Accountancy CV Advice

Your accountancy CV is one of the most important elements to get started in your job search. Your CV allows you to summarise your education, skills and experience enabling you to successfully sell your abilities to potential employers.

It may seem basic, but to be honest, so many people prepare CVs & cover notes that are not fit for purpose. In preparing an accountancy CV, time must be spent to ensure that you capture all the information that makes you unique and summarises why you are both suitable and of interest to the hiring managers.

In addition to your CV, it can be beneficial to add a cover note. This allows you to tailor your background and experience to the specifics of the role and organisation Here are some simple tips and a template to assist you in preparing your perfect accounting CV. Remember, no two CVs will be the same – yours will have its own unique personality but it is important that you provide core information to help the employer choose you for an interview.

Perhaps it’s been some time since you’ve needed to write or update your accountancy CV, but don’t worry, we can help take some of the stress out of this.

CV Length
Any more than three pages and you risk losing the attention of the reader, unless you’ve been asked to submit a CV for a very specific role. Two pages is best, but be aware of “spillages” from one page into another. Each page should end and begin as separate parts of your career history.

Contact Details
Include your Name, Email, Phone Number, Location, Visa Status and LinkedIn profile at the top of your CV.

Additional Points
Your CV is effectively a marketing document for your career, but also the first point of contact so take care to ensure there are no typos or chronology errors. It’s always advised to have someone you trust review the document ahead of you sharing it with a potential employer. It is easy to miss something obvious on your own document.

Formatting
Choose a simple font such as Arial, Tahoma or Calibri. Use font size 10 or 11. Highlight company name and Job Title in Bold. Use simple bullet points.

Consistency
It is important that the document has good symmetry and the format is consistent. For example, keep the date format the same throughout your employment history.

Photograph?
We recommend not including a photograph. It can lead to formatting issues or poor reproduction on screen or print.

Content
Don’t assume the reader knows all about your employers, so best to follow this basic format:

Professional Qualifications
(ACA, ACCA, CPA etc. and year qualified).

Career/Executive Summary
Your profile is your opportunity to summarise your background and create a snapshot of your suitability for the job you are applying to. It is often the first thing an employer will read, therefore it should set the tone for the rest of your CV. This is your chance to highlight the value you can bring to the role and highlight your core competencies and skills. Be sure to mention the skills you have that the employer has specified in the job description. Your profile should be 4-6 lines long and do not use bullet points. The summary should be roughly four lines in length.

Career History
In this section, you start with your most recent work experience and work backwards. It is important to give the employer a sense of the scale/size of the companies that you have worked with, so under each employer write a couple of lines explaining the size and nature of the business. Make the description of your jobs strong by using active verbs and emphasise key skills relevant to the type of jobs that you are looking for. Under achievements, make sure to quantify as much as possible. Employers like evidence! It is a good idea to reference your reason for moving jobs – it gives the employer a sense of you and your motivation.

• Dates (start with most recent employer)
• Company
• Your Job Title
• Brief overview of the company (industry, no. employees, turnover, Plc/SME)
• Scope of your role (1-2 lines max)
• List your responsibilities, highlighting achievements (measurable results if possible “This is what I did, and this was the positive impact it had”)
• State the accounting packages, BI tools, Accounting standards you have experience with.

Education
List your education in chronological order, starting with the most recent. Highlight, where you have had very good results. Tip: If you feel your
result was below par, you may choose to leave out the results and focus on individual subjects. If you have completed a third level qualification, you may choose to leave out your Higher Certificate/Leaving Certificate results and particularly if it was completed more than 15 years ago.

Gaps
Don’t leave gaps in the CV. Address if you were travelling, unemployed, on a career break at college etc.

Hobbies and Interests
It is important to list your interests and hobbies – they can make for a talking point in the interview.

References
Just say: “References available on request”.