There is an increasing demand for jobs in the finance sector. For instance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the financial analyst jobs are expected to grow by 6% in the period between 2018 and 2028, which is as fast as the national average.

Financial Analyst. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Despite the growing demand for finance professionals, there is also a lot of competition for these jobs. If you want to land a job in finance, every aspect of your job search should be optimized for success. This starts with making sure that you have an outstanding finance resume.

Just because spreadsheets are a staple part of your job in finance doesn’t mean that your finance resume should be as dull as a spreadsheet. You need an engaging resume that shines a spotlight on your best areas and gets hiring managers looking forward to working with you.

Question is, how do you create such a finance resume?

This is what this guide is all about. In this guide, I will show you examples of great finance resumes, show you the best format to use for your finance resume, and teach you about the sections that you need to include in your finance resume, as well as how to write them.

If you feel that creating your finance resume from scratch is too much of a hassle, or if you would like to have an elegant, professional design on your resume, you can use our resume builder.

With our resume builder, you only need to enter key details about yourself and your career, and it will do the rest for you.

In addition, it gives you access to dozens of professional resume designs, all you need to do is to choose a template that suits your personality and apply it on your resume.

FINANCE RESUME EXAMPLES

Before we get into the different sections of a resume and how to write them, let’s start by looking at some examples of great finance resume. This way, you will have a clear idea of what we are trying to achieve as we go through the rest of the guide.

Senior Finance Analyst Resume Example

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Entry Level Investment Banker Resume Example

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WHICH FORMAT WORKS BEST FOR A FINANCE RESUME?

How much can you do within seven seconds?

Not much, I presume. You probably can’t even type a 140 character tweet in 7 seconds.

Well, here’s the shocker – within those 7 seconds, a recruiter will have decided whether your resume warrants a second glance or not.

Yes, recruiters make a decision about your resume in 7 seconds. If you cannot impress the recruiter in those 7 seconds, just forget about the job.

Question is, how do you convince someone that you are the right fit for the job within 7 seconds?

Quick answer: You cannot!

Fortunately, at this point, your aim is not to convince the recruiter that you are the best person for the job. The aim is to convince the recruiter to spend more time looking at your resume.

The reverse chronological resume format allows you to do just that. The reverse chronological resume format puts your most recent achievements first and makes it easy for the recruiter to find the information they are looking for. With this resume format, the recruiter can tell whether you meet the minimum requirements with a simple glance. And since you do, your finance resume will be put aside for a second look, instead of being thrown into the trash can.

To make it even easier for the recruiter to find the information they are looking for in your finance resume, use eye-friendly, professional resume fonts, well-placed white space, and easy to read headings for each section on your resume.

Finally, make sure your resume is saved as a PDF file, rather than as a Word Document. PDF files display information the same way regardless of the device they are being viewed on, thus eliminating the risk of your resume getting distorted while the recruiter is looking at it on their computer.

WRITING THE PERSONAL INFORMATION SECTION OF YOUR FINANCE RESUME

While most people believe that writing the personal information section of a finance resume is a straightforward thing, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind when writing this section. These include:

  • Use your full name as it appears on your official documentation. If you have three names, initialize your middle name, instead of writing it in full.
  • Your name should be followed by your professional title. If you have any important certifications, include them in your professional title. For instance, if you are a financial analyst with a CFA, include it in your professional title. This makes it easy for recruiters to know at a glance that you have the necessary qualifications.
  • If you are yet to get certification, but are in the process of getting one, let them know. You can do this by mentioning something like “CFA Candidate.”
  • If you graduated from one of the top financial universities, or if you have worked in one of the big 3 or big four, mention it as part of your professional title.
  • Provide an updated phone number on which you can easily be reached. For instance, avoid giving a home number if you hardly spend time at home.
  • Provide a professional email address, preferably one consisting of your first and last names. Opt for Gmail addresses over something like Yahoo or Hotmail.
  • If you have a professional LinkedIn profile, include a clickable link to your profile. Since LinkedIn is a professional-focused social platform, recruiters might want to check out your profile to get a better feel of you.
  • Only include links to your other social media profiles if they look professional. If you only use these profiles to share stuff about your personal life, avoid them.

