systems
- Provide details into the respective job duties
- Showcasing the Core Achievements: Along with detailing the job duties –especially the ones in which you have achieved significantly, make sure that you are highlighting your promotions and accomplishments. Try including small case studies specifying measurable results.
For instance, when you write that you know inspecting accounting systems, take the description further while offering statistic for showing how you have helped the organization in improving the overall efficiency or reducing the costs. When you include results, it will make the potential employer realize that you have problem-solving skills –an important skill in the finance industry.
- Looking for Grammatical Errors: Careless spelling, misused words, and typos on your finance resume will only cause trouble to the job search process. When you have grammatical mistakes on the resume, it appears negligent and unprofessional. Do not rely on spelling or grammar-checking tools entirely. They can help with the grammar but might miss out on missing words, inconsistent tenses, disagreement of the subject-verb, wrong choice of punctuation, and so more.
To ensure that you are catching with all the possible grammatical errors, go through the resume in detail by reading it aloud. You can also ask someone to proofread the same.
- Including Soft Skills that are Less Obvious; Employers out there ardently keep looking for evident soft skills on the resumes of job seekers. For instance, when you include public speaking as a soft skill in your document, it allows the employer to that you are capable of presenting reports and ideas to the respective clients. Another important soft skill to include in your finance resume is the overall business acumen.
As your career will keep evolving, you will have to constantly revisit and revise the resume. Make sure to keep up with the industry requirements of the finance industry while preparing your finance resume.
- Adding Extra Skills to the Finance Resume: As you prepare the finance resume, you will always have ample room to reach to the final interview stage. Here are some extra skills you can consider including:
- Include language skills to serve beneficial for your job. The future of the finance sector lies in the emerging markets. Therefore, when you have knowledge of multiple languages, it will offer you an edge over others.
- Include awards & achievements, volunteering work, interests, and projects related to the finance industry. Finance professionals are expected to have a wide range of skills and expertise to be proficient in their jobs.
Conclusion
Design the perfect finance resume to land on your dream job!
