u/_Casey_

The pro summary is largely useless as it repeats what can be addressed in the bullets. The bullets cannot read like a job listing. Each bullet needs to answer 3 things; what you did, how (think tools, resources), impact/result/why.

Show how you’re applying your skills (in the bullets) rather than making a list.

You can’t control how competitive the market is but you can make your resume better so that’s my $0.02 and exact steps I take on my resume. Don’t bother paying for resume writers. They prey on your desperation when there’s a f ton of free content out there.

Implicit bias has always existed and will always exist. This is nothing new and has been know for decades and before everyone existed on this subreddit.

Interviewing is a game. You just learned how to play it optimally.

Atbge

Armed minorities are harder to oppress. F this.

Doubt it. It's b/c you were a negative Nancy and being a constant buzzkill.

I'll break my critique into two categories: quibbles - as the word suggests these are negotiable and not deal breakers and optional whether you want to implement though I'd still recommend you doing it; major: non-negotiable - you "have" to do it materially increase your chance of more screenings.

Quibbles:

Professional Summary - these are typically reserve to confirm your ability to work in a particular country or to explain a career change (e.g. moving from engineer to lawyer). I would scrap this b/c what you've written is generic af and simply repeats what you're saying in your bullets making it redundant

Education: keep as is (don't list grad year)

Skills/Certs: I'm not a fan of these b/c it's largely redundant with what's in your bullets (or should be). Show me how you applied these skills in your bullets rather than make list. And if you're showing it me how in your bullets then this list is redundant; okay to keep but leave it as the last section.

My pref: Education then experience

Major:

Bullets - in a lot of your bullets you're simply telling me what you did. You're writing a resume - not a job description. Each bullet needs to tell me three (3) things:

1) what you did

2) how you did it (tools, resources)

3) impact/result ($, %, or non-numeric)

[source]

Before you start constructing new bullets, identify the industry (SaaS, REIT, CPG, biotech, etc.) and job title you're aiming for. Why the former? Generally you want to settle on an industry if you're in private accounting b/c a lot of HMs have a huge boner for industry experience. So all things being equal, they'll choose the candidate that has more exp in the company's industry.

Re: the latter, let's assume you're applying as a staff accountant. Look up 10-15 staff accountant roles and identify the common keywords/qualifications. For example, I imagine there's stuff on helping w/ the MEC, AP, AR, working w/ external auditors, using Excel, yadda yadda. Once you have that info, start constructing your bullets just like how I laid out above. Rule of thumb: every bullet should be at least 1.5 - 3.0 lines long. 3-5 bullets per role.

My $0.02 as a fellow accountant / CPA and what I've discovered works for me and our profession in general.

tl;dr: yes, your resume is not good 3/10.

Zero interviews is concerning, but the market is tougher nowadays than it was 2-3 years ago. Are you applying early? Meaning the first 50-100 applicants. I don't think this resume is good. It's average at best and the number of screenings would suggest that.

Header: perfect! Don't change anything. You have all the info that is needed and nothing more or less

Pro Summary: get rid of it - it's largely redundant with your bullets and this section is usually used to explain career changes or confirming your work authorization. Plus, what you've written is generic. Keep in mind that the top half of the resume is the most important part and prime real estate. Recruiters scan resumes quickly b/c they have many to go thru so you don't want to allocate part of the 1st half to things that don't provide a ton of value

Education: I wouldn't list the grad date for the marketing but NBD, everything else is fine

Experience: make sure your date ranges are aligned for formatting consistency. 3-5 bullets max per role so you're good there. I'd use past tense for all roles even current but NBD if not. The biggest issue is your bullets - you gotta fix them (non-negotiable). A lot of your bullets read like a job description (telling me what you did and sometimes the impact). Every (literally) bullet needs to tell me 3 things to be substantive and strong:

1) what did you do

2) how did you do it (think resources, tools)

3) why/impact/result (doesn't have to be #, %)

[source]

Look at your first bullet about overseeing the AP, AR. So you told me what you did. So what? (need to address #3). What about # 2? What ERP did you use? A strong bullet will generally be 1.5-3.0 lines long. Anything 1 or less is usually shitty. Also, put the important bullets you want to highlight in descending order, so closing the month would be # 1 often times.

Skills: not a fan of these despite how popular and recommended they are. They're redundant (just like the pro summary). It's fine to keep if you leave it at the bottom (resumes are presented in order of descending importance). If you do keep, you want to reference HOW you applied these skills in your bullets. Don't just make a list. Any resume writer can make a list. Very few can showcase how they used those software/skills in their job.

