Director of Finance Sample

So far, your career has been a journey of growth and achievement, punctuated by a dedication to – and a passion for – lining up the numbers to make sure your company is fiscally responsible and financially solvent. Now, it’s time to setup up to the next rung on the career ladder, into the role of Director of Finance. 

You have the chops; you know what it takes! All you need is a compelling resume, and you’ll be able to talk your way into the new position. Seems easy enough, right? 

Yes, writing a resume can be easy. The key is writing a resume that will get you past the applicant tracking system, also known as the ATS, and impressing a hiring manager. That’s the difficult bit. 

Enter this article. Here, you’ll learn how to put together an interview-winning Director of Finance resume and find examples, tips, and tricks that will land you in the “Yes” pile. 

How to write a resume

Before you can actually start writing your Director of Finance resume, there are a few things you need to know. The main thing to keep in mind is your audience. You are writing for two separate beings:

1. A computer – the resume scanning bot that everyone knows as the ATS.

2. A human – the hiring manager who is spending, at most, 10 seconds glancing at your resume. 

Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling Director of Finance resume that appeals to both.

1. Tailor your resume for each job

The first step in getting past the ATS is customization. There is some debate about whether you actually have to customize your resume for every single job or simply a particular job title. What it comes down to is keywords and how the company has programmed those keywords into their ATS program. 

Your best bet is to make a list of your skills and abilities – separate from your resume – and match the phrases you’ve come up with to describe what you know how to do with verbiage you find in a job description. From there, you can tweak the phrasing for proper inclusion into your Director of Finance resume.

2. Quantify your achievements

When you’re making your list of skills and abilities, go ahead and write down a list of things you’ve achieved during your career. Since your career centers around numbers, use numbers in your resume. Numbers, percentages, and monetary quantifications will make your resume really pop.

Every single Finance Director resume that rolls across the hiring manager’s desk will say something along the lines of ‘Improved financial processes.’ Otherwise, the person applying for the role couldn’t really call themselves ready for a Director role. You have to stand out from the crowd and the best way to do that is by telling the hiring manager what you’ve accomplished. 

3. Don’t forget about leadership skills

Being a great Director of Finance isn’t all about the numbers. As the Director, you’ll likely have a team of people beneath you – whether that team is made up of three staff members or 30. As such, future employers will want to know that you have what it takes to motivate employees to achieve goals. You can also demonstrate leadership skills by talking about how you’ve managed projects, even if you weren’t the leader of the project. 

Team Leader Example: Led a team of 13 financial analysts by creating a culture of open communication that increased department efficiency by 15%.

Project Management Example: Balanced competing priorities on multiple and concurrent projects with an emphasis on cross-functional collaboration that brought a $2M project to fruition, $100K under budget. 

5. Relevancy is critical

One thing to always keep in mind as you write your resume is the definition of the word ‘resume.’ It’s a brief description of your experience, education, and skills – the key word here being ‘brief.’ 

You want to avoid irrelevancy at all costs. In fact, this goes back to tailoring your resume to the job description. If something you’re adding to your resume won’t be THE THING that gets you an interview, it’s best to leave it off. Instead, opt to include the most relevant information. 

Example: Rather than list every job you’ve ever had since high school, stick to the last 10-15 years of experience to keep your resume fresh and relevant.

6. Use action verbs

Your Finance Director resume should not contain the following phrases – delete them from your resume-writing vocabulary:

• Responsible for

• Accountable for

• Charged with

The reality is there isn’t a hiring manager or recruiter alive who will care about what you were responsible for doing in your previous roles. All they want to know is what you actually did and how those things translate into a benefit for them. 

Example: Rather than writing, ‘Charged with managing financial operations,’ you should write something more actionable like, ‘Coached and mentored a team of 6 accounting professionals to streamline finance operations.’

Do you see how starting the sentence with ‘Charged with…” just doesn’t provide any real information? Start each of the sentences and bullet points on your resume with a power verb to emphasize your accomplishments. This will help prospective employers get a clue about what you’re bringing to the table for the Finance Director job they have open. 

7. Use a professional format

Many job seekers think that an eye-catching resume template will help them stand out to hiring managers and increase their chances of landing an interview. This is a myth put out by resume builders that value design over content.

The truth is that most hiring managers prefer a traditional resume format. You have three formats to choose from for your Director of Finance resume:

• Reverse-chronological

• Functional

• Hybrid

In fact, creative resume templates can actually hurt your chances of landing an interview. Instead, you should use a reverse-chronological resume format that quickly communicates your basic information and qualifications – like the one included below.

8. Include a professional resume summary

The resume summary replaces the out-of-date resume objective. A summary outlines the most impressive parts of your Finance Director resume for easy recall by your potential employer while also serving to fill in personal qualities that may not appear elsewhere on the page. Remember that summaries are short and consist of pithy sentence fragments! 

Think of it as a three to five-sentence elevator pitch. Include a bit about your background, how many years of experience you have, a balance of hard and soft skills, and at least one quantified achievement. 

9. Use reverse chronology to list your work history

Whether you decide to use a hybrid resume format or the reverse-chronological format that’s found in the example below, you’ll always list your professional experience with your most recent job first and work backward. By starting with your most recent position first, you help the hiring manager immediately see the most relevant information in your career progression. 

Make sure what you include is only the most relevant information – remember, your aim is to include details that will land an interview.

Director of Finance Resume example 

How confident are you feeling about your Director of Finance resume now? If you need more help, you can always refer to the following resume sample for inspiration.

Key hard & soft skills for Director of Finance

As you work through writing your resume, avoid getting hung up on talking only about the finance-related things you know how to do. There must be a good balance of hard and soft skills in your resume. 

• Hard skills are things you know how to do based on what you’ve learned in school, on-the-job training, and practical experience.

• Soft skills are personality characteristics you possess that allow you to get along with others, solve problems, and navigate things like office politics. 

Example hard skills for your Director of Finance resume include:

Example soft skills for your Director of Finance resume:

You want to present a resume that shows how well-rounded you are because that will impress a prospective employer. Another reason to avoid neglecting those soft skills is that they will sometimes be THE THING that lands you an interview.

Summary & last words

Keep your resume format easy to scan by both humans and computers; our resume template is designed by our experts to satisfy both audiences. And be sure to include your own skills, achievements, and experiences. Interview-winning resumes are resumes that successfully market you, leading recruiters and hiring managers to want to learn more!

Introduction to ZipJob: Professional resume writers

When you get ready to take your Director of Finance resume to the next level, our team of expert resume writers is waiting to help. You’ll be partnered with someone who understands how to cull the most critical details from your history to write a Director of Finance resume that stands out among the rest! Research has proven that your odds of getting a job offer are 200% more likely when you use a professional resume writer.

Why you should make use of our resume writing services to land your next job as Director of Finance

The struggle to put together a Director of Finance resume doesn’t have to be something that drags you down. ZipJob’s resume-writing services are designed to be simple so that you can land your next role with ease. You are guaranteed a personalized approach, working one-on-one with your writer so that your skills, experiences, and achievements are brought to the best possible light for landing your dream job. 

Resume writing service for Director of Finance: Let us write your resume

Just like you would recommend business owners use experts in Finance to handle financial matters, you should use resume-writing experts to craft a compelling resume for your next job search. Leveraging ZipJob’s resume-writing service takes the guesswork out of resume writing so that you can focus on what’s next – getting ready to answer interview questions.