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Professional assistant accountant resume
There are certain guidelines for writing a professional accounting assistant resume, these guidelines help you reflect professionalism and that in turn makes your resume professional.
- Always use third person and past tense
- Avoid using pronouns everywhere because they make the language less formal
- Ensure accuracy by proofreading your resume twice and remove any spelling errors, grammatical errors as well as any factual errors
- Use the right resume format (we will discuss formats in this article in a while)
- Use the right document format-PDF or Microsoft Word
- Label the resume document simply with your full name and the term 'resume' or 'CV'
- Use bullet points to describe the details in each section
- Use as many action verbs as possible
- Quantify the information as much as possible by using numbers
Starting point
Any and everything begins with research. Your starting point for writing your accounting assistant resume should be research too. You need to research and explore your role-what are the designations that are right for you, job duties-which are the responsibilities you can handle, your industry-accounting and finance industry and so on.
This research will help you understand the job market scenario as well as the industry situation in terms of employment. You can learn about everything from the salary range that you can expect to the skills you will need as an accounting assistant.
You will also learn how to stand out, what extra can you offer and how to write an impressive accounting assistant resume so that your chances of getting the job are higher than the rest of the job applicants.
(Source: https://www.statista.com/topics/2121/accounting-industry-in-the-us/)
Formats
There are many resume formats that you can choose from, we will talk about the 3 most prominent formats that are used by majority of professionals to write their resume in the most efficient manner possible.
📌 Types of formats:
- Functional resume: This resume format is for freshers and recent graduates who have no experience and need to highlight their skills and education.
- Reverse chronological resume: This format is used by the professionals who have significant or extensive professional experience and need to showcase the same efficiently. The format describes the work history in the reverse chronological form hence the name of the format is reverse chronological format.
- Combination resume: Combination resume format is the combination of above two formats. You can use this format when you need to have emphasis on the skills section as well as professional experience section. Usually this format is used by the professionals who want to change their careers.
What should your assistant accountant resume look like?
Now, let's talk about each and every section on your resume and how to write them on a professional accounting assistant resume so you can understand how your accounting assistant resume should look like.
Contact information
Contact information section on the top- in the header of your accounting assistant resume should include:
- Your full name with accurate spelling
- Your contact number with area code and country code
- Your professional email address
- Your LinkedIn profile link (only if your profile is carefully curated and updated
- Your professional headshot in formal attire (however it is not mandatory to include this so it is up to you)
- Your brief home address in case you are applying for a job in another state or country (again, it is not mandatory and you can decide for your own accounting assistant resume)
Resume summary
Your resume summary is where you will highlight the most important and impressive parts of your resume. Resume summary is similar to a movie trailer, it has enough information to get you interested in watching the whole movie and in this case, reading the whole resume with carefully.
Professional summary should include your role, total years of experience that you have and background. You need to mention the most important achievements and skills along with any recognitions and awards and so on. Professional summary should also include any relevant information that is a must for the role of assistant accountant to let the hiring manager know that you have what it takes to be an assistant accountant.
Your professional summary should mention what kind of opportunity you are seeking as an assistant accountant for your next job and how you will leverage your skills and experience to perform well.
Make sure that you use bullet points to describe the information discussed above, your professional summary should have about 3 to 5 bullet points, no more and no less.
Experience/ Work history
On an accounting assistant resume, you are likely to need a good emphasis on the professional experience section because it will help you showcase your competency really well.
In the professional experience section, you need to mention your work history in the reverse chronological order, that means you will be beginning with your latest job and walking back to your first job. You should add details such as your role/designation, the full name of the employer company and the employment period.
You should also use bullet points while describing the details of your experience. You should be thorough when you are describing your experience details and include every responsibility that you handled as an accounting assistant. Whether it was generating financial reports or handling general ledger or any other accounting assistant duties.
Education
The education section on your accounting assistant resume is usually where you talk about your theoretical learning experiences. You can mention your high school diploma, your bachelor's degree and any more degrees or diplomas along with any other courses and programs that you may have acquired.
You need to remember that you need to mention the full name of the degree or course or diploma that you have completed along with the education institute from where you acquired the same. You can also mention any relevant subjects and topics that you learned in those degrees and courses. You can also mention your majors and minors along with your exceptional performances such as excellent GPA and grades.
Skills section
You have talked about your skills in your resume summary section as well as your professional experience section so why do you need a separate section for skills?
In previous sections the skills were included in long sentences as part of other information and it is possible that the hiring manager was not able to note them and realize that you have those skills. In this separate skills section, you will be writing your skills in a list format which will make them easier to notice.
