How to write an accounting CV: A step-by-step guide
Whether you're a recent graduate or an experienced professional, crafting a top-notch CV is crucial for landing a role in the accounting industry.
This step-by-step guide shows you how to write a CV that presents your skills, qualifications, and work experience in an eye-catching way.
It also includes a handy accountant CV example, plus a 7-step plan for writing an accounting CV that improves your chances of being chosen to take on the next job you try to get.
What is an accounting CV?
An accounting CV is a document – or Curriculum Vitae: Latin for “course of life” – highlighting your skills, qualifications, and experience in accounting.
You’ll need one to apply for an accounting job, whatever sphere you want to work in.
The purpose of an accounting CV is to highlight your accounting expertise, educational background, and professional accomplishments clearly and concisely, to make it easy for potential employers to judge your suitability for the position they have available.
It’s your first point of contact with a potential employer. And if it’s not well done, it could well be your last too.
A well-written CV, on the other hand, helps you stand out in a competitive market by demonstrating your unique strengths and achievements, thereby boosting your chances of being invited for interview.
“It should be an overview which can be further explored at interview, but with enough detail to entice the reader,” advised recruiter Jack Cole when we spoke to him about CVs for an AAT Comment article.
How to structure your accounting CV
Your accounting CV needs to be easy to read.
Research suggests recruiters spend an average of just eight seconds looking at each CV before making a decision about whether to keep reading or toss it in the bin.
So, whatever accounting role you’re aiming to get, you want to make it as simple as possible for the person assessing your CV to get a grasp of your skills and experience.
When writing an accounting CV, you should therefore:
Use a clean and user-friendly format.
Select a professional font such as Ariel or Calibri and maintain a consistent layout throughout, using bullet points and sub-headings to make it easy to skim through.
In most cases, it’s also wise to keep it to a maximum of two sides of A4 – especially early on in your career.
To achieve this, avoid repetition and only include information relevant to the job you’re applying for at the time.
Other top tips for making your CV as user-friendly as possible include:
- Use your name as the title – the person reading it knows it’s a CV.
- Make section headings stand out by increasing the size of the font and making them bold or a different colour.
- Use bullet pointed lists to make it easy for recruiters to find the information they need.
- Surround the text with a 2.5cm margin to make it look less cluttered.
- Name the document appropriately, e.g., “John-Smith-CV”.
As accountancy recruitment expert Greg Thorpe said when we interviewed him a few years ago: “Headings in colour or areas of achievement highlighted in a coloured column can make key elements of the CV jump off the page and draw the recruiter’s eye to the candidate’s best-selling points. This kind of flair will certainly get your CV some airtime.”
Split it into sections
Your accounting CV should include the following sections:
- Contact information: Include your full name, professional email address, and phone number. And ensure your contact details are up to date.
- Personal statement: Write a concise and compelling personal statement, or third-person profile, that highlights your key strengths and career goals.
- Work experience: List your relevant work experience in reverse chronological order. Include the company name, job title, dates of employment, and a description of your responsibilities and achievements.
- Education/Qualifications: Include academic qualifications, such as degrees and certifications, as well as any relevant training or courses you have done.
- Skills: Highlight any accounting skills you possess, such as financial analysis, budgeting, and software proficiency.
- References: It’s good practice to include the contact details for two individuals who can vouch for you. These could be teachers, tutors, or former employers.
- Additional information: This section could include anything from language skills to professional association memberships. You can also use it to mention any interesting hobbies that demonstrate transferable skills such as teamwork or could prove a talking point in your interview.
“Some hobbies reflect well on you if they show you work well in a team, have leadership skills or a great eye for detail,” Thorpe said.
Writing an accounting personal statement
Your personal statement plays a crucial role in grabbing the attention of potential employers. So, it’s worth spending time getting it just right. Here’s how.
- Start strong: Begin your personal statement with a concise sentence that highlights your passion for accounting and your commitment to professional growth. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing the reader’s interest straight away.
- Highlight your relevant skills and experiences: Tailor your personal statement to focus on your most relevant skills and experiences for the job in question. You can also use it to demonstrate any expertise in areas such as financial analysis, taxation, auditing, or management accounting.
- Show off your achievements: If you struggle to blow your own trumpet, simply provide specific examples of your accomplishments in previous accounting roles. This could include improving financial processes, successfully completing projects, or achieving impressive results for clients.
- Discuss your career goals: Outline your long-term career goals and how you plan to achieve them. This will show employers that you are ambitious, motivated, and have a clear direction for your accounting career.
Top tip
To make your CV stand out from the crowd, you can also consider asking one of your referees, such as a former line manager or course tutor, to write a personal statement on your behalf.
“A quote from a former employer, tutor or teacher saying why they’d hire you is a great way to open a CV and has the advantage of novelty too,” careers expert Aimee Bateman said in a piece she wrote for AAT.
Accounting personal statement example
"A highly motivated and detail-oriented accountant with 5 years of experience in financial analysis and reporting. Skilled in budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis, with a proven track record of improving financial processes to drive efficiency. Committed to delivering accurate and timely financial information to support business decision-making."
Highlighting your work experience
Effectively highlighting your accounting work experience is crucial when writing an accountant CV.
The aim is to describe your previous roles and responsibilities, and quantify your achievements and contributions, as clearly and succinctly as possible.
