Good resumes stand out from the rest of the pile. They put the candidate’s best qualities front and center without resorting to clichés or overused buzzwords. They’re not easy to build – but they’re essential for demonstrating your best value to a potential employer.
Here are seven tips for ensuring that your resume makes it to the top of the stack if you’re seeking a financial career:
- Show how the back office takes the front line in business. If you work in the back office, it’s tough to boast about revenue growth. But that doesn’t mean you should hide. Instead of boring managers with a list of your duties, think about how each task you undertook helped the business as a whole. Did you make a procedure more efficient? Find a way to minimize errors? Improve community goodwill?
- “Grow” excitement in your work. Words like “grew,” “doubled,” “tripled,” or “exceeded” grab the attention of financial managers. After all, they’re in the job of “growing” money – and they want you to be, too. Use these words to introduce concrete, quantified successes: “Grew revenue 8 percent in the first quarter of 2015,” for instance.
- Become a master of the short story. Many financial professionals choose finance because they preferred math over English. But on your resume, think of framing each accomplishment as a short story in PAR (Problem, Action, Result) format. Highlight the challenge, what you did to address it, and what resulted from your actions.
- Upsell downsizing. To today’s business world, “change” means streamlining and sustainability. Show you understand where business is headed by talking about how you have thrived in an environment that strives to do more with less. Words like “re-engineered,” “efficiency,” and “streamlined” will help these accomplishments stand out.
- If you must list interests, make them interesting. What interests financial managers most? Resumes that are relevant to the job at hand. If you include your personal interests on your resume, then, keep them relevant to your work. For instance, mention your charity work to demonstrate your community involvement or talk about the half-marathon you just completed to underscore your determination.
- Don’t neglect soft skills. Leadership, communication, problem-solving, attention to detail – they all matter in finance. Make sure concrete examples of these skills appear on your resume alongside your technical qualifications. You’ll help yourself stand out from those with similar technical skills as the candidate with “the whole package.”
- Don’t assist. “Assistant” brings to mind someone who stands beside the table, holding the tools. Even if you didn’t take the lead on a project, skip words like “assisted” or “worked alongside” to talk about what you did “Created,” “organized,” “planned,” “managed,” and “oversaw” all describe what you contributed to the project – and make it clear you did more than just stand around.
At Burnett’s Staffing, our recruiters can help you find the financial career that you’ve been looking for. Contact us today to learn more about our professional staffing services in Las Colinas and beyond.