In addition, these are the skills that are your top strengths and are truly important and relevant for your role of accounting assistant.
📌 List of relevant skills for an assistant accountant resume:
- financial reports
- monthly financial statements
- financial statements
- accounts receivable
- accounts payable
- bank statements
- accounting tasks
- bank transactions
- financial records
- analyzing financial data
- managing fixed assets
- business administration
- working in timely and accurate manner
- handling bank accounts
- expense reports
- accounting job duties
- professional accounting
- bank deposits
- accounting records
- financial transactions analysis
- financial administration
- accounting projects
- manage accounts
- manage accounting systems
- accounting procedures
- business management
- accounting software
- working in finance department
- handling general ledger
- managing financial documents
- payroll records
- account reconciliation
- communication skills
- audit schedules
- accounting experience
- administrative tasks
- account analysis
- comprehensive knowledge of bank reconciliation
- monthly reconciliations
- monthly basis financial reports
- cash balances
- problem solving skills
- key skills of handling cash flow
- internal auditing
- tax preparation
- working external auditors
- record keeping
- critical thinking
- working on multiple projects
- generating invoices
Bonus Tips
Writing a professional resume can get you to a certain point-that is-not disappointing the hiring manager. So, how do you go a step further and manage to impress the hiring manager or what can you do to increase your chances of getting hired. That's where these bonus tips will come in handy! Let's dive in!
Keywords
You may already know how these days hiring managers use artificial intelligence driven software to sort the job applications that they receive. Such software or the applicant tracking system (ATS) helps the hiring managers scan and filter the resumes and shortlist the most relevant resumes for the hiring manager.
Such systems and software work on the basis of parameters set by the hiring managers that are nothing else but the relevant keywords to your role, job description and industry.
We have prepared a list for your own professional accounting assistant resume that you can use, you should also make sure you pick up relevant keywords from the job descriptions and job postings because the chances are that the hiring managers will use those exact descriptions and keywords in those descriptions as their parameters for filtering the resumes through ATS.
📌 List of relevant keywords for an assistant accountant resume:
- foreign subsidiaries
- comprehensive overview
- successful history
- critical thinking
- hard skills
- timely manner
- professional experience
- cash flow
- monthly basis
- bank reconciliation
- key skills
- accounting experience
- account reconciliation
- account receivables
- financial documents
- general ledger
- final accounts
- business management
- proper accounts
- reconciled bank statements
- first accounting job
- other financial reports
- professional accounting
- accounts payable vouchers
- professional summary
- business administration
- accounts receivable
- accounts payable
- accounting assistants
- financial reports
- financial statements
- assistant accountant
- accounting assistant
References
Your accounting assistant resume should provide some information and details that allows the hiring manager to seek and acquire reassurance regarding your competency as well as the validity of everything that you have written on your accounting assistant resume. An ideal accounting assistant resume example would provide references for this purpose.
References section can include up to 3 references of your past colleagues who may have been your co-workers, managers, supervisors and any such professionals who have worked with you closely and can provide a feedback regarding your skills, your experience and capabilities and competency for the new job that you have applied for.
You should mention the references' full names, their contact numbers and/or their email addresses so that the hiring managers can contact them and communicate about you. Ensure that the references you choose have an honest (and positive) feedback on you so that the hiring manager also received positive feedback and perhaps even recommendation for you.
Key Takeaways
In conclusion, your assistant accountant resume should be written professionally and describe your profile in the most efficient manner possible so that the hiring manager does not miss out on a good candidate such as you.
You should check out our resume examples and templates along with our resume builder feature that provides AI prompts for you, similar to ChatGPT. This will help you save a lot of time and energy in writing your accounting assistant resume.
Good luck with the job search!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do I need a master's degree on my assistant accountant resume?
Various hiring managers and job description of job postings may have different expectations. Some companies and roles may be in need of a professional assistant accountant who has comprehensive knowledge of bachelor's degree-level and others may need the capabilities and knowledge of master's degree-level. You will need to check the job description carefully to figure out whether the particular role needs the master's degree or not. In case, it is not mentioned in the job description, you should contact the hiring manager and get a confirmation.
Should I write more than 3 references on my assistant accountant resume?
Usually any professional resume has 3 references listed in the references section. If you have listed 3 references, it should be sufficient and you don't need to add more.
Is 1 page assistant accountant resume professionally acceptable?
Absolutely, a standard professional assistant accountant resume should be 1 to 2 pages long. Resumes that are longer tend to make the hiring managers lose interest and check the resume superficially because it can be time consuming and they have many resumes to go through. If you have 1 page assistant accountant resume, it will be perfect for any hiring manager to go through and read the information carefully.
