Finance Resume Examples & Writing Guide

As long as there is money, there will be finance, so you can sleep soundly, right?

Wrong.

Finance workers need to be as dynamic and complex as the markets they deal with. Faced with that prospect, financial institutions only want to hire the best.

That means you really need to show that you’re a rare commodity on today’s market. So how do you do that without sounding like an overinflated hedge fund?

Write a finance resume that would make Peter Lynch proud.

We’ll show you how to do exactly that by writing a finance resume as great as the one below:

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Finance resume made with our builder—See more templates and create your resume here.

Check out our other articles centered around finance:

• Financial Analyst Resume
• Financial Advisor Resume
• Financial Controller Resume
• Senior Accountant Resume
• Accounts Payable Resume
• Accounts Receivable Resume
• Accounting Resume
• Accounting Assistant Resume
• Entry-Level Accounting Resume
• Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Resume
• Controller Resume for Financial & Accounting Sector
• Loan Officer Resume
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Resume
• Auditor Resume
• Accounting Clerk Resume
• Accounting Manager Resume
• Entry Level Business Analyst Resume
• Insurance Sales Agent Resume
• Private Equity Resume
• Resume Examples for Any Job

Finance Resume Example

This is how to write a job-winning finance resume:

1. Use the Best Format for Your Finance Resume Template

People in finance work for banks or other financial institutions to service and counsel individual and corporate clients in their financial needs. The purpose of your finance resume is to show that you have both the skills and experience needed to reach an organization’s financial goals.

Finance is an umbrella term that covers a wide array of different specializations. Finance employees work in positions from analysts and specialists to managers and directors, each with their own necessary set of skills and expertise.

The good news is that unemployment in the financial sector is very low and the number of job opportunities is steadily on the rise.

The not so good news is that competition is fierce and recruiters don’t have hours to get to know you.

To get the recruiter to invest in your resume, you need to follow these resume formatting rules:

• Check that your resume contact information is up to date. Double check your social media footprint for anything that might be seen as unprofessional or unethical. 
• Optimizing your LinkedIn profile is a must. Leverage it as a chance to share more information about your professional experience and interests in finance. 
• Out of all resume styles, the chronological layout is the go to for finance resumes. It highlights your professional job experience and financial skills which is exactly what you want to underline. An added bonus is that it’s also the format that most recruiters recognize and quite ATS compliant.
• For a clean resume template, choose a resume font that’s professional and easy to read. You know that people rarely read the fine print so make sure to use a good font size and leave some white space for better visibility.
• If you want your resume layout looking like one of your professionally formatted spreadsheets, save it in a PDF format.

There are a lot of questions about how long your resume should be. A good rule of thumb is that a one-page resume template should do the trick, unless you’ve been in finance as long as the U.S dollar.

Read more: Best Resume Structure

2. Write a Summary or Objective for a Finance Resume

Make your introduction through your resume profile, or to be precise, a career objective or summary. It’s a short and sweet paragraph that begins your finance resume and helps recruiters quickly understand that you’re the shiny penny they want.

If you’ve been balancing the books for more than 2 years, write a career summary:

• Think about the key points in your experience and financial skills and make notes. Remember about your career accomplishments—they can really wow recruiters.
• Choose 4 great points and add them to your finance resume summary section to show the recruiter that they can bet their bottom dollar on you.

If you’re writing an entry-level resume or finance intern resume, choose the career objective:

• Highlight skills and knowledge you’ve gathered to date and include some points on how good of a fit you’d be for the company.
• Think of relevant transferable skills and quantifiable achievements from other gigs you’ve had throughout your life and school especially if they can prove certain skills or know how.

About 3-4 sentences long max is all you really need here. Don’t forget to tailor it to the job description just like you tailor financial forecasts to the current economic weather.

