How can you land your dream job in such conditions? Sometimes, even the experience and skills are not enough to land the job because now there are many new aspects- you have to beat the ATS, you have to present your profile in extra ordinary manner and you have to offer something more than the average applicants.
Simply meeting the requirements for qualification is no longer sufficient to actually get the job. And we are here to help you!
In this article, we will talk about how to present your profile in your finance analyst resume, how to beat the ATS and how to land that job you want!
So let's dive in!👇
What does a finance analyst do?
So what does a finance analyst do? You are one so you already know this however you might not know how to include important aspects of a financial analyst profile in your financial analyst resume.
We will discuss some of the financial analyst responsibilities here and how to write about them.
Accounts
A financial analyst may handle the accounts of the clients and monitor the money in the account.
This includes balancing accounts, tracking payments and transactions and making sure it all adds up without any errors.
When writing about this responsibilities in your financial analyst resume, you can mention what challenges you faced and how you handled them. You can also mention how many accounts you handled at once.
You can include any exceptional new ideas you came up with to improve the performance and finances for the client.
Reports
A financial analyst essentially analyzes the finances meaning after the analysis there should be a report of the analysis. This report is important for improvement of finances, tracking the finances and managing the finances.
You can mention it in your resume with details of analysis method and efficiency, results that the client bore from the reports and the improvements that could be made as result of the report.
Financial planning
As a financial analyst, you might analyze the finances and help the client plan their finances for better management of finances.
You may have helped the client with cutting the expenses and increasing their income after analyzing their finances. You can mention this in your financial analyst resumes.
You can also mention how you discovered and utilized resources in smart and productive manner.
Investment
Client's finances may also include their investments. Your financial expertise would have been utilized to make decisions related to investments.
You can mention how you improved the investments with analysis and advising on which assets are useful, what are the risks and so on.
You can also mention how with the current trends you advised on investment in real estate, stock market and so on.
Risk assessment/ management
Speaking of finances, risks are always there. As a financial analyst, you help assess the risks and manage them.
In your financial analyst resume, you can describe how you helped the client with risk assessment and risk management. What kind of ways you implemented to decrease the risks in high stake investments and so on.
We have discussed some of the prominent responsibilities to give you an idea of how to mention them in your resume. Now, let's talk about how to write your financial analyst resumes.👇
How to write a finance analyst resume?
Writing your financial analyst resume is quite simple if you know some of the guidelines that are necessary to be followed to maintain the professional standards of your resumes.
💰 A financial analyst earns around US$ 95,000+ annually according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics!
(Source: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/financial-analysts.htm)
For such compensation, you also need a good opportunity and for that you need a good resume so let's talk how to write one.
Format
Before you begin to write your financial analyst resume, you need to decide the format for your resume. The format provides the outline of sections for your resume which decides how your profile will be presented and described on your resume.
There are various formats you can choose from i.e. functional, reverse-chronological, combination. If you are a senior financial analyst you should go for reverse-chronological format. Also if you have notable experience you can choose reverse-chronological.
If you are fresher you may want to go with functional and if you are changing careers your choice would be the combination format.
You can also decide upon your theme of resume i.e. minimalist, modern, traditional, visual etc.
Once you have chosen your format and theme, you can start writing your resume.
Contact information
On the top of your resume, in the header, the contact information and name will be written. Write your name in slightly bigger fonts followed by your professional headshot in formal attire. The photo is optional.
Next mention your contact number with area code in formal manner. Add your email address which is professional and formal that you use for work purposes.
If you have carefully curate LinkedIn profile, you should mention the link of your LinkedIn profile. Make sure you are active on your LinkedIn profile in case the hiring manager checks your profile or contacts you through the profile.
Well established social media presence is a plus these days because it ensures you are up to date with the latest trends and current affairs.
Next, although not mandatory, you can mention your home address in brief if you are applying for a job in another state or country.
Profile Summary
After the contact information, you need to describe your profile in brief under the profile summary section.
The summary should be brief and described in bullet points rather than a paragraph. Keep the bullet points concise and short. Summary will cover the highlights and key details of your profile.
First bullet point should describe your total work experience in years along with a little background.
Next 1 to 3 bullet points should talk about your key accomplishments and relevant skills. You can mention the highlight worthy aspects from your work history. Only mention the most important ones and leave the in-depth details for the experience section.
