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Candidate Advice
The Advice that follows is intended as a guide for candidates to read prior to forwarding their CV to SystemsAccountants. Knowledge of the basic Do's and Don'ts is assumed - this is a more specific guide to getting ahead in the finance systems marketplace.
It is important to realise that for experienced candidates in this niche market there is no such thing as a standard CV. It is a document that needs to be tightly focused, highly relevant, well presented and above all detailed. In this specialist market, the generic '2 page' rule definitely does not apply, particularly for those seeking contracts or for candidates with a career history of more than a few years. It is often a good idea to have one or two different versions of your CV in terms of presentation style. In addition to this our clients often ask for additional addendums to be presented alongside the CV - a more concise listing of experience against as specific criteria (training or testing experience for example).
The expectations of our clients differs from those in the mainstream recruitment market. We are used to dealing with finance and business systems specialists and because of this we require the full detail of people's career histories to differentiate candidates.
It is important to provide us with a covering email regarding your current situation/availability, pay requirements, preferred locations and any specifics on the position that you are looking for.
Here are some key points to include -
- The CV should read in reverse chronological order, with all contact details clearly marked.
- If there is a profile included at the header of the CV, make it as specific as possible.
- Each role should be clearly laid out, preferably with company information (business sector, divisional or group, Turnover, number of employees etc).
Listed against each role there should be -
- Detailed roles and responsibilities list for that role
- Detailed achievements list
- Strong emphasis on precise systems and versions worked with in each role
- Good description of all modules/components of a system used - e.g. AP, AR, G/L etc.
- Description of relevant underlying technologies - e.g. Citrix, Essbase, Oracle platform etc.
- Outline of all projects involved in, and your exact role within the projects.
- An outline of the scale of systems set up or project within a company - number of usersetc.
- Any relevant qualifications - Finance Qualifications or exact level of part qualification.
- Any systems certifications - e.g SAP certified