This is how I would change the resume if I were you based on my experience being on the job market a while back and what I learned works and doesn't work thru trial and error and iterating, yadda yadda applying to remote senior roles (startups mostly).

Lastly, resumes have to be job title specific. So if you're targeting staff role, make a "master" staff accountant resume. Same w/ senior or w/e. Look up 10-15 job listings for that job title and see what common keywords, qualifications those listings are asking for and make sure they're referenced in your bullets. That will be your mater resume that you can apply to 90% of staff roles. The remaining 10% you can tailor slightly that ask for atypical stuff.

ACAB.

Keep it simple: two sections - education on top and then experience.

Education: school and degree, nothing else. Don’t reveal your age.

Experience: 3-5 bullets per role or 2-3 per role if a promo at same company

Understand what a strong bullet looks like. What you’ve written is basically a job description - telling me what you did. Every bullet needs to answer 3 things:

1) what you did

2) how you did it (software, resources, tools)

3) impact/result (doesn’t have to be percentage, numbers)

So now you know the skeleton of a good bullet. Next is to identify what title you want. A resume is job title specific. I’ll assume you want another staff accountant job.

Look up 10-15 staff job listings. Identify what the common keywords/responsibilities are in them. Use the skeleton above to create your bullet. This will be your master staff accountant resume for 90% of your submissions.

The remaining 10% you will have to tailor for when a JD asks for atypical shit.

Do that and you will dog walk most resumes out there. There’s a lot of trash out there. But you gotta be one of the first 50-100 applicants otherwise your resume won’t be viewed.

Don’t bother hiring a pro resume writer or some ATS optimizer bs that is peddled nowadays. Don’t spend a f dime, okay? They’re preying on your desperation.

My $0.02 and the exact tips I use to cold apply to remote senior accountant roles for startups/early stage/high growth companies to secure screenings w/ relative ease. GL!

Your bullets reads like a job description (i.e. telling me what you did).

Read THIS to understand how to write a good bullet - which is the biggest factor (but not only factor) in what determines a great resume.

The summary is largely useless b/c those are reserved for career changes or confirming your work authorization status. It's also repeating what you should/do say in your bullets making it redundant.

Not a fan of skills section b/c I rather you SHOW me how you applied those skills in your bullets which is a lot more impactful than making a list. If you do that, the skills section ends up being redundant.

My $0.02 as a fellow accountant/CPA and what worked for me when to get screenings for remote roles w/ relative ease.

Try r/resumes for a dedicated subreddit for this stuff.

You really only need two sections (bare minimum): education and experience in that order is my preference and how I do it.

Education: only list degree - putting the year sets you up for discrimination - best to not reveal info you don't have to; GPA is fine to list but most don't care about it after you're several years removed from graduating

Experience: read more about how to write a strong bullet HERE; the tl;dr is every bullet (3-5 per role is Goldilocks zone) needs to answer 3 things:

1) what did you do

2) how did you do it (think resources, tools)

3) impact/result/why

Look up job listings for the role you're applying to (every resume has to be job title specific, no generalized resumes). For example, say I'm applying as an senior accountant. If you look up SA roles, you'll find these are common job duties/qualifications/skill sets they're seeking: Excel, QuickBooks, GAAP, NetSuite, audits, process improvements, AR, AP, close the books, reconciliations, yadda yadda. I better be referencing those in my bullets and answer them in the format I mentioned above.

I don't do skills/abilities b/c it's redundant with your bullets. Better to showcase HOW you applied those skills than make a list. It's a lot more impactful IMO. Keep the skills/abilities at the bottom if you really want to have it. Resumes are structured in descending order of importance - meaning you want the important stuff at the top half since recruiters devote very little time to each resume. You want them to see the good stuff first. Activities/interests I'd remove but you can leave it at the bottom - mb it'll resonate w/ the HM, recruiter, etc.

$0.02 US perspective and what I found helped me secure remote screenings w/ relative ease (CPA/accountant working primarily for startups). Don't pay for resume writers or other shit that preys on desperate people or ATS compliant BS.

Tl:dr - read the part about bullets, the rest are quibbles/negotiable.

What a dumb title. No one is pretending, doofus.

The neck never lies.

Pick-me hispanic.

Uncle Tom.