Read more: How to Start a Resume

3. Create the Perfect Finance Resume Job Description

If you want to land that interview you’re dreaming of, your resume experience section needs to be more appealing than a no risk high return:

• Start from your current position and then go back in time.
• Make each entry clear and concise by adding: job titles, company name, dates of employment, and 6 bullet points max that mention your accomplishments.
• Lower the number of bullet points with your earlier jobs. Positions in the past shouldn’t have more than 3 bullet points.
• Use an action verb at the beginning of each bullet point.
• Creating a laundry list of duties isn’t the way to go. Instead, use quantifiable achievements to impress. Make the numbers work for you.
• Tailor your finance experience section to the position you want to increase your chances of getting that interview.

Read more: How Far Back Should a Resume Go

4. Make Your Finance Resume Education Section Shine

Education is important in finance so you can’t just skim over this part.

Here’s how to get your education section to make recruiters go all in:

• Don’t get into too much detail if you have more than a few years of experience. Just list the following: college/university name and location, years you studied, degree, major and minors.
• If you only have a year or two of experience or you’re writing a recent college grad resume, beef up your education resume section with wins from your college days (such as a GPA or Latin honors). Make sure they’re relevant and list no more than 4-6 items.

If you’re as new as a crisp bill or writing a finance internship resume, put your education section above your work experience. You’ll be focusing on your strengths which is the best way to start off your resume with no experience.

Read more: How to List a Degree on a Resume

5. Highlight Your Financial Skills

Skills are the cornerstone of any occupation and that’s especially true for finance where analytical skills are just as crucial as people skills.

Here’s how to list your financial skills that’ll give recruiters visions of a high ROI:

• Think about the job skills you have—this means soft skills and hard skills, technical skills, and any other relevant skills you’ve got in your portfolio. List them.
• Pick the most relevant financial skills by using the job ad as a cheat sheet. Include those top skills in your financial resume. Always mention skills that both your experience and education sections prove.

Resume Skills List for Finance Professionals

• Interpersonal skills
• Accounts receivable and payable
• Due diligence
• Cash handling
• Debt and credit management
• Problem-solving skills
• Time management skills
• Negotiating
• Communication skills
• Computer skills
• Financial analysis
• Collaboration skills
• Risk assessment
• Account reconciliation
• SAP
• Microsoft Office skills
• Conceptual skills

When making a resume in our builder, drag & drop bullet points, skills, and auto-fill the boring stuff. Spell check? Check. Start building your resume here.

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When you’re done, Zety’s resume builder will score your resume and tell you exactly how to make it better.

6. Add Extra Sections to Your Finance Resume

You’ve done a lot, but you’re not done just yet. You still have some room to really drive home the bottom line—you’re the employee they need. 

• Add language skills that can be beneficial to your job. The future of finance will be in emerging markets so your knowledge of their languages will give you an advantage over the competition.
• Include volunteering, achievements and awards, projects, and even hobbies and interests if they’re relevant to finance or prove a certain skill or know how. Finance workers need to have a wide array of skills to be excellent and flexible at their job, so include things that can prove that.
• Don’t forget about your certifications! These are absolutely crucial if you’re striving to become a finance director, financial analyst, finance manager, finance specialist, or any other kind of finance specialist. 

Read more: What to Put on a Resume

7. Attach a Cover Letter to Your Finance Resume

You should include a cover letter, even if the job ad doesn’t ask for one. Recruiters read them and it gives you more room to prove that you’re a sound investment.

Write a finance cover letter that will have the U.S Treasury minting coins with your face on them:

• Use a modern cover letter format that shows you’re a professional ready to get down to business.
• Start your cover letter off with a “hook” to grab the hiring manager’s attention.
• Show that your experience and job skills are the returns the company is looking for with specific examples.
• Add an impactful call to action to end your cover letter.

The ideal length of an effective cover letter is around one page so keep it concise and to the point.

Read more: Finance Cover Letter

Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Later on, remember to follow up on your job application! There’s no point in managing a portfolio if you’re not going to track its progress!

That’s the nuts and bolts behind a successful finance resume.

Thanks for reading. Have any insider tips or tricks to share about writing the perfect financial resume? Share them in the comments below!