Writing a Winning Resume

Hiring managers?decide?within 15 seconds of opening a resume if they will arrange an interview.?If it's a no, it's delete. If it's a yes, they likely read on for another 45 seconds or less to gather more detail to support their initial assessment. Most?glance?at the current title and employer, then scroll to the bottom for education and year and possibly first job after school (noting whether there is a gap), then back to the top job for more detail.

Your goal:?get the interview. Reader's goal:?scan for the winner and eliminate all others.?

You want the reader to quickly assess: Wow.?This person clearly has skills beyond those of her peers.?And she knows how to produce a neat, concise document that highlights key points, drills down to detail as necessary, ignores the immaterial but always hits the material points, is accurate, and smartly anticipates and addresses the questions of the reader.?This is someone I want working for me.

Like with financial highlights, the resume reader is seeking specific information quickly. A 10k reader is not concerned about presentation form, photographs, company logos, or the like. She is concerned about quickly finding the numbers/facts that are pertinent without having to seek them out.

You would not want to read financial highlights where you had trouble finding EBITA, annual revenue, or EPS. Likewise,?your own personal relevant info should be easy-to-find.?The reader expects to see education on the bottom and will look for it there. She will look for dates of employment next to the job title, and she will assume the top-listed position is the current/most recent one.

RESUME DO'S

DO?Keep it brief.?One page is ideal; two pages absolute maximum.?The more you write, the less the important things stand out.

DO?Reverse chronological format?with education on bottom and most recent/current position at the top. Avoid functional resumes (listing all skills without specifying with which employer or when each skill was relevant). With the latter, the reader does not know how current anything is (yes, you wrote the 10k, but was that last week or 11 years ago?).

DO?Executive summary—but only if there is space,?since this is redundant to the bullet points anyway.?List hard-skills (meaning real skills like?Oracle 12c implementation?or?10k and 10q, not soft skills like?easy to work with). Stick with 2-column list format, which is easy to read.?Paragraph format is hard to pick out details.?Remember, anyone reading your resume is likely reading many others and needs important facts to jump out.

DO?Include interests?at or near the bottom of the resume. General enough to create a bond with many potential readers, but specific enough to not be generic. Activities and hobbies are ideal (snowboarding, hiking, studying art, playing classical guitar). If you love reading, that's great. But not interesting resume banter. If it must be something like reading, get specific?(reading 19th century American literature).

DO?Get technical. Very technical.?Any hiring manager that is worth working for will fully understand your technical jargon.?Include specific areas you have worked on (ie?well versed in ASC 805 Business Combinations; analyzed revenue treatment for multiple element arrangements; FX hedging; accounting for derivatives).?Include specific ASC pronouncement numbers (HR may be scanning for those, too).?All other things being equal, the resume with technical pronouncements listed stands out as representing a candidate that is more technical.

DO?Spellcheck, grammar check. And don't count on Word to do your work for you--Word catches spelling but doesn't know that?you mean?ensure?when you typed?insure.?Read and re-read and have your friend/spouse read. Accountants should have attention to detail, so there is zero room for error on a resume. Likewise,?ensure?all tenses and forms agree as appropriate.

DO?List specific clients?you have worked for in public accounting.?Actual financial data is confidential during an audit so of course don't include that, but the firm’s clients are public knowledge and potential employers want to know what audits you were on (a pre-IPO Audit Manager sees different areas/challenges than an Audit Manager on the HP engagement).

DO?Include month when listing dates, not just year.?Year-alone is vague and is often “hiding something”.?You’re an accountant—you should be able to get specific with numbers (month is material, actual day of the month is immaterial). Reader wants to see that there are no gaps, or that gaps are explained. Listing just a year could mean 3 weeks or it could mean 52 weeks.

DO?Address any obvious issues or questions?that an intelligent reader will be left with. Remember, the reader is someone that you will respect as your future boss, so if you notice it, then she does too. The reader should not have to figure out if you’ve been at a company for a day or for a year, what your actual title is, or what you did for three years that are missing between jobs.

