As the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) you’re expected to analyze the company’s financial position and offer a strategic direction that will turn those dollars into thousands more dollars.
You’re also expected to prove your ability to do this on just one or two A4 pages!
We understand this can be tricky, so we’ve created a resume-writing guide and CFO resume example below to help do this.
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CFO Resume Example
From the CFO resume example above, you can see the type of content your resume will need to include, and the general layout you will need to stick to.
The rest of this guide will show you how to apply this format to your own unique situation, and create a resume that will attract the best employers in your field.
CFO resume layout and format
Formatting is often overlooked when writing resume, but it’s a crucial element of it”s success.
Creating a document that not only looks good, but is easily comprehended, is the key to gaining and holding the attention of busy hiring managers.
Use these formatting tips for best results.
Tips for resume formatting
- Length: Attention spans in recruitment are notoriously short, so keep your resume short and sweet. There’s no exact rule for resume length, but aim for 2 pages or less if you want to ensure yours gets read in full.
- Font and text: Complex fonts are a readers’ worst nightmare and will leave recruiters struggling to understand your message. Use a clear simple lean font in a color that stands out against the page, and break your text up with bullet points to make the content easily digestible.
- Design & structure: Your resume should look appealing – but don’t overlook functionality when it comes to design. Organise the page into clear sections using bold headings and borders.
- Photos and images: In the USA adding a photo to your resume is optional – you don’t have to do it, but it can be a nice way to get your personality across.
Quick tip: Formatting a resume to look professional can be difficult and time-consuming. If you want to create an attractive resume quickly, try our quick-and-easy Resume Builder and use one of their eye-catching resume templates.
Resume layout
Include the following sections when you write your resume.
- Name and contact details – Make it easy for employers to contact you, by putting these at the top.
- Resume summary – An intro paragraph sitting at the top of your resume, summarizing the reasons why you should be hired.
- Skills section – A short snappy list of your most important skills, that can be quickly digested
- Work experience – Reverse chronological list of your previous jobs – voluntary work and college placements can be included if you have no paid experience.
- Education – List your qualifications and professional training.
- Additional info – An optional section for things like hobbies and interests.
Now, here’s what to include in each of these sections in your resume.
Resume Contact Details
Make it easy for hiring managers to contact you by adding your contact details to the top of your resume.
Keep this section small to save space and include the following.
- Name and profession title
- Telephone number – Ideally your cell phone so you can answer quickly.
- Location – Add your general location such as LA or New York
- Email address – Use a professional looking one with no nicknames.
You can add a link to your LinkedIn profile if you have one – you do not need to include personal details like date of birth or marital status.
CFO Resume Summary
Now it’s time to get into the real content of your resume, starting with the summary.
Your resume summary is a short paragraph at the top of the document, and its jobs is to catch the eye of hiring managers by summarizing all your skills and knowledge that are most important to the roles you are applying for.
Top tips for creating an effective resume summary:
- Keep it brief: Your summary is intended to be a high-level introduction to hook readers’ attention, so keep it brief (4-7 lines) – save the details for later in your resume.
- Tailor it: Tailor your resume to your target jobs by studying the job description and adding as many matching skills as you can.
- Avoid cliches: Recruiters look for facts in resumes, such as hard skills and qualifications – so, leave out the meaningless cliches like “hard worker who works well in a team and individually“
Example resume summary for CFO
What to include in your CFO resume summary?
- Summary of your experience: Provide an overview of the type of work you have done in the past and the impact you have made at previous employers.
- Relevant skills: Scatter your most in-demand CFO skills through your summary to ensure they are noticed quickly by hiring managers.
- Important qualifications: Mention any CFO qualifications that are important to your profession in the summary briefly, to show you are qualified to carry out the role.
Quick tip: Choose from hundreds of pre-written summaries across all industries, and add one to your resume with one click in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder. All written by our recruitment experts and easily tailored to suit your unique skillset.
