Your CV in your job search is one of the most important bits to have to get started. Your CV allows you to summarise your education, skills and experience enabling you to successfully sell your abilities to potential employers. Alongside your CV, employers also usually ask for a cover letter. If they don’t request a cover note, we would advise you to prepare one anyway as it allows you to tailor your background and experience to the specifics on the role and organisation on hand. This may seem basic, but to be honest, so many people prepare CVs & cover notes that are not fit for purpose. In preparing a CV, time must be spent to ensure that you capture all the information that makes you unique and summaries why you are both suitable and of interest to the hiring managers of the corporate finance role.
Here are some simple tips and a template to assist you in preparing your perfect corporate finance CV. Remember, no two CVs will be the same – each will have their own unique personality but it is important that you provide core information to help the employer choose you for interview.
PERSONAL DETAILS
In this first section re personal details, if you are from another country, outside Europe and have an alternative work status and visa, please refer to your visa type up the top making it as accessible as possible.
Your Name
Professional Qualifications ACA MBA BA etc
Contact Details (including Town and County)
Phone: +353 1 1234567 Mobile: +353 87 12345678
Visa status
Email: [email protected] Linkedin: linkedin.com/username
PROFILE
Tip 1: 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 8 to 10 lines long and do not use bullet points.
This should be roughly four lines in length per above.
Tip 2: Education and Training is next up and, as a corporate finance professional, it is important that you list out your professional qualifications & results etc. 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.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2010 Accounting Institute
– Qualification, stage and “first time pass” if relevant
2006 University/Institute
– Degree/Qualification, major and result
*Tip – If you feel your result was below par, you may choose to leave out the results and focus on individual subjects
2002 School
– Total number of points or hons
*Tip – If you feel your result was below par, you may choose to leave out the results and focus on individual subjects
Tip 3: 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
CAREER HISTORY
Jan 2019 to Current Name of Company
Title
*Tip – This section should contain three to four lines on the organisation per above tip 3
Insert details of your key duties and responsibilities.
- x
- x
- x
Key achievements
This section should include a list of 4-8 achievements and should be presented in bullet point format.
- x
- x
- x
Jan 2015 to Jan 2019 Name of Company
Title
*Tip – This section should contain three to four lines on the organisation per above tip 3
Insert details of your key duties and responsibilities.
- x
- x
- x
Key achievements
This section should include a list of 4-8 achievements and should be presented in bullet point format.
- x
- x
- x
Reason for leaving
This should be no more than one line in length explaining your reason for the move eg “Career progression” or “An opportunity arose to change sectors” or “Contract came to completion”.
Jan 2010 to Jan 2015 Name of Company
Title
*Tip – This section should contain three to four lines on the organisation per above tip 3
Insert details of your key duties and responsibilities:
- x
- x
- x
Key achievements
This section should include a list of 4-8 achievements and should be presented in bullet point format
- x
- x
- x
Reason for leaving
This should be no more than one line in length explaining your reason for the move eg “Career progression” or “An opportunity arose to change sectors” or “Contract came to completion”.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Insert details of memberships
FURTHER TRAINING
June 2019 Name of Institute and training course
June 2018 Name of Institute and training course
IT SKILLS & LANGUAGES
- Include details of all IT skills and software knowledge you have to offer potential employers. Example: IT Skills: WordPress, AutoCad, Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Explorer
List languages and competency level – conversational, fluent, mother tongue etc.
INTERESTS
Include brief details of interests. If you can use your interests to emphasise your skills then so all the better for example team captain or chairperson of a local group.
REFERENCES
Available on request.
If you would like a word version of our Corporate Finance CV Template or for any other corporate finance recruitment queries you can contact Tanya Thomas directly on +363 1 507 9260 or email [email protected]