Ways to do this include:
Listing your previous roles and responsibilities
Begin by creating a clear and concise list of your previous roles, starting with the most recent one. Include the job title, company name, and dates of employment. For each role, provide a brief overview of your responsibilities, focusing on key tasks and duties relevant to the accounting field. Use bullet points to make it easy for recruiters to scan through.
Recounting your achievements and contributions
Numbers and metrics can make a significant impact on your CV. Whenever possible, quantify your achievements and contributions to provide tangible evidence of your skills and accomplishments. For example, instead of stating "Managed financial records," you could say "Managed financial records for a portfolio of 50 clients, resulting in a 20% increase in accuracy."
Explaining any gaps
A gap in your work experience history can set alarms bells ringing – unless you provide an explanation of what you were doing at the time. So, if this is the case, include a sentence stating why you weren’t working, for example, because you were travelling or looking after a relative. Where appropriate, you can also mention any skills you picked up as a result, such as learning a foreign language.
Presenting your key skills
Showing off your skills and qualifications is integral to writing an effective accounting CV. Here are some points to consider when doing this.
Key skills
- Financial analysis: an ability to analyse financial data and interpret it accurately is crucial in accounting, so highlight your proficiency in financial statement analysis, budgeting, and forecasting.
- Attention to detail: accountants are responsible for handling intricate financial transactions, so emphasise the high level of accuracy in your work.
- Numerical skills: strong numerical skills are a must-have for accountants, so describe your ability to work with numbers and manage financial data efficiently.
- Communication skills: being able to communicate effectively is essential in many accounting roles, so demonstrate your ability to communicate financial information, both verbally and in writing.
- Software proficiency: familiarity with popular accounting software packages such as Sage and QuickBooks is crucial for modern-day accountants.
- Awareness of financial regulatory standards: accountants need to toe the line when it comes to regulations around everything from financial reporting to tax compliance.
Stating your educational achievements and qualifications
AAT offers a range of highly regarded accounting qualifications that can boost your chances of getting a job in accounting.
If you’ve already completed some of the qualifications, list them in reverse chronological order, with your highest and most recent qualification at the top.
You should also list any other relevant qualifications, such as accounting software course certificates, as well as university degrees or – depending on your age and education level – your A level/GCSE results.
And if you have other accounting qualifications, from organisations such as ACCA or CIMA, these should of course be included too, with the highest-ranking qualification at the top.
Don’t be tempted to exaggerate, though. Many employers run background checks and take a very dim view of candidates who misrepresent their qualifications.
As a spokesperson for background checking company HireRight told us: “Employers want to know that you have the skills and experience that you claim you have.”
How to write an accounting CV in 7 easy steps
1. Gather the information you need
It’s vital to be accurate when writing an accounting CV. So make sure you get all the dates and addresses you need right.
The information you will need to write your CV includes:
- Your work history and dates
- Your education history
- The names, addresses, and phone numbers of your referees
- Stats, case studies, and testimonials of your achievements at work or during work experience
2. Start at the top
Enter your contact details at the top of the first page. You don’t need a photo or to state your date of birth, but these should include:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Email address
- Any professional social media profiles
3. Add your professional experience/work history
List the details of your work history in reverse chronological order, including the dates you started and ended your employment, the name of the company, and the job title for each role.
Then bullet point any key achievements and responsibilities relating to each role that will be relevant to your potential employer.
Include specifics and figures where possible, e.g., managed a team of 10 sales managers.
4. Write your personal statement/profile
This short paragraph should summarise what you cover in the rest of your CV and highlight key achievements, skills, and qualities relevant to the job in question.
Avoid tired old clichés such as “hard-working” or “organised” and use examples such as “can deliver projects on tight deadlines” instead.
5. List your qualifications, education, and skills
Consider which of your qualifications are relevant to the role you are applying for and list them in reverse chronological order, stating:
- Level of education
- Institution
- Dates
- Then add your key skills. Again, bullet points are a good way of showcasing these in a way recruiters find easy to digest.
6. Add your interests/additional information and reference contact details
Keep the section on your interests short and sweet and avoid mentioning passive or overly common hobbies such as reading and watching TV. Then add in your referee details at the very end, being sure to provide clear contact info for each one.
7. Check it and check it again
It’s so important to take the time to proofread your CV. Mistakes will make you look slapdash and unprofessional, which is far from the impression you want to give.
Things to look out for include:
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Accurate facts and dates
- Consistent formatting
Once you’ve checked it, it’s also a good idea to send it to someone you know has a keen eye to proofread it again for you too. And for extra certainty, you can then run it through an online spelling and grammar checking tool.
Accounting CV examples and templates
There are lots of online services offering examples of accounting CVs for people at various stages in their careers in finance.
Recruitment specialists such as Reed and Indeed also have examples and templates you can use to guide you as you create your own accounting CV.
You can find them easily by doing a simple online search using the keywords “accounting CV template” or “accounting CV example”.
Just remember though that the aim is to stand out from the crowd, so following online accounting CV examples and templates too closely could prove counterproductive.
“One of the biggest problems with CVs today is that they are so similar,” Bateman said. “It’s like everyone has been on the same CV training course. There’s just nothing that sets people apart from the crowd.”
An example of an accounting CV
This example is entirely fictional and any similarities to existing individuals or companies are completely unintentional.
It is also designed to simply offer guidance on the type of content you should include in an accounting CV, rather than the presentation.
Sarah Brown Personal statement Professional experience Responsibilities
Key skills
Education and qualifications References Rebecca Harris, Finance Director at Meridien |
Jessica Bown is an award-winning freelance journalist and editor.