Financial Analyst Resume Examples (Entry-Level and Senior)

You can predict wins and losses without having to draw a single Tarot card. In fact, you just sit in your high-end office, look at spreadsheets, and tell senior management how to invest the company’s hard-earned millions and make even more millions.

At least, this is what people think you do as a financial analyst.

But what you’re doing right now is looking for a job. And hoping your application doesn’t get lost in a sea of other candidates who have better resumes.

So… why not make sure that your resume is the best? Especially when we’re just about to show you how.

This guide will show you: 

• A financial analyst resume example better than 9 out of 10 other resumes.
• How to write a financial analyst resume that will land you more interviews.
• Tips and examples of how to put skills and achievements on a financial analyst resume.
• How to describe your experience on a resume for a data analyst to get any job you want.

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Sample resume made in our builder—See more resume templates here.

Financial Analyst Resume Sample

Now, here’s the job-winning financial analyst resume formula.

1. Make Use of Your Data Presentation Skills

You’ve already made more than your fair share of dashboards and reports that present complex financial data in a way that highlights key insights and eliminates noise.

Treat your resume in the same way.

Let’s start with the basics. Use easy-to-read fonts, set the line spacing to 1.15 and make sure the margins on all sides are nice and even. Make your headings big and leave a generous amount of space between the sections of your resume.

Pay some attention to crafting the header of your resume. It should contain your name and contact information. Don’t forget to include your professional-looking email address—something like bigbadwolf_ofwallstreet@gmail.com definitely won’t cut it. Yes, it might put a smile on the recruiter’s face, but your resume will still land in the trash.

Also, remember that the hiring manager might google your name and discover your Facebook profile. And they might accidentally come across that embarrassing photo from a party you attended ten years ago. And this might ruin your chances of getting your dream job.

So take steps to tidy up your online presence and add a link to your LinkedIn profile to your resume. This will instantly make you look like a top-tier professional.

Now that we’re still talking about the header: resist the temptation to include your photo or any personal information. Yes, you look irresistible, but unless you’re applying to be a model or actor, photos still aren’t welcome.

After the header, it’s time for the other sections of the resume. How do you structure these?

A hiring manager should be able to scan and appreciate your career growth within a few seconds. Sounds impossible? Well, the reverse-chronological format should do the trick. Start with your most recent career accomplishments and end with your early successes.

The overall structure of your resume should look like this:

• Header with contact info
• Summary Statement/Career Objective
• Work Experience
• Education
• Skills
• Additional Sections (Conferences, Extra Training, Volunteering, Certifications, Etc.)

Now that you’re done with your header and overall resume formatting, let’s take a deep dive into each of the sections. We’ll skip the summary (objective) section for now because… well, no need to explain. You know that you have to write things first and summarize them later.

So let’s start with the work experience section.

Learn more about formatting your resume: Best Resume Layout in 2021 & Examples Also for the First Job

2. Let Your Accomplishments Shine on Your Financial Analyst Resume

What did you do in your previous jobs?

This isn’t an idle question because the title of financial analyst can refer to wildly different responsibilities. Some companies like to bestow this title on people who actually do accounting work. At other companies, data analysts are the people who prepare reports, help make financial decisions, produce business forecasts, or do some combination thereof.

This is why it’s so important to explain exactly what you achieved at your previous jobs.

But how do you do this? Fortunately, you don’t have to leverage tons of data to uncover the winning formula for writing your work experience section. We’ve done the work for you.

Each entry should contain:

• Your exact job title
• The company’s name and location
• Your start and end dates (months and years)
• Up to six bullet points that highlight your key accomplishments and support them with hard numbers

Most candidates struggle with getting the bullet points right. And that’s why most resumes don’t succeed.

Here’s how to write those bullet point statements using the so-called P-A-R (Problem-Action-Result) approach:

• Start each bullet point with a strong action verb
• Explain what you were working on
• Describe the result of your work (with numbers if possible)
• Avoid writing about duties and responsibilities. Being responsible for something doesn’t mean you did it well. After all, someone was responsible for running Lehman Brothers, right?

Now, repeat this procedure for each of your recent work experiences. It’s as simple as this!

