When Felix Cardona was in school, he recognized his love for numbers with each aced math test. His skills evolved as he earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting, confirming what he already knew: This was the field he belonged in, and he needed to lay the foundations for a great resume!
Felix wanted to get his foot in the door to jumpstart his career—hopefully with a job that would hire him during college. Eager for experience, he started working as a bank teller to demonstrate his dedication and attention to detail.
Before long, Felix transferred to his first job in accounting with Namely and then to a senior role with Teachers Pay Teacher, thanks to presenting his skills and experiences effectively. If you’re ready to showcase your hard work on your senior accountant resume and land a senior role, then our resume templates, like the one Felix used, can help!
Why this resume works
- For senior roles, taking extra effort with your educational background never disappoints. Don’t send in your senior accountant resume without including all your finance degrees.
- They add another layer of credibility to your profile and help employers understand the level of theoretical knowledge you possess in accounting. Also add any jobs you’ve worked while pursuing your degree to showcase you’ve been dedicated from the get-go.
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What Matters Most: Skills and Work Experience
Just as you help others wade through financial information, your resume will serve as a guide to recruiters. Since accountants are a-plenty, your skills and work experience will set you apart.
Your goal is to demonstrate that you have what it takes to do well in the role, so you’ll include your top 6 to 10 skills. Add a few mentioned in the sales job description of the role you’re applying for, as you need to show that your skillset is relevant to what they need.
Here are some of the best job skills recruiters are looking for in senior accountants.
9 best senior accountant skills
- Accounts Receivable/ Payable
- Financial Analysis
- Certified Public Accountant
- Compliance
- Financial Reporting
- Financial Statements
- US GAAP
- General Ledger
- Invoicing
Sample senior accountant work experience bullet points
Senior accountants are responsible for many things, but recruiters will want to know more about your impact throughout your work history. How did you affect or support the organization you worked with?
The best way to showcase your efforts is by including quantifiable metrics, and you know better than anyone how numbers matter in effective visualization. With measurable results, you’ll be able to convince a recruiter that you’ll be a great addition to the company.
Here are a few samples:
- Established best practices for revenue recognition in compliance with ASC 606 through 37% YoY revenue growth
- Partnered with management to drive business processes to improve efficiency of financial reporting by 40%
- Led a team of 2 junior accountants, providing mentorship and feedback through weekly 1:1 sessions
- Developed and executed internal controls to improve accuracy and reduce error rate by 22%
- Supported management in executing on employee equity compensation plan to improve employee retention by 11%
How to list certifications on your senior accountant resume
Senior accountants are in charge of a lot, from adhering to tax laws to following GAAP. Having the right certifications and presenting them appropriately on your resume will reassure hiring managers you have the knowledge they’re seeking in a leader to oversee income statements and expense reports.
The certifications section is typically listed beneath your accounting education and skills sections. When listing accounting or financial certifications, you should include:
- The title of the certification, such as CFA or CGMA
- The organization you received it from, such as Kaplan Financial
- The date you acquired it
- The certification’s expiration date (when applicable)
What certifications should you list on a senior accountant resume?
There’s no shortage of certifications available in the financial field, and when you’ve made it to a senior accounting role, you may have acquired many throughout your career. Generally, it’s best to limit it to three certifications that are the most relevant to the role you want to get into. To give you some ideas, here are some of the best certifications for senior accountants to list:
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA): When you want to showcase quality and accuracy in your work, having passed the intensive state-certified exams to become a CPA is a great way to do so. It’s a top-notch certification that will reinforce skills you’ve listed in auditing, tax preparation, and financial planning while showing leadership potential.
- Certified Management Accountant (CMA): The CMA is a great choice for senior accounting applicants who want to get into a leadership role at their next job. This certification showcases your in-depth knowledge of staff supervision, financial forecasting, and managing general ledgers.
- Certified Financial Analyst (CFA): Are you a strategic leader? Then, a CFA may be an ideal choice for your senior accounting resume. It’ll show you have expert abilities in valuations, corporate finance, and economic analysis.
Some other top-tier certifications you can include are:
Top 5 Tips for Your Senior Accountant Resume
- Emphasize your qualifications
- Accounting is a profession that emphasizes certification, and employers will want to know they’re putting their valuable financial information in qualified hands. Your skills section should focus on the technical skills and certifications you might have.
- Make your career summary count
- If you’re using valuable resume real estate to include a career summary, tailor it to each company you apply for. Speak about your highest achievements, like removing bottlenecks to financial performance that allow the company to scale.
- Don’t exaggerate or lie
- You might not have a specific required skill or qualification, such as Sage100 or Quickbooks. As long as you’re honest, sometimes a company will be willing to take the skills you do have as an alternative or equivalent to what they’re looking for—or they may be willing to train you.
- Keep your resume short and sweet unless you have more than 10 years of experience
- Recruiters are inundated with hundreds of resumes. Increase your chances of success by keeping your resume to one page. It’s probably not necessary to include your accounting internship or entry-level accounting job at this stage in your career.
- Quantifying metrics isn’t always about the money
- It’s tempting to default to financial facts and figures when trying to illustrate your impact in past roles, but money doesn’t make the world go round in this case. Switch it up by trying alternatives, such as the hours you saved or the percentage efficiency you helped achieve.
Use a reverse-chronological resume format to show your upward progression in your accounting career. As a senior accountant, it’s essential that your most recent, most applicable work experience is at the top of your resume since you don’t want recruiters to have to scan the entire page just to find it.
You absolutely should! Accountants work hard to get the professional qualifications they need to practice, and your prospective employer will want to know whether you have the skills they need. Include all relevant certifications and education, such as your CPA and accounting or finance degree in dedicated sections on your resume.
Yes. Perhaps one company is looking for someone experienced in manufacturing accounting while another one needs an accountant who specializes in reviewing grant agreements. While you may have experience with both, you’ll want to tailor your resume and generate a cover letter accordingly, proving that you do indeed have that experience.
