By Beth Batty, Divisional Manager
If your CV isn’t up to scratch, it doesn’t matter how experienced you are and what incredible skills you have – seems obvious but it’s worth saying. You might be able to navigate yourself around excel without a sweat but are you confident in creating an interview winning CV?
If you struggle with writing your CV, you’re not alone. Many people find it unnatural to sell themselves. Thankfully, our team of experts can help!
We have a team of dedicated consultants who specialise in Finance recruitment. Building stand-out CVs is what they do best! So, sit back, and see what they have to say about building the perfect Transactional Finance CV…
Do not underestimate the importance of your personal summary. This section is a great opportunity to catch the hiring manager’s attention. It should be a short paragraph to celebrate your career highlights and reveal some of your personality.
As recruitment consultants, we present candidates to employers all the time and know how to summarise the best bits. If you need help, we can support you.
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I am a professional and friendly worker seeking payroll opportunities. I have worked as a payroll administrator for the past 5 years and have experience in full end to end payroll. I’ve worked in manufacturing and FGSM environments, processing payroll for teams of up to 50 people.
You may want to add a section to summarise your skills. Remember, that there are two types of skills, hard and soft skills. Your hard skills are what you need for your job such as cost analysis, contract negotiation, or forecasting. Whereas soft skills focus on your character traits – strong attention to detail, team player, problem-solver.
Again, tailor this to each application! List the exact skills and qualities that are mentioned in the job ad, if you have them. Use their wording, too. This will help ensure that your CV passes any automated filtering process and actually reaches the hiring manager.
Now we get into the main body of your CV. Each section here should cover the same framework so use this checklist as a guide:
⊗ Job title*, business name, location, dates of employment in years and months.
⊗ Indicate whether the role was temp or FTC so that employers know you aren’t just a job hopper.
⊗ Business summary: a short paragraph covering; industry and sector, products, turnover, number of staff, and whether it was multi-site or not.
⊗ Skills and responsibilities: the more specific, the better! Use quantifiable info such as spend size, SKU numbers, cost savings, improvements to stock levels/lead times/number of suppliers, team size you’ve managed, and systems you’ve used.
⊗ Key projects and achievements.
⊗ *If you progressed through multiple roles in the same business, list them each separately after your business summary. Hiring managers love to see evidence of your progression so don’t just list your most recent job title. Include dates for each role.
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Buyer, Aug 2020 – Jan 2025
Smart Kitchen Ltd, Sheffield
SME kitchen design and fitting firm with a turnover of £XXXX. Retail site in city centre with separate warehouse.
Responsibilities: • Product sourcing • Cost negotiation • Stock monitoring • Regular reporting
Achievements: I met consistent cost reduction targets, saving an average of £XX per annum.
With your basic info sorted, remember to list your history in chronological order, starting with your current/most recent role. Plus, don’t forget to address timeline gaps. This stops employers worrying that you may have been fired or another negative reason. For example, if you were taking time to travel, or be with family, simply enter the dates with one line stating that.
If you don’t have lots of experience to draw upon, take a look at our tips for how to write a CV with no experience.
In accountancy, there are a range of qualifications that you can achieve. We would recommend splitting this section into two; your core and your core and professional qualifications.
Your core qualifications are the traditional or essential qualifications needed for your trade such as AAT level 2, GCSEs and A-Levels. The professional qualifications are not essential in your career but add value.
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Core Qualifications
AAT Level 2 Distinction
Barnsley College 2012-2014GCSEs 5 A*- C including Maths, English and Statistics
Rotherham High 2007-2012
Professional Qualifications
Interpersonal and communication Level 2 – 2014
At my time at college, I enrolled onto a communications course. This course focused on verbal, written, telephone and email communication.
⊗ Include your location – recruiters need to know where you are to see whether a vacancy might be relevant to you
⊗ Include contact details – so recruiters can reach you
⊗ Include your notice period if it’s less/more than 4 weeks
⊗ Include whether you’d consider temp/interim roles
⊗ Check for spelling and grammar
Contact us
Our leading and experienced transactional finance recruitment team work with a range of successful organisations from market leading SMEs, Government institutions, well-known house builders and global business. We recruit for a number of transactional finance opportunities such as Credit Controllers, Payroll Administrators, Finance and Accounts Assistants plus many more.
Check out our current transactional finance vacancies.
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