INDUSTRY STATS
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Senior Finance Manager positions are at a 17% growth rate, which is much faster than average. With that said, there are currently 681,700 jobs in the market right now. The total number of jobs is expected to increase by 118,200 to 799,900 in the period of 2020-30.
What’s more, the median annual wage for the Senior Finance Manager jobs was $134,180 in May 2020. The lowest 10% earned less than $70,830, and the highest 10% more than $208,000.
Our conclusion? The Senior Finance Manager job market is wide open for candidates.
Top Senior Finance Manager sections that make the best resume
- Header
- Professional summary
- Experience (with numbers and results)
- Relevant skills
- Education
- Certifications
How to write a Senior Finance Manager resume experience section
Senior Finance Manager Resume’s Job Experience Checklist:
- Use 4-6 bullet points per job title;
- Don’t go further than a decade behind when describing your job history, unless you’re applying for an executive position;
- Combine job responsibilities as well as achievements with numbers in results when you describe your past work;
- Start each sentence with a power verb and avoid overused buzzwords;
- Use either C-A-R or S-T-A-R methodology, when describing your experience.
The work experience samples below come from real Senior Finance Manager resumes that got people hired at top companies. You can use them as an inspiration to build your own resume:
- Manage the Sales Revenues Management Process and owning the trade investment budget (Size of Price 100 M€ per year)
- Support the definition of the new Route to Market and Commercial Strategy in light of the new Brand Acquisitions (100M€ yearly turnover)
- Re-design S&OP, financial planning and cash collection processes
- Support the design and execution of new brands launch
- Finance Business Partner, which launched the most successful (US$) pharma product in history, with limited resources.
- Winning all 2018 and 2019 tenders ($180m) across all Nordic markets.
- Project assignment - joined the EMEA Centre of Excellence team in the UK for two long term forecasting cycles, to consolidate and build the brand story at EMEA level.
- Implemented a cross functional approach for sales and OPEX forecasting, which resulted in high quality assumptions, output and brand P&L story. Awarded a ‘Value Award’ for this work, during a time of significant change for the Nordics.
- For the Nordic long term forecast review created Nordic therapeutic area story telling slides, which were adopted as best practice and implemented across EMEA for the next forecast process.
- Streamlined and created greater efficiencies in P&L and Balance Sheet reviews, VAT and tax, while enhancing robust financial systems and processes.
- Project assignment - joined the EMEA Centre of Excellence team in the UK for two long term forecasting cycles, to consolidate and build the brand story at EMEA level.
- Implemented a cross functional approach for sales and OPEX forecasting, which resulted in high quality assumptions, output and brand P&L story. Awarded a ‘Value Award’ for this work, during a time of significant change for the Nordics.
- For the Nordic long term forecast review created therapeutic area storytelling slides, which were adopted as best practice and implemented across EMEA for the next forecast process.
- Business partnered to submit winning tenders, while managing risks and opportunities, resulting in greater revenues +$190mUSD.
- Streamlined and created greater efficiencies in P&L and Balance Sheet reviews, VAT and tax.
- Joined agency as FP&A employee #1
- Established finance practices that fostered a culture of greater accountability, involvement & oversight by key stakeholders.
- Created scenario forecast model and led scenario planning meetings with CEO, COO and Leadership team.
- Partnered with Account Management in establishing pricing models, retainer utilization analysis, and account profitability tracking.
- Developed Media Campaign dashboard that connected with SQL tables and reported weekly insights to client's marketing team.
- Analyzed data trends from market research to identify key changes required in business plan and development which resulted in $65M revenue
- Collaborated with over 15 senior management stakeholders globally, including C level, to influence and close deals exceeding $200M
- Analyzed past operations data to identify potential risks, then developed strategy which reduced risks by 60%
- Directed finance global operations to identify areas of improvement for efficiency and maintain business metrics worth $60M
- Managed and maintained financial plans worth $150M for analysis, MIS reporting and finance models
- Collaborated with 7 global teams to assess financial visibility and investment opportunities worth $10M
- Responsible for developing customer, regional and product (like digital security, cloud and others) P&L worth $350M
- Increased revenue by $15M by collaborating with sales team to create sales strategy for customer development finance model with business insights
PRO TIP
Show off real numbers that display your accomplishments in past roles. Instead of listing out your responsibilities as Senior Finance Manager, talk about the measurable impact you made to their business. Did you boost their revenue? Increase customer retention? Mention your proudest points on your resume.
Action Verbs for your Senior Finance Manager Resume
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Senior Finance Manager Resume Skills’ Tips & Tricks to Impress Recruiters
Resume Skills Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Skills for your Senior Finance Manager resume
- Microsoft Office
- SAP
- Excel
- Salesforce
- Data Entry
- Quickbooks
- Project Management
- Customer Service
- CRM
- Communication
- Negotiation
- Critical thinking
- Problem solving
- Collaboration
- Flexibitly
- Resilience
- Dedication
- Empathy
PRO TIP
Add a Talent Section to your resume, where you can pick your top 3 soft skills and describe how you used them to complete a project or balance departmental communication.
