# How to Write a Resume for Your First Accounting Job (Step-by-Step)

Channel: Kelly Randolph
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd9Xwm8_r0M
Duration: 21 min
Language: English
Words: 3634
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/Bd9Xwm8_r0M

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[0:00] So, you want to apply to your first accounting job, but you don't know how to write your resume. Or maybe you already started applying to positions, but you aren't getting any callbacks. If this is the case, it most likely is due to your resume. So, in this video, I'm going to walk you through how to structure your resume correctly. We're also going to go over a sample resume that I created that you can download and use as a reference. And then we're going to go over common resume mistakes to avoid. So, if writing a resume is something that you need help with, definitely keep watching. Hi, my name is

[0:32] Kelly Randolph. I have worked in corporate accounting for over 10 years now. I have worked at both Fortune 200 and Fortune 500 companies, and I'm currently a financial reporting manager. I also hire entry-level accountants. So, everything I'm sharing in this video is based on real experience. The first step to writing a good resume is by looking at job postings for the type of position that you want to apply for. So, in this example, we to go on to LinkedIn, and we are going to look at different staff accounting positions. First, you would go to linkedin.com. At the top of the screen, there's going to be a search

[1:09] bar. There, you can type in the type of position that you want. So, we are going to put staff accountant. Then you can filter the location to where you live, and you can change the distance to whatever is applicable for your situation, and click show results. In the example that we are going over today, I picked the city Atlanta, Georgia, and I put the distance to 50 miles. The first position that popped up for me is McKenzie staff accountant. You want to click on several different staff accounting positions when you're writing your resume. Then you want to read through the qualifications for the various positions, and look for the

[1:47] commonalities among the qualifications. Then when we are writing our experience on our resume, we want to tailor our experience to match these commonalities as closely as possible. If you are liking this video so far, definitely give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for more accounting career content. In the example that we are going over in this video, I am looking at the position staff accountant for a company called McKenzie's Inc. Then I'm scrolling to the about the job section and reading through the job summary and job responsibilities. So, it says that we are seeking a detail-oriented and analytical staff accountant to support our operations by supporting the

[2:32] accounting function through accurate financial reporting, account analysis, and general ledger maintenance. This role is a key part of ensuring the integrity of financial data and assisting with month-end close processes. So, reading through this now, the words that stand out to me are going to be detail-oriented and analytical. So, I would make a mental note when I'm thinking through my own experience, I want to be thinking about where have I shown that I'm detail-oriented and analytical. As we read through the job responsibilities, we also want to do a similar thing and make note of what responsibilities are they looking for in this position that I

[3:12] have done and can include on my resume. So, it is saying review, analyze, and audit general ledger accounts for accuracy, completeness, and proper classification. Assist with month-end year-end close processes, including journal entries and account reconciliations. Prepare distribute financial reports to management, provide explanations for variances as needed, monitor financial activity and identify inconsistencies, maintain supporting documentation for all accounting transactions and ensure compliance with internal controls and company policies, support internal and external audits by preparing requested documentation, collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure accurate financial reporting,

[3:54] perform other accounting-related duties. So, this is a really good entry-level accounting position, in my opinion. The reason I like this position is because the types of things that you'll be doing will set you up to have a strong accounting foundation. Such as assisting with the month-end close processes, including journal entries and account reconciliations. Those are things that you're going to want to have experience with. And then this position also has

[4:22] different types of variance analysis. So, if you have done any of these types of things, then we'll want to include them in our resume. However, if you have not touched these different areas, no worries. Let's move to the basic qualifications section. Okay, so looking through the basic qualifications section, it's saying that this position wants a bachelor's degree in accounting or finance, and they would like 1 to 3 years of accounting experience. However, a lot of times when job listings say that they want 1 to 3 years of accounting experience, even if you don't have any accounting experience, they are still willing to interview you assuming that you have a strong resume. They also