Try to quantify your accomplishments with numbers to optimize the impact of your profile as a financial analyst.
At last, mention what kind of opportunity you are seeking and how you will contribute and make difference for the employer.
Experience
Professional experience section for financial analyst resume is quite important as it will reflect your capabilities and skills. It will also decide your competency for the role you are applying to.
Experience section should also be described in bullet points (preferably). You should mention your usual responsibilities briefly while pointing out how well you handled them.
You might want to focus on your key accomplishments more along with the skills that you used to perform well and achieve results.
As discussed before, mention the various tasks that you have done in your past roles as a financial analyst and make sure you highlight how you completed those tasks- more efficiently and in better ways.
Your experience section should also have quantified details in numbers. Throughout the experience section and also the resume, try to showcase how you can contribute in exceptional manner that no one else can; how you bring something more to the table than the other applicants.
Make sure to include the specifics that are mentioned in the job description of the role you are applying for, it will catch the hiring manager's attention because that is what they are looking for in a candidate.
Education
Once you are done with the experience section, next comes the education section. In the education section you need to mention the name of your education institute followed by the name of the degree.
You can also mention the relevant coursework and subjects briefly. If you majored in specific subject that is relevant, ensure you mention that in the resume along with the education details.
Skills
The skills section is quite simple. You can mention some of the soft skills such as:
- time management
- organizational
- MS Office
- G Suite
- creating presentations
while soft skills are important, hard skills are even more important. Some of the hard skills you can mention are:
- financial reporting
- account balancing
- risk assessment
- financial analysis
- investment advise
and many more key skills that are relevant to the financial analyst role that you have should be mentioned in your financial analyst resumes.
Skills are important because they are key indicators of your competency for the role. Make sure you mention all the relevant skills, especially the ones mentioned in the job description.
Extra
Your financial analyst resume can also have some extra sections for information such as your language proficiency, your hobbies and interests, your awards, your certifications and any other information that may be relevant to the field of finances and your role of financial analyst.
You should create a resume that showcases you skills, your years of work history, experience as a financial analyst to make sure the hiring manager is impressed.
Tips to Make Your Resume Stand Out
A company never looks for just a financial analyst, they are looking for someone really good, someone extra ordinary to fill the position. You need to match their expectations through your resume.
Keywords
Years of experience and your resume will still be scanned by the same ATS as the rest! Meaning, your skills and experience is secondary and how you present your resume is primary!
All the hiring managers use the Applicant Tracking System or the ATS to scan the resumes and applications. Those ATS filter the resumes based on the parameters set. These parameters are the relevant keywords for your role.
To sum up, you need all the relevant keywords included in your resume to beat the ATS. You can research your role, job description, employer and the industry to make sure all the keywords are covered.
Cover Letter
Cover letter is your chance to pitch your candidacy to the hiring manager. You can describe your experience and skills and showcase how you are the right candidate!
You can also talk about your inspiration and journey. Reflect your passion and dedication and you will surely impress the hiring manager.
Language
Make sure you follow these simple rules throughout the financial analyst resume:
- Always use third person and past tense
- Use as many action words as possible
- Do not use pronouns in sentences
These simple rules will help you make sure your resume has the professional and formal tone through the language which is important. This helps you meet the standards of a professional and exemplary resumes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the financial analyst resume is quite easy to write once you know all the guidelines and have some extra tips! In addition to using this article as your guide and checklist, you should also check out our resume example and templates.
When saving the resume, make sure you proofread the resume twice and remove any spelling or grammatical errors. Save the resume with professional label and in compatible format of either .docx or .pdf.
Last but not least, you might want to customize your resume a little for every role you apply to so that the resume is perfect and impactful on the hiring manager.
And that's it! Now you know everything about writing your financial analyst resume so you can start right away! Good luck getting that job you are eyeing!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Not always, you can check the job description or the application portal to confirm. However, enclosing cover letter even when not mandatory can only get you brownie points with the hiring manager and improve your chances of getting the job.
Depending on the job level, you may or may not need the master's degree. You can check the job description or contact the hiring manager to confirm.
If these courses are relevant to the role you are applying, then you should mention them in your resume. You can note them in education section or create a new section for the information.