Below is an example of a well-written personal information section for a finance resume:

Personal information

XYLA MCKENNA
CFA with 3+ years’ experience at McKinsey
Telephone: 555 555 5555
Email: xylamckenna@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mckennaxyla
Twitter: twitter.com/mckennaxyla

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IMPRESS THE RECRUITER WITH A WELL-WRITTEN RESUME SUMMARY OR OBJECTIVE

I mentioned earlier that using the reverse chronological format will help you convince the recruiter that your finance resume warrants more than a 7 second glance. At this point, they want to know more about you, but they are still unlikely to go through your entire resume.

To make sure that your resume doesn’t get discarded despite passing through the first round, you need to have a resume summary or resume objective.

This section provides a quick synopsis of your career, your qualifications, your experience, your skills and your experience. If you get this section right, it will get them interested in reading the rest of your resume.

If you have more than 3 years of finance experience, you should use a resume summary to provide an overview of your career. Here is an amazing formula you can use to come up with an engaging resume summary:

Formula for an engaging resume summary

[One adjective, e.g. dedicated, hardworking, passionate, knowledgeable] + [job title and certification] + [years of experience] + [strongest skills] + [biggest achievements, e.g Reduced costs at McKinsey by 12%]

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Below is an example of well written professional summary for a finance resume:

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Dedicated Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with over 8 years’ experience, with more than 3 of those spent at McKinsey. Used existing data to identify growth opportunities at Faulu Investments, leading to a 10% increase in revenue. Identified 20 low-revenue projects at Epsilon Consulting, leading to over $1 million in savings. Reduced costs at McKinsey by 12% by identifying and eliminating redundancies.

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If you are yet to accumulate a lot of finance experience, use the resume objective to showcase your key strengths and qualifications, certifications, and so on. The point of the resume objective is to convince the recruiter that you have what they are looking for, even if you are yet to get much experience.

Below is an example of a well-written resume objective:

RESUME OBJECTIVE

Passionate entry level investment banker seeking a position that will allow me to grow my skills. Recently Economics graduate from the University of Pennsylvania with a 3.8 GPA. Interned at JP Morgan. President of Finance Society at University of Pennsylvania. FMVA Certified.

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PRESENT YOUR FINANCE EXPERIENCE IN THE BEST LIGHT POSSIBLE

Your experience in the finance sector plays a very important role in helping you get hired. However, here is the one thing you need to keep in mind: you might have the right experience but still not get hired because you didn’t show the experience properly.

When it comes to describing finance experience, what most people do is find their job description, and then copy paste everything in job description to the experience section of their finance resumes.

The problem with this approach is that it only tells about the responsibilities you were tasked with. It does nothing to help the recruiter determine whether you did your job well or not. Even someone who failed at their job will list their job responsibilities.

If you want to stand out, you need to show the recruiter that you not only held specific positions, but also excelled while you were in these positions.

To do this, follow the following steps:

  1. Write down every position you have held in your career in finance, and list down all your achievements in each of these positions. Quantify these achievements in figures.
  2. Go through the job posting and identify the abilities and skills the employer is looking for.
  3. Go through the list you created in step 1 above, and for each position you held, identify the achievements that demonstrate the skills and abilities you identified in step 2. Transfer these achievements to the experience section of your finance resume.

If you do this, you will end up with a well-written experience section that demonstrates your proficiency in the skills and abilities the employer is looking for.

Below is an example of a well-written experience section of a finance resume:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Financial Analyst, Faulu Investments
Nov 2011 – July 2014

  • Exceeded company-wide client satisfaction averages by 18%.
  • Identified low performing client accounts and dedicated extra time to these accounts, leading to a 20% increase in average client revenue.
  • Came up with an Excel-based systems for tracking top performing investment portfolios.
  • Used existing data to identify growth opportunities, leading to a 10% increase in revenue.

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Well, what if you have no professional experience in the finance sector? Just because you have not worked professionally in the finance sector doesn’t mean you should leave the experience section of your finance resume blank.

Once again, write down any experience you have, even if it is not in the finance sector. Think of any internships you might have undertaken, experience from volunteer projects, side projects, university projects, and so on. Did any of this experience help you develop skills that can be transferred to the finance sector, or the skills that the employer is looking for?

If yes, list this experience in your finance resume and highlight the aspects that demonstrate the skills the employer is looking for.

