Skip to content

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; others help us improve the user experience. By using the site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Read our privacy policy to learn more.

Close
AICPA-CIMA
  • AICPA & CIMA:
  • Home
  • CPE & Learning
  • My Account
Journal of Accountancy
  • TECH & AI
    • All articles
    • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    • Microsoft Excel
    • Information Security & Privacy

    Latest Stories

    • Incorporating prompt engineering into the accounting curriculum
    • Create a dynamic to-do list with Excel’s checkboxes
    • Another way to manage authentication texts
  • TAX
    • All articles
    • Corporations
    • Employee benefits
    • Individuals
    • IRS procedure

    Latest Stories

    • Treasury posts preliminary list of jobs eligible for no tax on tips
    • Taxpayer’s circumstances do not warrant equitable tolling
    • When does debt become worthless?
  • PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
    • All articles
    • Diversity, equity & inclusion
    • Human capital
    • Firm operations
    • Practice growth & client service

    Latest Stories

    • Treasury posts preliminary list of jobs eligible for no tax on tips
    • California issues draft guidance for climate risk disclosure
    • Business outlook brightens somewhat despite trade, inflation concerns
  • FINANCIAL REPORTING
    • All articles
    • FASB reporting
    • IFRS
    • Private company reporting
    • SEC compliance and reporting

    Latest Stories

    • SEC accepting Professional Accounting Fellow applications
    • SEC names new chief accountant
    • SEC ends legal defense of its climate rules
  • AUDIT
    • All articles
    • Attestation
    • Audit
    • Compilation and review
    • Peer review
    • Quality Management

    Latest Stories

    • AICPA unveils new QM resources to help firms meet Dec. 15 deadline
    • 8 steps to build your firm’s quality management system on time
    • Auditing Standards Board proposes a new fraud standard
  • MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
    • All articles
    • Business planning
    • Human resources
    • Risk management
    • Strategy

    Latest Stories

    • Business outlook brightens somewhat despite trade, inflation concerns
    • AICPA & CIMA Business Resilience Toolkit — levers for action
    • Economic pessimism grows, but CFOs have strategic responses
  • Home
  • News
  • Magazine
  • Podcast
  • Topics
Advertisement
  1. newsletter
  2. Cpa Insider
CPA INSIDER

Résumé secrets from a former recruiter

Specific detail in the right places can help you win the job.

By Shilpa Nayyar
December 10, 2018

Please note: This item is from our archives and was published in 2018. It is provided for historical reference. The content may be out of date and links may no longer function.

Related

September 10, 2018

Avoid these cover letter mistakes

August 27, 2018

Get all the facts before you accept a new job

August 1, 2018

New skills essential for thriving amid digital disruption

TOPICS

  • Professional Development
    • Communication

Though the job market is hot for accountants right now, you’ll still have a better chance of getting a job with a specific employer if you stand out from the competition. To do so, you need to ensure that the three most important parts of your résumé — your professional summary, skills section, and experience section — sell you as the strongest contender for the job.

Often, though, candidates make the same mistakes on these vital sections. In a previous job as a finance recruiter for an international recruitment agency, I read thousands of résumés, and I saw certain recurring mistakes. Here’s my advice for avoiding common errors and making your résumé strong and compelling:

  • Make sure your professional summary is brief and engaging.


    The professional summary is the section that determines whether employers and recruiters will read the rest of your résumé. Many of my clients’ professional summaries are too long, too dull, or both.

    Think of your professional summary as your elevator pitch: it needs to be short, snappy, and compelling to entice the reader to want to know more about you. Your professional summary needs to convey four things:

    • Who you are
    • Your areas of expertise
    • What you’ve achieved
    • What opportunities you are interested in (make sure this is appropriate to each job you are applying for).


    If you are open to relocating, you should include a sentence to that effect in your professional summary. Anything else beyond the four points mentioned above doesn’t need to be in this section. Your professional summary should be between three and four lines long.

    Here is an example of a professional summary that meets all the above requirements:

    An accomplished CPA with 10 years’ experience working for government. Areas of expertise include tax audits and compliance. Possesses a proven track record of success in undertaking highly complex wide-scale tax audits with strict deadlines. Actively seeking a CPA role with managerial duties in the Tampa, FL area.

    Advertisement
  • Optimize your résumé for applicant tracking systems.


    Many recruiters and employers use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to source candidates. These tools filter résumés by keywords and present recruiters with the most relevant ones — meaning that, if your résumé doesn’t have the right keywords, recruiters might not ever see it. The skills section of your résumé is often the best place to include such keywords.

    Note that the skills section can include soft skills as well as technical skills. I suggest having a skills section that contains a mixture of hard and soft skills.

    Some of the most relevant keywords for CPAs include:

    • Financial accounting
    • Financial analysis
    • Business planning and financial projections
    • Auditing and review
    • Tax preparation
    • Problem solving
    • Communication
    • Attention to detail.


    To find out more keywords that accounting employers look for, simply read their job postings. If job advertisements frequently mention words such as “stakeholder management” or “taxation,” then these are likely to be keywords employers search when they are sourcing candidates.

    Also, ensure that your keywords are naturally distributed within your résumé and that you aren’t including keywords just to be recognized by the ATS, as recruiters can tell if you have tried to stuff your résumé with keywords.

  • Provide sufficient detail when listing skills and job duties.