[5:03] are looking for proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Excel and Word, high attention to detail and strong analytical skills, and excellent organizational and time management skills. So, these are the points that we are going to want to emphasize on our resume are going to be more the soft skills, assuming that we don't have any accounting experience yet outside of our degree. When writing our resume, we want to be thinking about where have I had strong attention to detail? How can I demonstrate these soft skills on my resume? In addition, it's saying that they want strong communication skills, both written and verbal. Then it's saying that the types of knowledge,

[5:43] skills, and abilities that they are looking for is ability to problem-solve and analyze events and transactions, ability to use time productively, maximize efficiency, exceptional accuracy and attention to detail skills, ability to work well in a team environment, that you're self-motivated, and are able to work with limited supervision. So, as you can see, the majority of items that they are noting are more leaning towards the soft skills. So, this is an ideal position for anyone looking for an entry-level accounting role. So, like I said earlier, you want to look through several different staff accounting positions and look for the various commonalities among the qualifications, and then tailor your resume to match

[6:26] those commonalities. So, that is the step that we are going to do now, and so we can walk through the resume example that I have created and that you can download and use for a reference, or even use it as a resume template when writing your own resume. I am showing my example resume template that I created. Let's go over the correct resume formatting. A lot of times when I see resumes, I actually see really unique formatting. Sometimes you see very bold lines, or you see all these random lines all over the place, essentially trying to separate the different segments of

[7:02] the resume. You really don't need that. The ideal resume is going to be very clean and simple formatting, like the example that I'm showing here. You want the font to be the same font throughout your entire resume. A lot of times I'll see a combination of fonts. You want it to be all the same font. So, for example, in this resume, I'm using Times New Roman, which [clears throat] is a very clean and standard resume font. You want your name to be at the top of the resume. You want to have your phone number, your email address, so that way people know how to contact you. And in

[7:35] this example, I also did put my location on the top of my resume. Sometimes I do see people leaving a LinkedIn hyperlink, but just know, if you are printing your resume to PDF, that hyperlink most likely is not going to work, and it would just say LinkedIn. So, if you do want to include your LinkedIn profile on

[7:56] your resume, just keep that in mind. However, I don't necessarily think including your LinkedIn profile is necessary. There is a high likelihood that whoever interviewing you is going to type your name into LinkedIn and look at your profile, regardless if you include your LinkedIn or not. The note to take away from this is, you probably actually should have a LinkedIn profile, because that is how we did our research for our resume is through LinkedIn. And then also, if you do have a LinkedIn profile, you want it to be professional-looking. You want your picture on your LinkedIn profile to come off as friendly and professional. And maybe I'll do a video in the future

[8:31] about what an ideal LinkedIn profile will look like, because a lot of times, like I said, the hiring manager will look at your LinkedIn profile. So, you want it to look professional. After you do your header section on your resume, you want to move then into the education section. In my example, I put education, the university, the location, the degree, Bachelor of Business Administration, major accounting. And then I also did include my graduation date. Some people put graduation {dot} {dot} the date. That is good as well. It can be assumed that that date is your graduation date, but you could put, if you wanted to, and either would be

[9:12] accurate, but you could, if you wanted to, put graduation, something like this. Or if you haven't actually graduated yet, and let's say you're applying to an internship position, you would put expected graduation, like so. This is assuming that you haven't actually graduated yet. However, I'm going to put it back to how I originally had it, but just know that these are tweaks that you can make that would be totally acceptable. Then I do think for entry-level accounting positions, especially for individuals who do not already have accounting experience, that a professional summary is beneficial to your resume. Not only does it help alleviate some blank space, but it also

[9:53] allows you to talk about yourself in a professional way, highlighting those key soft skills that we saw that the position had listed and that could help you potentially get the position if done correctly. In this example, I put my professional summary as "I'm a detail-oriented accounting graduate seeking a staff accounting position where I can apply my accounting knowledge and Excel skills to support and add value to the accounting team." As you can see, I highlighted here that I'm detail-oriented, I have accounting knowledge and Excel skills, which are all qualifications that were noted in the job posting. And then I also said I have a strong time