DO?Briefly explain anything that’s not obvious. If?your current or past employer is not a household name, include ONE line for that and all other employers (for consistency) on who they are (ie?300 employee NASDAQ-listed SaaS company with $120 million in revenue).

DO?Briefly list reasons for leaving each job?if there are multiple job-changes. If job changes are few, then generally no need (though it doesn't hurt).

DO?Write CPA next to your name in the header, if you are one.?Not a CPA??Explain your status under education (ie?passed 3 sections of Uniform CPA exam, sitting for final section November 2024).

DO?Include GPA—if it’s high (3.5 or above) and include graduation honors if any.

DO?Include Graduation date—month and year ideal.?Unlikely it will be used against you for age discrimination purposes (and do you really want to work for that person, anyway?).?But the reader wants to see there is no gap between graduation and first job (basically, resume should summarize everything career-wise since graduating undergrad).

RESUME DON'TS:

DON'T?Use a gimmicky or flashy format--anything besides reverse-chronological with education at bottom can be frustrating for the reader.

DON'T?Write an Objective—no need; it’s archaic.?Your objective is to get the job you are applying for.?Save the space.

DON'T?Include a cover letter.?A very short email suffices.?Cover letter is fluff and is redundant to a good resume. The resume should hit the key points the reader wants to see quickly.

DON'T?Leave off anything that’s material (ie leaving off jobs).?It will eventually come up, and you'll spend half the interview talking about the one item you were trying to avoid talking about. And in the end you won't get the job anyway because at least one person on the hiring team will conclude the candidate is not straightforward.

DON'T?Make up titles—anyone qualified to be reading your resume (ie anyone you want to work for) will know.?Controllers all know there is no?Acting Manager?title in the Big 4. The reader will appreciate that even without a great title the applicant may still have significant responsibility (ie a 5-year Senior is likely already running engagements and functioning as a manager). Reporting structure can help clarify (ie?Title: Senior Accounting Manager, reporting directly to the CAO).

DON'T?Just update your college resume.?If this is your first resume leaving public accounting, ditch your college resume and start from scratch.?Half the page should be about your current professional experience.?Internships can be listed, but the bullets now eliminated.?If you already have a strong professional resume, then just list the new job at the top and start to eliminate details toward the bottom. Your past two to three years should be the bulk of the bullets (don't just have two bullet points for your current role, but still have 10 bullets for something eight years prior).

DON'T?Embellish, which is a nice word for lie. Keep the information accurate.?One minor discrepancy will end an interview process (or employment) when it comes to light.?It’s okay to brag, but don’t embellish.?It’s okay to present things positively, but don’t change the facts.

DON'T?Pay for professional help.?Resumes are simple and don’t need to read poetically.?“Professional” writers likely will not have actually interviewed and hired candidates in the past, and the results of their work tend to be visually busy/flashy. A credible recruiter/headhunter can offer feedback/insight and will never charge money. A credible recruiter also will NOT write your resume for you--anyone with the connections to employers you are looking for is spending time making introductions, not writing resumes.

DON'T include logos from companies you have worked for. Logos are designed to grab attention and they do just that on your resume, distracting the reader from digesting your skills and accomplishments.

Adam Samarel is a Deloitte alum with a Masters in Accounting and MBA from Northeastern.?He is a founder and partner at Mason & Blair, LLC, Silicon Valley’s premier boutique finance recruiting firm.?If you are a bay area CPA he has likely placed your boss, your client controller or CFO, the guy/gal that sits next to you that just gave notice, or if you are reading this then quite possibly you. Adam has read tens-of-thousands of resumes and learns something every time. More importantly, he gets feedback from CFOs and CAOs on the resumes that get interviews and the ones that get passed over.?Adam’s LinkedIn recommendations will confirm that he will help push you to your positive limits, both personally and professionally.

Feel free to send me a?confidential?resume any time and I will offer honest feedback.