List the revenue of the companies you’ve worked for.
Listing the revenue of previous employers shows recruiters how much money you have been able to handle and process as a finance director. Include these figures if they are large and impressive.
There are around 160k finance directors in the US today, with one-third of them being women. Two-thirds of finance directors are found in the public sector and companies with more than 10k employees. This position requires years of experience and a strong educational background.
With over 90% of finance directors having a bachelor’s or master’s degree in finance or a related field, recruiters will expect to see at least one degree listed on your resume. They also expect to see years of successful experience in the finance department and a steady career progression. This guide has been created with the help of finance director recruiters to give you a clear picture of what they are looking to see in your resume and what you can add to impress them. There are 3 resume samples, as well as a skills list, an action verbs list, and some tips for each sample.
Finance directors are in charge of the financial side of a company. Duties you can expect include overseeing financial activities, developing financial plans, and training finance-related staff. You aim to ensure that financial processes are constantly improving and that all financial policies are followed.
Recruiters will expect to see at least a bachelor’s degree in finance or a related field and a background in accounting and finance. Having strong mathematical, and analytical skills would also be preferred. Here is a strong finance director resume.
A director of finance cares about the long-term financial health of a company. You will keep management and your superiors constantly updated on the financial health of the company and will spend time analyzing the markets and writing reports. You will also play a leadership role for the department and will ensure all internal financial policies are followed as well as all financial laws and guidelines.
Recruiters will expect to see a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, or a relevant field, and will need you to be an expert in corporate finance. Take a look at this recruiter-approved resume sample.
As the name suggests, your job will revolve around assisting the director of finance to maintain the financial health of the company. Your tasks may include preparing financial statements and other financial documents, reconciling ledgers, supervising payroll and other money transactions, etc.
Recruiters will expect you to have a bachelor’s degree, preferably in accounting or finance, and years of experience in a finance-related position. Experience working in the company’s industry would also be strongly preferred. Take a look at this strong resume sample.
The director of finance position is a high-ranking position in the finance department. As such you need to show your leadership and management skills as you will most likely be leading at least one team. But more importantly, to be a leader in the finance department, you need to show expertise in finance. Use the skills section to show your expertise in the field. So include skills that are fundamental to analyzing a company’s finances, and strategizing and executing a plan aimed at its financial health. Accounting skills should be included as well. Work on constantly expanding your skill set as you progress in your career.
Here is a list of relevant hard skills recruiters would expect to find on a finance director’s resume. You can use some of these to build your skill section.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Finance Director job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Action verbs are useful indicators of your function in the department and your strengths. A finance director needs action verbs that signify their leadership success. Action verbs like ‘championed’ and ‘launched’ are great examples of strong leadership action verbs.
You will also need action verbs that show your experience and success in finance tasks so try to use more finance-related action verbs like ‘analyzed’, ’audited’, and ‘strategized’ as well.
Here are some useful action verbs for you to use.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
If you're a senior-level employee, or you're changing careers to become a Finance Director, it's useful to add a paragraph at the top of your resume highlighting your most impressive accomplishments. This is called a resume summary.
Here's an example of a summary that can be used on a Finance Director resume.
A resume summary is a totally optional section, and in most cases, it's better to leave it out of your resume than include it. For example, if you're a student or mid-level hire, you should not include a summary, and instead use the space to add to your work experience.
To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Finance Director resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Finance Director Resume Summary Examples, or Finance Director Resume Objective Examples.