Doing this will convince the employer that you have the skills they are looking for, even if you do not have any professional experience in finance. When you have no experience, it is also advisable to put a lot of emphasis on your education.

MAKE SURE THE EDUCATION SECTION OF YOUR FINANCE RESUME IS NOT LETTING YOU DOWN

Unlike other jobs where you can be self-taught and get a job, you have a very low chance of getting a job in finance if you don’t have proper education. Therefore, the education section is a very important part of a finance resume.

It is also very important for entry level finance professionals without lots of professional experience.

When showcasing your education, mention the name of the college you attended, the degree you attained, and the years you spent in school.

For entry level finance professionals, you can add more information to your education section to make up for the lack of experience. This includes mentioning things like your GPA, relevant courses, any awards you received, leadership positions while in school, and so on.

Below is an example of a well-written education section in a finance resume:

EDUCATION

2015 – 2019:
University of Pennsylvania

BA, Economics
GPA 3.8
Honors: Benjamin Franking Scholar Award

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HIGHLIGHT YOUR KEY SKILLS IN YOUR FINANCE RESUME

Very often, before getting to a recruiter or hiring manager, your finance resume will pass through an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). The ATS screens resumes to determine whether you have the necessary qualifications before passing over your resume to the recruiter.

One of the things the ATS uses to screen resumes is skills. Since the employer wants candidates with certain skills, the ATS will screen resumes for these skills and only allow through resumes that have these skills. This is why it is very important to include a skills section in your finance resume.

However, if you include random finance skills in your resume, you will still get locked out by the ATS.

You need to include the same skills the employer is looking for. To do this, you should carefully go through the job posting and identify the skills the employer wants, and then include these skills in your finance resume.

Then add a few extra skills that you are good at and that you believe will add value to the position you are applying for.

Below is list of skills that you might want to include in your finance resume:

Technical Skills

  • Data Analysis
  • Business Performance Analysis
  • System Integration
  • Trend Analysis
  • Financial Reporting
  • Financial Modelling
  • Multi-Currency Reporting
  • MS Excel
  • SAS
  • MS Access
  • Asset Management
  • Mathematics
  • Economics
  • Spreadsheet Skills
  • Project Management
  • Data Visualization
  • Accounting
  • Hyperion
  • SharePoint
  • Bloomberg
  • MATLAB
  • Tableau

Soft Skills

  • Leadership Skills
  • Communication Skills
  • Detail Oriented
  • Problem Solving
  • Analytical Skills
  • Critical Thinking Skills
  • Teamwork and Collaboration

INCLUDE YOUR CERTIFICATIONS TO GIVE MAKE YOUR FINANCE RESUME STAND OUT

Certifications are very important for professionals in the finance sector, and if you have any certifications, you need to include them in your finance resume. Actually, certifications could be the difference between landing your dream job and not getting an invite to the job interview.

Some of the top certifications for finance professionals include:

  • Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
  • Chartered Investment Counselor (CIC)
  • Financial Risk Manager (FRM)
  • Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
  • Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA)
  • Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC)
  • Chartered Market Technician (CMT)
  • Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
  • Certified International Investment Analyst (CIIA)
  • Certified Fund Specialist (CFS)

TAKE YOUR FINANCE RESUME TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH ADDITIONAL SECTIONS

You could stop at the certifications sections, or you could include some additional sections and transform your finance resume from great to exceptional.

Some of the extra sections you could add to your finance resume include:

  • Professional Memberships
  • Conferences
  • Publications
  • Volunteering
  • Courses
  • Awards

Adding one or more of these sections shows that you are a finance professional who is passionate about their career. This could give you an edge over an equally qualified candidate who stopped writing their resume after the certifications section.

WRAPPING UP

In a field where recruiters and hiring managers are used to seeing resumes that are as boring as spreadsheets, following the tips shared in this guide will ensure you end up with an interesting resume that will stand out from the other finance resumes and get you invited to that job interview.

From there, all you need to do is make sure that you are ready for the job interview so that you can impress the interviewing panel and clinch your dream job.

Don’t forget to proofread your resume finance before submitting your job application. You don’t want to miss out on an exciting chance simply because you misspelt a few words in your otherwise stunning finance resume.

Other than that, all the best in your job search, and remember, if you want to automate the process of creating your finance resume, you can always use our resume builder.

Finance Resume: Sample And Complete Guide

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