Six seconds, what do they see?
On average, your resume gets six seconds before a recruiter or hiring manager decides to read more or move on to the next resume. Six seconds! That’s not a lot of time to make an impression. What are the top three things they skim for?
Your previous job titles
If your job titles are not in line with what the reader is looking for, you’re most likely not getting the call for the interview. Never lie, but there’s no hard and fast rule that you have to use the exact job title or a job title at all when listing out your experience. For example, if you’re doing project accountant duties, but your company doesn’t have a project accountant job title and instead they title the role project specialist or field accounting specialist - it’s ok to list something like “Project Accounting” as a function where you would traditionally have put the job title. That is going to engage your reader more. If you’re going to do something like this, make sure you’re being honest though with what you do.
The companies you’ve worked at
What companies have you worked at? What size were those organizations? Are they in similar industries? These are the questions they are asking when reviewing your company history. Make as many matches as you can. If you’re applying to a small company, you may want to omit the part about working at $5B global companies. It’s ok to omit things from your resume. If you’re applying to a manufacturing company and your last company was also in the manufacturing space, you may want to be blatantly clear next to the company name and mention they manufacture X products.
The other thing your reader will look for is the dates you were at each employer. Make sure you list the dates.
Your education
Many roles in accounting and finance require some type of education. Traditionally it is listed toward the end of your resume, but there’s no rule it has to be at the end. If you just graduated with your Master degree in Accounting but have limited experience for your target role, maybe you move that section up closer to the top. If you graduated from a prestigious school - list the school! If you won awards, it’s OK to list them, especially if the company and the job value high achievers. Things you may want to leave off your resume are things like the date you obtained your degree. Or if your degree isn’t in accounting, it may be worth just listing Bachelor of Arts.