Work Experience on a Senior Financial Analyst Resume

Hiring managers enjoy hard and fast numbers as much as you do. So if you’ve got any achievements that led to measurable benefits for your company, be sure to mention them in all their glory, like this candidate did.

After all, measuring things and clearly presenting your insights is your job.

But what about this candidate?

You never know if they were actually any good at their previous jobs. OK, they showed up and did things, but… did they have a real impact on the company’s business results? Their resume doesn’t say anything about this.

The hiring manager is just going to shrug and put it straight on top of a pile of rejected resumes. What’s the point of hiring a financial analyst who can’t analyze and present the financial impact of their own work?

Erm… wait. 

Don’t both examples come from the same person? Yes, they do. But the first example is an almost surefire way to get noticed and land that coveted job interview, and the second one looks like the candidate wasn’t even trying.

Don’t be the person who sends in a resume that looks like the second one.

Now, you might be thinking, “That’s all nice and good when you’ve got a ton of experience and achievements. But I’m a junior financial analyst and I just don’t have any epic numbers to present.”

While you may be applying to your first job as a financial analyst, this is probably not your first job ever. So yes, you’ve got experience. You just have to show that it’s relevant to your dream career. Let’s look at an example.

Entry-Level Financial Analyst Resume: Work Experience

This candidate has a background in accounting and wants to get started as a financial analyst. This is why they mentioned that they did some data analysis in their previous job. 

The description of their work experience also suggests that they’re a detail-oriented person who has an understanding of legal matters—just the right kind of person to be a financial analyst.

What would a hiring manager think after reading this work experience section?

“Why is this person even applying for a job as a financial analyst? Well, they analyzed something, but was it useful in any way?”

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3. Describe Your Education

Now that you’ve crafted the work experience section, it’s time to elaborate on your educational background.

How far back should you go and how much info should you include?

It depends on how much experience you have.

If you’ve been a financial analyst for years, just mention your most recent degree and give a brief description of it.

But if you don’t have an impressive work experience section yet, make up for it by offering an in-depth view of your education. Feel free to mention any relevant coursework and academic achievements that clearly demonstrate you’re a perfect fit for a position as a financial analyst.

Financial Analyst Resume: Education Section

This candidate doesn’t need to go into more detail because they’ve already got extensive work experience. Mentioning their highest degree is enough.

This example contains way too much unnecessary info. An experienced candidate doesn’t have to write about courses they took or mention their earlier degree.

Education in a Junior Financial Analyst Resume

This candidate mentioned their involvement in the students’ society because it had to do with finance, the field where they want to work.

4. Show Your Skills

How do you write the skills section of your resume?

If you’d just list everything you can do, you’d probably end up with a few pages of bullet points. But who’s ever going to read through all of them?

Remember that you’ve only got seven seconds to capture the reader’s attention, so make your skills list short and to the point. Here’s how.

Your first step is to get back to the job advert. Read it once again and identify keywords that describe specific skills.

Do any of these keywords apply to you? Good. They are the ones that go on your resume.

When you only list those of your skills that also appear in the job ad, you’ll probably end up with somewhere between 5 and 10 bullet points. This is a good range to aim for.

But the work doesn’t end here. 

Look back at your work experience and education sections. Do the bullet points in those sections highlight and prove your most relevant skills? If they don’t, feel free to edit them.

Here’s a bucket list of financial analyst skills you may need to include in your resume, depending on what your prospective employer wants to see.

Financial Analyst Resume: A Master List of Skills

• Critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Financial modeling
• Strategic thinking
• Presentation skills
• Ability to influence and persuade
• Knowledge of ERP systems and related technologies
• Strong understanding of legal matters
• Time management
• Organizational ability
• High performance under pressure
• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills
• Knowledge of Access (or other database software)
• Knowledge of accounting software (QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Xero…)
• Written and oral communication skills
• Mathematical and statistical models for risk management
• Attention to detail

What could the skills section of your resume look like?

Financial Analyst Skills for Resume

5. Add Exciting Extras to Your Financial Analyst Resume

Got an internationally recognized certification or an interesting hobby that will make a good impression on the hiring manager?

Now’s the time to brag about such things.

