| | CAREER OUTLOOK
the manager is much more interested in your finance degree than your part-time job delivering pizza. On the other hand, if you’ve been out of school for awhile, or if you don’t have a degree, list your employment history first, because it highlights the experience that makes you qualified for the hiring manager’s finance opening.
Show the hiring manager that you do have the experience to do the job well, which will make his or her job easier in the end.
The employment history section should be in bullet- point format, making it easy to skim. Each bullet lists the company you worked for and the dates. The location is important for the back- ground check the company will likely perform on you after you accept an offer,
but for the initial run-through, the hiring manager doesn’t care. Therefore, list the company name first, location buried in the middle, and the dates to the right, for easy skimming. Under the main bullet, list your job responsibilities with indented sub-bullets. Don’t be wordy! Keep the descriptions as brief as possible, while still conveying what you did. Be sure to list informal responsibili- ties you had or projects you picked up that were outside of the scope of your official job description. If you are a recent college grad with no finance-related work history, you should still list your employment history, but focus on demonstrating that you’re capable of being a responsible employee and meeting deadlines. Your educational background should be in a similar bullet-point format. If you have an extensive employment history, keep this simple: list only your applicable degrees and where you earned them. If you are a recent college grad and listing your education first, then use indented sub-bullets to list the relevant college courses you took, showing the hiring manager what specific knowledge you’ve gained that will be useful on the job.
Volunteer work may demonstrate qualifications you haven’t high- lighted in your employment and education histories. Have you served on the finance committee at your place of worship? Were you the treasurer of a student organization? Did you assist friends and family members with their tax returns last year, or help a friend manage her budget or get out of debt? Not only do these activities demonstrate your finance skills, they demonstrate, with- out actually saying so, that you are a hard worker. Hiring manag- ers do not want you to tell them that you’re a hard worker, but they do want to see proof. Like your employment history, these
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activities should be listed in easy-to-read bullet-point format.
If you have any special skills, such as proficiency with software packages, list these in a simple bullet-point list.
Your resume should close with the statement that, “References are available upon request.” Have those references ready to provide, but don’t list them on your resume. The hiring manager is unlikely to contact your references until he or she has inter- viewed you, and in the initial interview selection process, it’s just information that clutters up your resume. You want the hiring manager’s eyes to see your qualifications, not names and phone numbers.
Now, what about a cover letter? Hiring managers have mixed opinions about them. Some feel they are important, and some discard them without reading, heading straight for the resume and the answer to “the question.” If you choose to write a cover letter, keep it professional and facts-based. Elaborate on your objective, state why you are interested in this particular position and company, and summarize what makes you qualified for the position. More importantly, answer any questions that the resume itself might raise, such as a gap in your employment his- tory. Keep it short and sweet, remembering again that the hiring manager is a busy person.
Keep your resume and cover letter brief, easy-to-read, and to the point, which is answering the question of your qualifica- tions. Highlight the things that make you qualified for the job, and make those things easy for skimming eyes to find. Show the hiring manager that you do have the experience to do the job well, which will make his or her job easier in the end. These are the elements of excellent resumes and cover letters. Accomplish these things, and you will land the interview. Good luck!
POTENTIAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS FOR JOBS IN FINANCE Finance jobs cover jobs in retail banking, investment banking and insurance. Typically, they come with quite good remuneration packages and added benefits such as pension schemes. If you’ve applied for a job in the finance sector, then you will want to con- sider what types of question you may be asked at interview. My whole working career has been spent in the finance sector (with retail banks) so hopefully I can bring my own interview experi- ences to bear in this article.
Finance-specific questions: It’s incredibly difficult to predict what questions will be asked without knowing exactly what job you’re going for. However, here are some questions that you might be asked:
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