[10:35] management and communication skills, which that position did highlight, enabling me to stay organized, meet deadlines, and perform effectively in fast-paced environments. I tried to hit all the qualifications that the job posting listed it wanted in my professional summary. If you don't have any accounting experience yet, it could be beneficial for you to go into different academic projects that you had that would relate to an entry-level accounting position. So, this is what I'm doing here. I put academic projects and I put Excel project one. However, you would probably want to do more than one project. You would probably want to have two projects since I said academic

[11:15] projects, which is plural. This is just an example, so I only did one Excel project. And also, you would not want to label it Excel project. You would want it actually to show the project name. But you can see I noted Excel project one, the date that I did the project, hypothetically February 2025, and I said that I developed a monthly expense tracker using two-way XLOOKUPs and SUMIFS formulas to monitor expenses versus actuals and analyze the variances. In this particular project, I wanted to show some type of variance analysis because that is a common thing that these job postings are saying that they want. And so, this is a good time

[11:52] to discuss any types of projects that you have done that demonstrate any type of variance analysis or analysis at all. And in my example, I used a monthly expense tracker, but maybe you did some type of budget where you did some form of variance analysis or just think through all the academic projects that you have done that involve variance analysis that you could potentially include on your resume. I also am noting here the types of formulas I'm using because I want to let the company know that I'm familiar with XLOOKUPs, SUMIFS, pivot tables because those are going to be common formulas used in actual accounting roles. In my second bullet

[12:32] point, I said I created pivot tables and charts to analyze spending trends and identify areas for cost reduction. Now, we're moving on to the experience section of my resume. In my example, I'm noting that I worked in a restaurant as a server. This is where you could list any type of job experience that you may have. When listing your job experience, you do want to try to think of it through an accounting lens. As you can see, I have highlighted the different areas in yellow for the soft skills that I am trying to touch that match the job posting qualifications. When you are writing your resume, you do not want to

[13:11] highlight the soft skill that you are touching and highlight it yellow. This is just for example purposes only. So, when you are writing your own resume, for example, you don't want it to say time management here. Like, you delete that, okay, when you're using this template. Don't include that, okay? Anyways, so for my example though, we're leaving it here just so you guys can see

[13:35] where I was thinking when writing this. First, I said "Prioritize tasks and manage time effectively during peak hours to ensure timely service and smooth restaurant operations." The soft skill that I'm touching here is time management. "Communicated clearly with team members and kitchen staff to coordinate orders and resolve issues and maintain an organized workflow." Here, I'm demonstrating effective communication. I also am noting maintained an organized workflow, and I will actually pull up as you can see,

[14:06] I'm trying to hit these skills here. "Ability to work in a team environment, organized with strong work ethic." And then so, you can see here I said "Communicated clearly with team members and kitchen staff to coordinate orders and maintain an organized workflow." So, see, I'm trying to hit those two bullet points in my example here. This is what

[14:28] you want to do on your resume as well. Let's say that you were, for example, at a retail store. Can you somehow tailor your resume to say that you worked with your team members at the retail store and maintained organization in some way? My third bullet point is "Manage multiple tables simultaneously in a fast-paced environment while maintaining accuracy and delivering a high level of customer service." The key thing here that I'm trying to demonstrate is accuracy. Then, if I was to add another bullet point, I would want to say something about being detail-oriented because all accounting positions want someone that is extremely

[15:07] detail-oriented. If I was hiring a staff accountant today, the number one thing that I would be looking for is that they have attention to detail because that is so critical when doing any type of accounting position. And often times, entry-level accounting positions are going to be having you do journal entries, bank reconciliations, and variance analysis, which all require strong attention to detail. So now, after the server position, I am moving