    Avoid simply listing your skills. Most people think they have good time management or critical thinking abilities, so it’s best if you can back up each statement with proof. Give concrete examples of how you’ve demonstrated each skill.

    Also, don’t simply list your job duties. Give employers a more in-depth understanding of what you have done, how you have done it, and what skills you used. If you faced any particular challenges in carrying out your responsibilities, you should mention this as well. For example:

    Successfully led the preparation for an extensive audit within a 2-month deadline; prepared detailed financial statements, reports, and accounts and liaised with cross-functional teams

  • Be sure to include your accomplishments.


    Employers and recruiters love candidates who can show that they have gone beyond what was expected of them. Think about the jobs you have held and when you have gone the extra mile. Consider the following list. You may have:

    • Improved operations/systems
    • Undertaken a particularly complex financial or compliance audit
    • Saved an employer money
    • Utilized a particular skill to achieve a goal (examples of skills used could be leadership, strategic planning, or analytical abilities)
    • Identified and/or resolved accounting discrepancies
    • Developed or improved financial controls.


    Make sure that instead of just mentioning an achievement, you explain exactly how you achieved the outcome, so employers will know how you contributed. Aim to mention accomplishments for each of the jobs you have held, as this will portray you as someone who consistently goes the extra mile. Also, try to include numerical data when possible.

    Below is a good description of an achievement:

    Saved a client $100,000 by providing commercial and pragmatic advice that took into account recent developments in tax laws.

Your résumé is a marketing document, there to sell you in the best possible light. The best way to do this is to effectively convey what value you add to teams and organizations. Following these tips will stand you in good stead and help you get interview invites for the organizations you specifically want to work for.

Shilpa Nayyar is a former recruiter turned résumé writer based in the UK. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Courtney Vien, a JofA senior editor, at Courtney.Vien@aicpa-cima.com.

Advertisement

latest news

September 4, 2025

Treasury posts preliminary list of jobs eligible for no tax on tips

September 4, 2025

California issues draft guidance for climate risk disclosure

September 4, 2025

Business outlook brightens somewhat despite trade, inflation concerns

September 3, 2025

New: Digital assets practice aid addresses auditing of lending, borrowing

August 29, 2025

Guidance on research or experimental expenditures under H.R. 1 issued

Advertisement

Most Read

The No. 1 risk to retirement – and one way to guard against it
Tax provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Billy Long out as IRS commissioner after less than two months
Calculating AI’s impact on CPAs: New study quantifies time savings
AICPA unveils new QM resources to help firms meet Dec. 15 deadline
Advertisement

Podcast

September 4, 2025

Summing up economic sentiment and concerns about inflation and tariffs

August 29, 2025

Take a bold leap instead of a tentative step

August 28, 2025

Mark Koziel Q&A: Talent, sense of community, profession opportunities

Features

Calming nervous clients nearing retirement
Calming nervous clients nearing retirement

Calming nervous clients nearing retirement

7 retirement tips for small firm CPAs
7 retirement tips for small firm CPAs

7 retirement tips for small firm CPAs

Building a better CPA firm: Stepping up service offerings
Multi-colored plus signs

Building a better CPA firm: Stepping up service offerings

2025 tax software survey
Smiley, frowney, and neutral faces for Tax Software Survey.

2025 tax software survey

SPONSORED REPORT

Smart Strategies in Data Security and Risk Management

In an increasingly digital profession, data security has become one of the most critical challenges facing finance and accounting professionals today. Stay up to date with practical guidance to help you mitigate these risks and strengthen your security posture.

From The Tax Adviser

August 30, 2025

2025 tax software survey

August 30, 2025

Are you doing all you can to keep the cash method for your clients?

July 31, 2025

Current developments in S corporations

July 31, 2025

Paid student-athletes: Tax implications for universities and donors

MAGAZINE

September 2025

September 2025

September 2025
August 2025

August 2025

August 2025
July 2025

July 2025

July 2025
June 2025

June 2025

June 2025
May 2025

May 2025

May 2025
April 2025

April 2025

April 2025
March 2025

March 2025

March 2025
February 2025

February 2025

February 2025
January 2025

January 2025

January 2025
December 2024

December 2024

December 2024
November 2024

November 2024

November 2024
October 2024

October 2024

October 2024
view all

View All

http://JofA_Default_Mag_cover_small_official_blue

PUSH NOTIFICATIONS

Coming soon: Learn about important news

CPA LETTER DAILY EMAIL

CPA Letter Logo

Subscribe to the daily CPA Letter

Stay on top of the biggest news affecting the profession every business day. Follow this link to your marketing preferences on aicpa-cima.com to subscribe. If you don't already have an aicpa-cima.com account, create one for free and then navigate to your marketing preferences.

Connect

  • X Logo JofA on X
  • facebook JofA on Facebook

HOME

  • News
  • Monthly issues
  • Podcast
  • A&A Focus
  • PFP Digest
  • Academic Update
  • Topics
  • RSS feed rss feed
  • Site map

ABOUT

  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Submit an article
  • Editorial calendar
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms & conditions

SUBSCRIBE

  • Academic Update
  • CPE Express

AICPA & CIMA SITES

  • AICPA-CIMA.com
  • Global Engagement Center
  • Financial Management (FM)
  • The Tax Adviser
  • AICPA Insights
  • Global Career Hub
AICPA & CIMA

© 2025 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. All rights reserved.

Reliable. Resourceful. Respected.