Core skills section
Next, you should create a bullet pointed list of your core skills, formatted into 2-3 columns.
Here, you should focus on including the most important skills or knowledge listed in the job advertisement.
This will instantly prove that you’re an ideal candidate, even if a recruiter only has time to briefly scan your resume.
Best skills for your CFO resume
- Revenue growth strategies – creating detailed strategies aimed at growing company revenue with cash flows for future investment.
- Post-acquisition integration – blending the newly acquired company with the existing business, implementing critical processes, integrating accounts, and ensuring value is added.
- Financial planning & analysis – completing complex budgeting, forecasting, and analysis to support major corporate decisions.
- Risk management & mitigation – managing financial risks to the business including identifying risks and generating detailed plans to lessen the impact of those risks should they occur.
- Strategic planning & execution – creating plans to support getting the company from where it is now to where it wants to be, including ensuring that the financial constraints surrounding the strategy are not unrealistic or unduly risky.
Quick tip: Our quick-and-easy Resume Builder contains thousands of in-demand skills for every profession that can be added to your resume in seconds – saving you time and greatly improving your chances of landing job interviews.
Resume work experience section
So, you’ve got the recruiter interested with your catchy summary… Great work.
Now it’s time to show them the impact you make in the workplace by listing out your previous jobs and what you achieved in each one.
If you have tons of experience, you can condense this part down to the last few years – if you are junior, then you should include as much possible (even volunteering and school work placements)
Structuring your job descriptions
It’s easy to overwhelm readers when writing about a job you have been doing for years or even months.
Break the information up like this to keep it simple for recruiters to understand.
Job outline
Start with a 1-2 sentence outline of the role, summarizing what the goal of your position was, who you reported to (or managed) and the type of organization you worked for.
Key responsibilities
List your notable responsibilities in short sharp bullet points to demonstrate your input and how you contributed to the organization’s success.
Highlight the skills that are most important to the roles you are applying for.
Key achievements
Show employers the value you can bring to them by adding a few achievements to your jobs.
Whether you’ve saved the company money or improved an internal process, let recruiters know
Add some numbers to give readers a real scale of the impact, e.g. “reduced call wait time by 10%”
Example job for CFO resume
Outline
USA Health is comprised of 6 hospitals, 8 institutes, and 200+ medical offices and clinics throughout Texas, with an annual revenue of over $8B. Reporting to the CEO and partnering with the executive leadership team to lead annual operating and capital budgeting processes and assess feasibility of new programs and acquisitions. Leading a finance team of 60, with 6 direct reports spanning accounting, finance, annual audits, tax and treasury, and financial risk management functions.
Key Responsibilities
- Consolidated disparate financial reporting systems and developed internal governance structure and processes, including SOPs for budgeting, financial reporting, and accounting
- Directed due diligence and acquisition of a 300-bed medical center in Austin TX, leading comprehensive analysis to determine optimal future use for the facility
- Improved cash flow and working capital management processes, raised debt and financing as needed
- Worked with regulators and government representatives to influence national healthcare policies
Quick tip: Create impressive job descriptions easily in our quick-and-easy Resume Builder by adding pre-written job phrases for every industry and career stage.
Education resume section
Towards the bottom of your resume, add your education section.
Here you should list your professional qualifications and academic record, such as high school diplomas or college degrees.
If you have lots of work experience, you can keep this section brief (because recruiters will be more interested in your career. If you have little/no experience then you should bulk this section up with plenty of detail.
Additional info for your resume
The additional info section is optional but can be useful if you have anything else to add that could benefit your application.
For example ,you may have some hobbies and interests that are relevant to your job – or you might have awards or publications to shout about.
Writing your CFO resume
A winning CFO resume should look great, read well, and sell your skillset to hiring managers.
If you follow the steps above, you should be able to bag yourself a top job in no time.
And don’t forget you can use our quick-and-easy Resume Builder if you want to save time and ensure your resume contains the very best content.
Good luck with your job search!