When searching for an accounts assistant role, your CV is one of the key tools that you can have as it’s your main opportunity to sell yourself to hiring managers.
You could be a great accounting assistant, with a keen eye for detail and a whole array of practical experience, but if your CV isn’t up to scratch you may miss out on being considered for the role altogether.
Putting the perfect accounts assistant CV together is simple when you know-how, so we’ve put together our top tips to help you create an effective CV that will ensure you stand out from the crowd time and time again.
How to write an accounts assistant CV
When writing your accounts assistant CV, it’s important that you choose a suitable template and follow an established structure. While you shouldn’t follow a generic accounts assistant sample CV, you should ensure your CV is clear to read and covers all training and career history to date.
Personal Information
This might be incredibly obvious, but you wouldn’t believe the number of candidates that forget to put their up-to-date contact information at the top of their CVs.
Hiring managers expect to see your key information such as your name, telephone number (including area code), email address and location information. Unless stated in the job description, you can leave out any additional information such as driving license, gender, and date of birth.
Accounts Assistant Personal Statement
A personal statement allows you to capture the hiring manager’s attention by highlighting your current position, years’ experience you have and any achievements you’ve earned whilst working as an accounts assistant or in similar roles. This summary should be no longer than 3 sentences.
On average, your potential employer spends less than a minute skimming through your CV, so it’s important you make your personal statement stand out.
Accounts Assistant Skills Section
Your accounts assistant CV should include a list of skills relevant to the job description. Here it’s important that you get across your proficiency in areas such as accounts management, bookkeeping, mathematics, financial analysis, along with other qualities like adaptability and teamwork. Where possible, always back up your skills with facts and figures.
Some primary account assistant skills requested by employers include:
- Processing transactions, bills, and invoices
- Relevant qualifications such as a bookkeeping certificate
- Financial reporting and handling of financial data
Hard and Soft Skills for your accountant CV
Accountant assistants have a plethora of skills that have been built over the years, and whilst you probably want to highlight them all it’s important that they’re tailored to the job description to maximise your chances of getting an interview.
Below are some of the most common skills that account assistant job roles require:
- Knowledge and experience of systems such as SAP
- Strong excel skills
- Bookkeeping skills or certificates
- General accounting duties
- Ability to communicate effectively
- Organisational skills
- Time management
- Numeracy
- Team player
- Adaptability
Experience
Hiring managers pay special attention to this section of your CV, which is why you need to include the right information such as positions relevant to the role you’re applying for and any key achievements whilst in these roles.
If your CV fails to pass the initial scan by the recruiter, you won’t be considered for the role so make this section count.
Employment History
As an account assistant CV should only be two pages long, we recommend only including up to three previous relevant roles as this will allow you to really highlight your experiences in relation to the job description.
You should ensure that your employment history is easy to read and listed in reverse chronological order starting with your most recent experience and work back.
Qualifications
If the job you’re applying for requires qualifications, then list the most relevant ones to help show that you are committed to learning. Professional qualifications and knowledge are incredibly important for accounts assistants so be sure to show where you have excelled.
Key achievements
Add facts, figures, and data to back-up any claims you make on your CV allowing recruiters to understand the value you will add to their company.
An easy way to do this is through easy-to-read bullet points that help quantify the work you have done and results achieved for your employers or clients.
Some good examples of measurable achievements include:
- Analysed the cost of delivery and proposed changes, which contributed to a €500k annual cost saving
- Increased sales performance by 5% by reviewing financial statements
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