Highlight your skills with the best finance expert resume guide
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment volume of financial analysts is expected to grow by 9 percent annually from 2023 to 2033, which is faster than the average growth rate of other occupations. The industry forecasts an average of 30,700 openings per year over the 10-year period.
If you’re a finance specialist, there are thousands of jobs available to you, but also thousands of applicants eyeing the same jobs. How can you convince a prospective employer that you are the best person for the role?
Our resume writing guide will help you craft a resume that will get the attention of prestigious companies looking for your skills. With Resumeble’s finance resume examples, you can have a good idea of what to include in your document and how to present your qualifications in the best way.
Creating your finance manager resume
Learn how to create a finance expert resume that will get the attention of prestigious employers
What is a finance resume?
A finance manager resume—or any resume related to financial expertise and experience—highlights skills and achievements related to a financial role or employment in an organization, particularly financial planning and analysis. It contains past relevant responsibilities, including budget management, financial data analysis, long-term finance strategy, and reporting. It shows how your capabilities and decisions led to major positive outcomes.
A finance resume differs from a regular resume because it focuses on your qualifications for a finance-related role. Whether your past employment was at a management level or not, hiring managers will be interested in seeing proof of financial expertise and success. They will look for skills such as analytical thinking, accounting software proficiency, financial forecasting, cost savings, and working with various teams. Make these competencies stand out with help from the best resume writing services.
Finance resume sample
Before you create your resume, establish the format you will use. For finance-related applications, it’s best to use the reverse-chronological format, which presents your professional journey, starting from your most recent finance-related employment. This format allows hiring managers to get a comprehensive view of your career progression, packaged strategically to underscore operational and management skills. It is also the most applicant tracking systems-friendly format, making your resume easily identifiable in a pool of candidates.
A finance resume must have:
- 1-2 pages, in PDF format, for conciseness
- A 2-column design to save space
- Ideally, 1-inch margin on all sides; not below 0.5in
- Professional and readable fonts like Arial, Bitter, Calibri, Lato, PT Serif, or Rubik, with 11- 12pts for the body, 14-16pts for headings
- Color accents to highlight important information without looking unprofessional
- At least 5 parts, namely, contact information, summary, experience overview, core competencies, educational background & certifications, and additional sections
Check out our sample finance resume, free to download with no strings attached, designed for finance managers and experts like you.
Here's a resume outline you can follow:
Contact information
The contact information section must be your resume's header, as it shows how a recruiter can communicate with you. It must be clear (with a readable typeface) and must contain the following:
- Full name
- Job title
- Phone number
- Email address
- Location (city and state will do)
- LinkedIn profile; if it's attached to your resume, provide a clickable link to your LinkedIn profile on your resume.
Experience overview
In writing your work experience, start as you would in any chronological-format resume. Start with the most recent relevant experience. Mention your job title, the company name, location, and employment dates for each entry.
- Make a bulleted list of your achievements, discussing them in quantifiable terms. Use specific metrics to demonstrate success, such as how much you saved on costs or how you streamlined the budget.
- Demonstrate your leadership and project management skills, such as how you handled a team and how you reached successful outcomes in all your projects.
- Use action words to show proactiveness. Use the best words to describe yourself. Also, use the best words to describe yourself and your accomplishments.
- Prove knowledge of regulations, tax compliance requirements, and legal financial practices.
- Include collaborative efforts to show how you worked seamlessly with business partners and other departments.
- Demonstrate how you led and implemented initiatives that drove growth and strengthened financial performance.
- Adapt the content of the section to the exact or similar wording of the job posting, mirroring the qualifications hiring managers are seeking.
- Use keywords from the job posting that will attract recruiters immediately as they scan resumes, and will also hook applicant tracking systems.
Core competencies (Hard skills)
Hard and soft skills are both important qualifications for finance analysts or managers. But finance professionals give more weight to hard skills. These skills may differ depending on your specialty or expertise.
The best way to determine which hard skills to include is to review the job description of your target role. You may also look at descriptions for other similar roles. Here are examples of finance hard skills:
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Financial reporting and analysis
- Financial modeling
- Auditing
- Cost accounting
- Accounting fundamentals (GAAP or IFRS)
- Capital budgeting
- Cash flow management
- Proficiency in financial software (Excel, QuickBooks, etc.)
- Tax preparation and compliance
Educational background & certifications
This section lets your prospective employer know where you learned your financial principles and accounting knowledge. It shows your level of competence and commitment to continuous learning. An extensive educational achievement assures employers that you're updated in the new finance regulations and trends.
This section must include your:
- Degree
- Educational institution where you earned the degree
- Location (city and state/country)
- Years attended
- GPA, if it's above 3.5
You may include your certifications in this section or create a separate section if you have a lot. The important certifications to write are:
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- Financial Risk Manager (FRM)
- Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
- Certified Treasury Professional (CTP)
Others
You may place your soft skills here or immediately after the hard skills section. Soft skills are best discussed with your accomplishments and other qualifications. As is, hiring managers will have no interest in them. However, if they prove to be instrumental in your success as a finance specialist, those soft skills will have value.
Below are examples of soft skills relevant to finance specialists:
- Time management
- Attention to detail
- Analytical thinking
- Negotiation
- Decision making
- Organizational skills
- Initiative
- Leadership
- Problem-solving
- Communication
Other skills you may include here or in a separate section are:
- Key achievements – If you're proud of specific achievements in a company/ies, dedicate a section for them.
- Projects – Discuss work-related or personal projects related to finance that sharpen your skills
- Awards & recognitions
- Volunteer work
- Proficiency in other languages
Customize your finance resume
You may tweak your resume according to your level of experience and expertise, seniority, or the role you’re applying for. The finance resume template may differ depending on your role, such as:
- Finance intern/student
- Entry-level finance professional
- Finance manager
You may do the same with your resume summary, making sure hiring managers understand your goal in applying for the job.
Finance resume summary
Your finance resume summary should emphasize the skills and competencies that are most suitable for your expertise level. For example, a finance manager resume might show excellent capacity in financial analysis, forecasting, and budgeting, among others, while a finance internship resume is simpler.
Essentially, your summary must be near the top of your resume, but it’s good practice to write it last. This will give you a chance to look at your entire resume and highlight the salient parts.
After creating your summary, you may write a cover letter to accompany your resume. You can turn to our professional resume writers for career success.
Finance resume do's and don'ts
DO
- Write your summary after completing all the sections.
- Present key achievements in quantifiable or measurable terms.
- Explain how your skills contributed to your achievements.
- Use a bit of color to highlight specific parts, but don't overdo it.
- Highlight the hard skills, but include relevant soft skills, too.
DON'T
- Lie about your educational background.
- Write blocks of text that are difficult to scan.
- Use typefaces that don't look professional.
- Send your resume without proofreading. It will be unfortunate to be filtered out by the ATS for grammatical errors.
Boost your career with a finance manager resume from Resumeble
Let our expert finance resume writers assist you with making your finance specialty and skills stand out and present your success story the way you want.