• get rid of the professional summary - what you've written is redundant with (or should be) w/ bullets; it's also in your skills section; a pro summary is used in very few circumstances: career change, relocating, confirming work status in country X

• since you're applying to entry level tax roles, look up 10-15 of those roles and see what the common qualifications and responsibilities are and reference in your bullets; I imagine most of the stuff in your skills section will be in the job listing so they should be in your bullets

• read THIS to understand how to write a bullet; some of your bullets are telling me what you did (that's one component), you need to also tell me how and lastly the impact/result

• get rid of skill section: everything in there should be referenced in your bullets instead (assuming they're also asked for in job listings)

• I'd get rid of the certs, too. You really only need to mention you got advanced excel skills (in your bullets) - the other stuff is NBD, and the only cert that matters really is the CPA.

My $0.02 as a fellow accountant/CPA.

Most ATS aren’t robust enough to do those filters. Most serve as filing cabinets. If you are disqualified without the resume even being looked at it’s most likely due to knock out questions.

Other than that all resumes are reviewed manually unless they cut it off after finding sufficient applicants to screen or role is closed.

ATS are the boogeyman and scapegoated and lots of businesses (ATS scanners, ATS compliant resume writers) exploit and profit off this ignorance. They should thank those people for financing their lives I guess.

• don't use "I" anywhere on your resume - each bullet starts with an action verb (past tense)

• education being the 2nd section is fine b/c it's not relevant to the roles you're applying to; all that matters is you graduated with a degree from an accredited university so all the other stuff beyond that can be deleted - a quibble though

• skills section should be deleted b/c it's better to showcase how you've applied those skills in your bullets than make a list - if you do that, this section becomes redundant; keep if you really want to but leave it at the bottom as you've done

• each resume needs to be job title specific (i.e. not a generalized resume); so if you're applying to a bookkeeper role, you better look 10-15 listings, identify keywords/qualifications, make sure they're in your bullets; off the top of my end, I'd expect maybe GAAP(?), Excel, AP/AR, process improvement, credit memos, journal entries, closing the books, process improvements, tax(?), payroll, etc.

• a pro summary may help in your case since you're kinda changing careers from PT to accounting

• strong bullet [source]: (1) what you did (2) how you did it (3) impact/result; do that for every bullet; 3-5 per role

This guy does free resume reviews (don't ever pay for resume writing services); https://www.headlessheadhunter.org/ where he does twitch streams. Def recommend and I agree w/ 99% of the stuff he says and implement them myself.

My $0.02 as a fellow accountant/CPA. These are the tips I employ to get remote screenings for startups / early stage / high growth companies.

Happens when you glaze soldiers, military, LEO, people who serve yadda yadda, etc.

ATBGE.

ATBGE. Not my for me but well done.

ATS is a scapegoat used by people w/ mediocre resumes to explain their failures.

An ATS is a database. Most aren't robust enough to do a sliver of the things people say it allegedly does.

You can tailor your resume all you want but if the content (bullets) sucks then it won't get shortlisted.

I'd read THIS to understand how to write a strong bullet.

Apply early, resume should be job title specific.

ATBGE at least.

ATBGE

1) Get rid of the "Aspiration" section. It's redundant with your bullets so it doesn't provide much value. Secondly, these are reserved for career changes or to confirm your ability to work in X country

2) Education section only needs the school you graduated from and the degree. No on cares about the GPA after you've been out of school for some time.

3) Work Experience: 3-5 bullets per role - order them in descending order of importance based on what you see that job descriptions are all looking for. A lot of your bullets simply tell me what you did and sometimes the impact/result. You have to include the "How?". That's a tl;dr of THIS that I recommend you pour over. Make sure the keywords you see in Liaison & Case Manger job descriptions are also in your bullets.

4) Professional/Personal Skills: again, largely useless and redundant when you incorporate this stuff in your bullets - it's better to showcase how you applied these skills than making a list. Keep it at the bottom if you don't delete it.

A resume is presented in order of importance so getting rid of Aspiration field and trimming the Education field helps bring all the important stuff up into the first half of the page. Recruiters don't have much time to devote to each resume so if they only read half the resume, at least it'll have the important stuff before they make the decision to pass/fail.

A resume should be title specific rather than generalized. Don't worry too much about one or two pages. People focus way too much on that and that's not what makes or breaks a resume.

Rule of thumb is no screenings = poor resume. No offers / don't reach late stages = poor interview skills.

Anyway, these are the tips I use to secure remote role screenings which are pretty competitive so they're "battle" tested and work and don't cost $$$ to implement or any special skillset or networking or referrals or any other shit - works for cold applications.