Professionals working in finance or accounting sector can find job opportunities in any business sector. As finance is the driving force to make any business successful, the need for skilled individuals who have sound knowledge of the finance domain is something every employer would look for. Hence, whether you are a chief financial officer, financial manager, or a tax inspector, your financial resume will remain more or the same except changes in duties and responsibilities you executed.
So when developing a financial resume, the focus must be on skills, certifications, areas of expertise, and specific accomplishments. As the finance job mostly deals with customers and a variety of clients, communication, and negotiation skills are important points to include in the resume.
Usually, finance recruiters are bound to shortlist candidates who have customer facing experience and a substantial knowledge of the domain which includes the associated software. This implies that your resume must be full of points that go in sync with the company you are targeting for. You have just a few seconds to catch the attention span of a hiring manager and hence, should have to do your best. Including every single detail or drafting a resume right from the scratch could be a time-consuming task. Therefore, follow a simple template and go on adding extra sections if the need arises. For more help, consider the given below financial resume-writing tips:-
Choose the right resume format
The chronological resume seems to be the most preferred format by job seekers as well as hiring managers as it is easy to read and comfortable to write. This is suitable for people who have been employed in the same field for years with no big employment gaps and have made remarkable progress in their field. If you have been a frequent job hopper or have changed fields, a functional format would do justice to your skills. Individuals, sometimes, also go for a combination format.
Mention accurate contact information
Although this seems a very basic point, but job seekers often forget the importance of this section. As a result, they place it at the bottom of the resume or just fail to mention their email address in it. The contact information section must always be included at the beginning of the document to make it easier for the recruiter to know you. Write your name, residential address, email address, phone number and a URL of Linked-In profile (optional) at the top of the page. Provide only one contact number to avoid confusion.
A summarized tale of your career
Irrespective of whether you are creating a chronological resume or a functional one, the next section must summarize your potential in such a manner that it arouses the interest of hiring manager and compels him/her to go through your document. Write about your key strengths, relevant work experience, major projects or a big award/certification in this section. If you are a fresher or entry-level candidate, write an objective statement that showcases your educational qualifications and career goals.
Highlight your job-specific skills
The most viewed financial resumes are said to have a few common words, which included a mention of skills like customer relations, financial reports, sales and accountancy. Hiring managers keep an eye on these words while scanning resumes. Hence, it is necessary to summarize your strengths within the top half of the first page of your financial resume. Write around 6 - 8 bullet points that talk about your areas of expertise and traits that a recruiter would search for in a candidate pursuing a career in the financial sector. At the same time, avoid including common keywords and display what makes you a unique candidate.
Showcase your work accomplishments
As you go on listing the different firms you were employed in, you would realize that hiring managers today wants something more than the daily job duties. They want to see how efficiently you handled responsibilities and excelled in them. In short, they are interested to know what achievements you have in your bag. In this section, mention your major achievements using the right keywords such as accounted, budgeted, balanced, calculated, distributed, economized, managed, purchased, researched or reported. Another way is using buzzwords mentioned in the job description.
Add educational and certification details
The educational qualification section is included in the last section of the document where you are expected to talk about your degree, university and the year you completed it. No further information such as academic grades for each year and course subjects are necessary unless they are specified. You can include other sections like internship, volunteer, personal interests, but do not go increasing the length of your document unnecessarily.
To work in the financial sector, you need to have certain credentials on your name. If you have done any professional certifications or a training which is relevant to the field, do not hesitate to include these acronyms right under your name at the top. This ensures that the hiring manager takes efforts to check the entire document since this section usually appears near the bottom of your resume. The complete details about credentials and certifications can then be provided in this section such as name, institute you obtained it from and the year.
References
Remember to give reliable references with accurate details only if it has been requested by the employers.
Before submitting your document, proofread it 2-3 times to avoid grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. To get a clear understanding, refer to the financial resume samples given below and customize your resume accordingly.