Entry-Level Accounting Resume Sample

For Millennials and recent graduates, there couldn’t be a better time to enter the workforce: according to Robert Half Finance & Accounting, salaries for experienced professionals are expected to increase by 3.7% in the coming year due to “retiring baby boomers, a dearth of highly skilled workers, rising regularity requirements, and an increasingly transient workforce.”

So, in an effort to retain talent and stay competitive, companies are willing to pay more. This will be the trend over the next decade, as 3.9 million more employees will drop out of the US workforce than in the previous decade.

Of course, this favorable forecast includes the accounting industry. For aspiring or entry-level accountants, positions like account manager, business or financial analyst, compliance manager, and staff accountant are the roles to aim for, as they will offer the most competitive salaries and best percent increases.

To snag one of these titles, students and entry-level accountants should focus on cultivating technical skills (cloud computing, information security, data mining) and their knowledge of risk, compliance, and internal audits. As far as entry-level requirements are concerned, a graduate degree or a CPA certification should suffice.

To help you get started in your career, we’ve provided an excellent sample resume complete with a how-to guide below.

1. Write a Resume Objective That Provides Your Experience, Skills, and Intent.

A solid resume objective statement (or career objective) should provide your experience, skills, and intent in a way that appeals to recruiters. The best way to achieve this is to write with authority and confidence so that you stand out from the competition. Let’s look at our applicant’s example to get an idea of how to do this:

• “Recent college graduate with internship experience at Fortune 500 companies.”

In the opening statement, the recruiter can gather the applicant’s education and experience. Notice how the candidate doesn’t seem modest; they tell us that they interned at “Fortune 500 companies,” an excellent way to hook the recruiter’s attention.

• “Seeking to leverage exceptional skills and academic knowledge to gain the entry-level position at your firm.”

Here, the candidate states their intent by defining what it is they hope to do.

• “Dedicated, competent, and detail-oriented individual with the capacity to go beyond what is expected and achieve company goals.”

Lastly, they mention soft skills and use a confident tone to demonstrate their abilities and how they plan to employ them. Using this style of vivid, action-oriented language is a must if you want to grip a recruiter’s attention. This applicant knows what they want and is bent on obtaining it; you should strive to show the same resolve in your Career Objective.

2. Write a Detailed Education Section

If you’re still in college or are a recent graduate, it’s important that you place your resume education section underneath your resume objective. You should do this for two reasons:

1. Employers will be curious about what you did and how you did in school. Good grades and relevant coursework will make a good impression, so you want higher-ups to see this first.
2. By including an extensive list about your education, you will take up more room on your resume.

Let’s examine our applicant’s “Educational Background“:

North Dakota University, Fargo, ND

Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance, May 2016

• Minored in Business Administration
• Distinguished member of university’s Accountant Society
• Relevant Coursework: Advanced Financial Accounting and Reporting, Accounting Systems, Income Tax for Corporations, Cost/Managerial Accounting
• GPA: 3.75/ 4.0

The candidate includes their degree, their minor, their role as a club member, coursework pertaining to the desired position, and their GPA (note: only include GPA if it’s above 3.0; for this particular career track, you want around 3.5 or higher).

You should apply this format, too; any involvement in extracurricular activities, clubs, volunteer, etc. should be included here to show how active you are. To recruiters, this signifies work ethic and initiative, two traits they will want to see as much as possible in your resume body.

3. Outline Your Professional Experience

You may or may not have work experience; this applicant does. If you don’t have experience, then try to get an internship as soon as possible. Assuming you have interned somewhere before, your goal in a resume is to phrase your experience in a way that will impress recruiters.

To do this, you should provide results-oriented examples that will underscore your value as a candidate.

Let’s see what our applicant did:

• “Helped manage payroll and the registration of employees to Jobs and Pensions service for our 150+ employee branch.”

In this example, the applicant includes hard numbers (150+ employee branch) to give recruiters an idea of what they are capable of. In this role, they demonstrate strong organization skills.

• “Helped prepare company debit and credit documents for 4% of our client base.”

As a finance intern, the applicant prepared financial statements for 4% of the company’s client base. Considering this is a Fortune 500 company, we can assume that 4% is a sizeable amount.

Now, what if the applicant had said, “Prepared debit and credit documents for clients”? It just sounds unimpressive. By quantifying your experience, even with a figure as meager as 4%, you are proving to recruiters that you are an effective, results-driven employee.

4. Add an Additional Skills Section

Just like your extensive Education section, your resume skills section takes up space and allows you to mention soft skills and hard skills that you couldn’t fit elsewhere. Be sure to include certifications, second or third languages, and any technical proficiencies you may have accumulated over the years.

Let’s look at the applicant’s resume one more time:

• QuickBooks certified
• Experienced with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Familiar with GnuCash, Quicken, and ZipBooks software
• Working proficiency in Spanish
• Native fluency in German

Here are some more examples to help you out:

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suit
• Familiar with Microsoft Dynamics GP
• Proficient in Excel
• Familiar with Apache OFBiz
• Openbravo certified

If you follow these steps, you will be on your way to landing your first accounting job in no time.

But if you still need help, swing by our free resume builder to create the perfect resume in minutes.