Make extra sections such as Certifications, Awards, Conferences (if you’ve ever spoken at them), Hobbies, etc. and fill them out! If you’re an entry-level candidate, you can mention academic awards as well.

Just pay attention to a few potential traps.

First: when listing your certifications, don’t forget to mention the certifying body and the year when you got certified. The recruiter must know that you were certified by a reputable organization like the CFA. Otherwise, they might suspect that you took a random two-hour “certification course” on an e-learning platform and now think you’re a financial analyst.

Second: you might be tempted to lie about your hobbies and include something that looks good on a resume even though you have zero interest in it. Don’t. But don’t be too frank either—mentioning that you collect bird-themed photo albums probably won’t help you get hired.

Financial Analyst Resume Sample: Extra Sections

This candidate included two well-respected certifications and two hobbies that demonstrate desirable personality traits. To excel at archery, they need to have great attention to detail and stress management skills—both of them are highly useful in the finance field, especially when tax season arrives in its full glory. Calligraphy also requires patience and concentration, two personal qualities that fit the image of a high-profile financial analyst.

6. Present a Powerful Resume Summary / Resume Objective

Now that you’ve completed the previous steps, it’s time to go back to your resume summary or resume objective.

This is a short (2–5 sentences), catchy text that goes right under the resume header and makes you stand out from all the other candidates. 

What’s the difference between resume summaries and resume objectives?

A resume summary highlights the key achievements and skills of an experienced candidate who can do risk analysis in their sleep.

A resume objective explains how an entry-level candidate is going to help their prospective employer achieve measurable business goals.

Both summaries and objectives follow the same essential formula:

Adjective + Job Title + Years of Experience + Achievements + Skills + What You Want to Do for the Employer

How do you fill this formula with data to get optimal results?

Go through your almost-ready resume and look for the most impressive and relevant skills, qualities, and achievements. Then insert them into the formula and edit for readability. Done.

Here’s what an experienced financial analyst could write in their resume summary.

Sample Financial Analyst Resume Summary

This summary shows what the candidate achieved while working for their previous employer. When the hiring manager at Gigabrick reads it, they’ll think, “Those numbers look good—let’s invite this candidate and find out if they’ll do the same for us.”

What about this one?

This one isn’t just bland. It’s as meaningless as a corporate budget that only contains the line, “We’ll make a lot of money and spend just a tiny bit of it.”

Finance is all about numbers and specifics. Provide them generously, and the recruiter will recognize your worth within a second of looking at your resume. 

But what about an entry-level candidate who’s just trying to get their foot in the door?

Junior Financial Analyst Resume Objective

Uh-oh. No company is going to entrust its finances to someone who’s going to learn on the job.

7. Craft a Financial Analyst Cover Letter

You’re almost done!

But why almost?

Well, your resume (no matter how perfect) is not enough. You also need a cover letter, even if your prospective employer doesn’t explicitly require it.

Some hiring managers actually reject any resume that comes without a cover letter, no matter how good it is. So don’t sabotage your own job application and go for the extra effort of writing a few paragraphs.

A cover letter gives your application a personal touch, showcases your writing skills, and shows hiring managers that you mean business. It’s a must if you really, really, really want that job.

Unless, of course, you’re simply spamming random companies with your resume just to keep HR people busy.

But since you’re reading this article, there’s a 99% probability that you’re seriously looking for the financial analyst job of your dreams.

So just write that letter. It isn’t hard if you approach it step by step:

• Put your contact info in a nicely formatted header
• Greet the hiring manager appropriately
• Grab their attention with an opening paragraph that highlights your key achievements
• Explain why you’re perfect for this job and why this job is perfect for you
• End with a strong call to action

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:

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See more cover letter templates and start writing.

Key Takeaways

Here’s how to write a data analyst resume step by step:

• Opt for a proven resume layout
• Present your work experience and your measurable accomplishments
• Fill out the education section
• Curate a list of highly relevant skills
• Add extra sections with your certifications, awards, interests, etc
• Craft a resume summary or a resume objective
• Complement your job-winning resume with a cover letter

Thanks for reading my guide! Now I’d love to hear from you:

• What are the biggest challenges of writing a financial analyst resume?
• What part do you struggle with the most?

Let me know. Let’s get the discussion started!