[15:34] on to my summer internship that I had. As you can see, I'm stating some of the things that I worked on in my summer internship that the job is also saying would be part of the job duties of this position. So, I'm saying here as a summer intern, I assisted with preparing journal entries. I'm calling out the accounting system that I used, which is SAP. I ensured accuracy and proper documentation. I reconciled account balances by comparing financial data and investigating discrepancies to support month-end close in BlackLine. And I conducted variance analysis by comparing actual results to comparable prior periods, identifying variances, and documenting the main drivers. These are

[16:17] all going to be common things that people do in internships, so that's why I included them here. In case you've touched some of these items, you can use my example as a reference for when you are writing your own resume. Also, some things I want to call out is I am being very particular in my formatting here. I have the company aligned left. I have the location of the company next. Then I

[16:40] have my position below it in italicize. This is the type of formatting that is good on a resume. And then I am right aligning my date and putting the date range to present, the date range on the internship position. So, see how the formatting all looks very clean and organized. This is what you want on an accounting resume. Yes, it is very basic, but this is what looks good when you are applying to accounting positions and when you are applying to finance positions. Now, moving on, I am saying my technical skills. You could call this computer skills, skills, technical skills. I'm saying Microsoft Office Suite, and then I'm saying the various

[17:22] Microsoft items that I am proficient in, so I put Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. I did list these in alphabetical order intentionally. Then I'm also saying SAP and BlackLine as the two accounting systems that I have also used. You maybe haven't used accounting systems, so if that is the case, no worries. You can just include Microsoft Office Suites. Now, I'm noting the different clubs and organizations that I was a part of while in college, and I am saying that I was a part of my university investment club and university both of those are going to be relevant to accounting and finance positions. So, this is what a good resume looks like,

[18:04] and this is what I like to see when I am reading through candidates' resumes for entry-level accounting positions. So, let's go over common mistakes now. Okay, I'll demonstrate some common mistakes here on our resume template here. This is what a common mistake will look like. Period. Period. Period. Okay. Do you see the mistake here? Three of the four sentences end with a period and one of

[18:27] them does not. This is a common mistake. It demonstrates lack of attention to detail. If your bullet points end in a period, all of them should end in a period, not just three of them. All of them should. So, this is a very common mistake that I see when looking at resumes. Okay, another common mistake is spelling errors. Don't have any spelling errors. Sometimes, I see something like this where all the bullet points will end in prioritize, manage, communicated, let's say. They're in the past tense,

[19:00] and then you'll see one in the present. So, it'll be like prioritize, managed, communicates. Just keep them all in the same tense. So, we're going to put those back to communicated. I know this might sound very nitpicky, but stuff like this matters, especially when you're applying for a job that requires a lot of attention to detail because this is one way to show that you have good attention to detail is by catching all these things. Or it's possibly one way to show that you don't have attention to detail by having errors on your resume. Another common mistake is going to be weird formatting. Let's say you're adding

[19:36] random lines on your resume. I don't advise you to do this. I don't think it looks good having these lines. Sometimes, it can be done tastefully, but overall, I would just recommend avoid the lines and just keep it super clean. But sometimes, people will have one thin line here. Let's say this is a thin line. And then for whatever reason, they'll have this one very bold. And so there's an inconsistency in the line thickness, and it's a deterrent on the resume. So I recommend just not even having those lines because they can be done tastefully, but often times I see them done poorly. So those are some

[20:09] common mistakes. Formatting looks bad. It's overly formatted. Just keep it simple. Grammar is incorrect. There's a lack of consistency. So some bullets have periods, some don't have periods. Some typos and spelling, and not tailoring your resume to job postings. Hopefully this video was helpful to you if you are currently writing your resume or if you are applying to jobs but not getting callbacks. And I now offer one-on-one accounting career consults where we can talk about your specific experience and goals. So if that is something that you are interested in, definitely check the link in my bio or

[20:49] link in the description of this video. Also, if you are interested in downloading the template that we just talked about, I should have a link in the description of this video that you can click on and should be able to download the template from there. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel for more accounting career content. See you in

[21:09] the next video.

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