If you are on the hunt for a job in the accounting profession then having a well written and professional resume will be a necessary component of a successful job search. The resume is a first chance at a sales pitch of yourself and your skills to a potential employer and must make an impression or risk being thrown in the trash or dismissed at the first screening.
The five tips below will be helpful when writing a resume and will go a long way to making your resume stand out from the crowd.
Objective Statement - Conventional resume wisdom says to put an objective statement on the top of your resume. This is an approach where the conventional wisdom should be ignored. The current thinking is that a resume should be a maximum of two pages, and one if there is limited experience. Why would you want to use valuable resume space saying something that the potential employer already knows, which is something like "To obtain a challenging job that will help me advance my career"? In place of an objective statement, include a skills summary instead listing some key skills or accomplishments to grab the reader's attention early and keep them interested in what you can bring to the company.
Resume Review - Have a trusted friend, and preferably a fellow professional read and review your resume before sending it out. If possible, have someone who has been a hiring manager read it and make recommendations. Someone who has actually been in a position of evaluating resumes can provide invaluable input into your resume that will help in obtaining an interview.
Excel and Computer Skills - Be detailed and accurate about your experience with computers. For accountants, knowledge of the Microsoft Office programs and Excel specifically will be most important. Give a true representation of your experience level, and if you are an intermediate and advanced user, then show that by using the terminology of what you are able to do in those programs so the hiring manager doesn't have to guess at the level of expertise.
Be Industry Specific - Tailor the resume to the industry being applied for to the greatest extent possible. If applying for a public accounting job then experience in tax and audit would want to be emphasized to a greater extent than when applying for a private company job that focuses on financial reporting. If there are actual industry specific rules such as in the oil and gas industry, then be sure to indicate the knowledge about those rules in the resume as well. This will help you to standout over someone with a more generic resume.
Check Your Staffing Agency - If using a staffing agency, recruiter, or head hunter make sure that they are sending your resume as you have provided it, or are reviewing any changes with you prior to sending it out. Some agencies have taken the data from their client's resumes and placed it into their standard template with their firm letterhead and in the process have made formatting errors appear that make the resume appear less than professional. This would be the last thing that you would want to have happen when using someone to assist in a job search.
These five tips should help to improve an accountant's resume writing ability and make for a better end product if followed. Remember that your resume is your first and maybe only chance to sell the employer on you and why they should grant an interview. Use that chance wisely.