Recommended reads:
Senior Finance Manager Resume Header: Tips, Red Flags, and Best Practices
CHECKLIST For Your Senior Finance Manager Resume Header
- Your name and surname in a legible and larger resume font
- The job title you’re applying for or your current job title as a subheading to your name
- Link to your portfolio or online profile, such as LinkedIn
- Address (City and State for the US; just your city for rest of the world)
- Email address
- Headshot (required or welcomed in the EU; not required and sometimes frowned upon in the US)
Stick to popular email providers such as Gmail or Outlook. And use these professional formats to create your username:
- first.last@gmail.com
- last.first@gmail.com
- firstlast@gmail.com
- f.last@gmail.com
- first.l@gmail.com
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
Some companies, states, and countries have policies about identifying information like photos on your Senior Finance Manager resume. Be sure to check all the relevant rules before submitting yours. If you’re in doubt, you can always try contacting the company’s HR department to ask for their policy.
Senior Finance Manager Resume Summary Best Practices
Checklist: What to include in your Senior Finance Manager resume summary:
- Years of experience;
- Highlight top 3 skills and proficiencies;
- One big professional accomplishment you’re most proud of, that you can tie with the aforementioned skills;
- Use short, direct sentences - but no more than three - to keep the HRs interested.
Resume Summary Formula:
PRO TIP
Include a link to your portfolio in your resume header. Most companies will require that you include one in your resume, and even if they don’t, it’s an excellent opportunity to directly show them your proudest projects.
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Listing Your Education, Certifications and Courses
Resume Education Section Checklist:
- Ensure your hard skills section (including technologies) are exactly matching the job description.
- Don’t simply list your soft skills. Apply the “show, don’t tell” principle - let your job achievements speak for themselves.
- Find a way to showcase your skills beyond the skills section.
- Your resume’s skill section is important to ATS systems - so don’t skip it.
Top Certifications for your Senior Finance Manager resume
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PRO TIP
If you hold a certain major and a minor, your majors should be mentioned first.
Senior Finance Manager Resume: Additional Writing & Formatting Tips
There are three basic resume formats you can choose from:
- Reverse-chronological resume format;
- Functional resume format;
- Hybrid (or Combination) resume format;
The most optimal format for your particular case will depend on your years of experience, as well as whether you’re switching industries or not.
Reverse chronological resumes are best suited for experienced individuals who are sticking to their industry. The experience section takes a central place, and its bullets contain your responsibilities and achievements, coupled with numbers and results.
Functional resumes are used by less experienced jobseekers or career changers. Note that it’s not a format that recruiters prefer, as most are used to the classic chronological alignment. Instead of a list of job titles, functional resumes focus on your skills, and through what experiences you gained them.
Hybrid resumes are great for both experienced and entry-level candidates, as well as career changers. They combine the best of both worlds - most often in a double column format, where one side of the content is focused on your experience, whereas the other - on your skills, strengths, and proudest moments.
Senior Finance Manager Resume Summary best practices
Here are more resume tips regarding your layout and style:
- Clear and legible 12p resume font size;
- Use 10’’ resume margins - that’s default for a great resume design;
- Use a one-page template resume length if you’ve got less than 10 years of experience; otherwise, opt for a two-page resume;
- Save your resume as PDF before sending it to the recruiter.
To take it a step further, check out how your resume can stand out without leaning too much on the creative side.
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PRO TIP
Test your draft Senior Finance Manager resume by sending it out to peers and mentors in your circles. Ask them to review it as if they are hiring you for a project and implement the feedback afterwards.
Other sections to include in your resume
Depending on the type of company (corporation or start-up; innovative or traditional), job seniority level and your location, you may want to include more sections to your Senior Finance Manager resume:
Senior Finance Manager Resume: How to Make Yours More Creative & Stand Out
When you send your resume to a potential employer, chances are it's the fiftieth one they've seen that day. That's why you need to make your Senior Finance Manager resume stand out for the right reasons. That means showing your personality, not just your professional experience. Employers are far more likely to remember a candidate who seems like a genuine person and not a robot. Do this by including your passions (which is also a great place to demonstrate skills on a resume), share your favorite books, or even what your usual day looks like.
What Makes a Great Senior Finance Manager Resume: Key Takeaways
- Choose a resume layout that sends the right message across and fits your current career situation;
- Create a resume header that shows your desired job title, and easy to find contact numbers;
- Be specific about your experience, accomplishments and future goals in your summary;
- Feature detailed metrics and specific examples that show the impact you made in your previous roles when describing your experience;
- List soft skills backed by examples;
- Add all of your technical skills and certifications that you have and match the job description;
- Show off a dash of personality in your resume that will demonstrate your culture fit and the right mix of hard and soft skills.
