Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Resume Examples
Years of Experience
- Entry-level
- Mid-career
- Senior-level
James Taylor, MBA
(123) 456-7890 | [email protected] | 456 Third Street, New York, NY 12345
Profile
Senior Executive with 3+ years of experience managing all financial operations for a fast-growing startup.
Key Skills
- Corporate Change Leadership
- Cross-Functional Coordination
- Financial Analysis & Reporting
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Organizational Development
- Public Speaking & Presentations
- Revenue & Profit Growth
- Strategic Business Planning
Professional Experience
Chief Financial Officer, JNR International, New York, NY | July 2019 to Present
[Innovative tech startup with 20 employees.]
- Manage all financial accounts and operations
- Research foreign markets, analyze strategic opportunities, and present findings to senior partners
- Set annual financial budgets that include a rolling forecast
Highlight:
- Helped guide acquisition of 4 companies in the past 3 years, taking annual revenue from $2.5M to $7.3M
Education
New York University, New York, NY
- Master of Business Administration (MBA)
- Bachelor of Science (BS) – Accounting
CPA, New York State Board of Public Accountancy
Technical Skills
QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and SQL accounting software
Language
Fluency in Mandarin
Michael Sanderson
(123) 456-7890 | [email protected] | 789 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 12345
Profile
Award-winning Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with 7+ years of experience in the tech industry. Skilled at driving major top- and bottom-line growth; recent highlights include cutting department costs by $500K and helping acquire 7 small businesses for 178% greater revenue. Career background includes 4 years streamlining complex accounting systems. Work informed by MBA in Finance from the University of California.
Professional Experience
Chief Financial Officer, ABC Incorporated, San Francisco, CA | August 2015 to Present
- Set and execute core financial strategies governing this $14M enterprise
- Work closely with CEO and other executives on all mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and other large transactions
- Collaborate with operations manager on yearly financial budgets and rolling forecasts
- Ensure company’s ongoing compliance with state and federal law
- Develop forecasting to help gauge potential business ventures
Highlights:
- Helped guide 7 acquisitions in the past 5 years, translating to 178% revenue growth
- Streamlined finance and operational workflows, cutting annual costs by more than $500K
- Garnered 2 major industry awards for innovation in financial reporting and management
Assistant Financial Officer, LMB Technologies, San Francisco, CA | June 2011 to August 2015
- Executed core financial processes including vendor setup, bank account administration, and account reconciliation
- Analyzed and presented company’s financial reports to senior management
Highlights:
- Introduced accounting system that decreased input errors by 15%
- Refocused marketing spend on more lucrative channels, helping raise sales 120%
Education
The University of California, San Francisco
- Master of Business Administration (MBA) | 2011
- Bachelor of Science (BS) – Accounting | 2009
Key Skills
- Corporate Change Leadership
- Cross-Functional Coordination
- Financial Analysis & Reporting
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Organizational Development
- Partnerships Development
- Public Speaking & Presentations
- Regulatory Compliance
- Revenue & Profit Growth
- Strategic Business Planning
Rachel Racket
(999) 999-9999 | [email protected] | 111 First Avenue, Baltimore, MD 22222
Profile
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with 15+ years of advancement and experience. Draw on broad, deep finance knowledge to make viable budget decisions and set strategies for double-digit growth. Recent highlights include cutting department costs by 18% and financing a $40M equipment purchase.
Areas of Expertise
- Budget Analysis
- Corporate Change Leadership
- Cost Reduction & Elimination
- Cross-Functional Coordination
- Financial Forecasting
- Organizational Development
- Project & Program Management
- Regulatory Compliance
- Revenue & Profit Growth
- Stakeholder Relations Management
- Strategic Business Planning
Professional Experience
Chief Financial Officer, FFF Solutions, Baltimore, MD | December 2017 to Present
- Guide financial interactions between clients, vendors, and company’s 400+ staff members
- Focus on finding and pursuing cost-reduction opportunities to help raise the bottom line
- Oversee financing of large-scale projects
Highlights:
- Streamlined finance operations, reducing yearly expenses by 18% to date
- Coordinated financing of a complex $40M equipment purchase
Senior Accounting Manager, General Industries, Columbia, MD | December 2009 to November 2017
- Oversaw accounts receivable and inventory purchases, maintaining positive relationships with government clients
- Led, motivated, and developed 6 midlevel managers
- Used Sage50 Cloud software to analyze and suggest budget options to CFO
Accounting Officer, SSS Software, Owings Mills, MD | July 2006 to November 2009
- Analyzed and reported on project budgets on behalf of project managers
- Modeled company performance in anticipation of market changes
- Researched and proposed tax-saving strategies that reduced the firm’s corporate tax burden by 5%
Education & Credentials
Master of Science (MS) – Accounting, Business School of Greater Maryland, Columbia, MD
Bachelor of Science (BS) – Finance, Maryland University, Annapolis, MD
Certified Public Accountant, CPA Association
Tips for Writing Better Chief Financial Officer Resume
Use facts and specifics to draft a powerful C-level summary
Jobseekers often like to pad their resume profile with adjectives like “motivated”, “innovative”, or “detail-oriented”. But too many subjective terms can weaken your introduction, especially at the executive level.
You’ll write a better CFO profile if you rely on information that’s factual and specific to your background.
The first profile below is almost entirely provable facts. Compare that with the second, which uses adjectives and general, fact-free statements. Which one are you more convinced by?
FACTUAL:
Award-winning Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with 7+ years of experience in the tech industry. Skilled at driving major top- and bottom-line growth; recent highlights include cutting department costs by $500K and helping acquire 7 small businesses for 178% greater revenue. Career background includes 4 years streamlining complex accounting systems. Work informed by MBA in Finance from the University of California.
SUBJECTIVE:
Accomplished Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with extensive experience in dynamic work settings. Skilled at coordinating major top- and bottom-line growth. Highly adept at cutting costs, driving positive change, and capturing substantial business opportunities. Innovative expert in complex accounting systems. Draw on well-rounded skill set and business knowledge.
For an executive look, consider this font style
When choosing a font style for your resume, try Arial Narrow. This style often works great for C-level job seekers because it lets you fit more information on each page while keeping your format clean and professional. Sidenote: If you use this font, consider using Arial Black for your subject headings or job titles – the two fonts complement each other perfectly.
Categorize extensive career details
C-level leaders often have an extensive work history. How do you gather and organize all those job details on your resume without going crazy? The trick is to set “global” format rules that govern the entire document. For example, virtually all the text on your resume should fall into one of just four categories:
- Section headings (like “Career Highlights” or “Education”)
- Organization names (like “Exxon Mobil” or “University of Washington”)
- Personal titles (like “CFO”, “Bachelor of Science”, or your name)
- Main/body text (everything else)
Leave the main/body text as is but choose one or more unique format settings for the other three categories, such as bold, italic, or UPPERCASE. You can then apply the settings to all text in that category across the document (to that end, try Microsoft Word’s nifty Format Painter tool). Following this method allows you to set your career details off from each other in a clear and consistent way, no matter how many jobs or sections you include.
Common Key Skills for Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Resumes
For a better CFO resume, include a “Key Skills” section that gives a quick overview of the expertise and value you offer. Consider including any of the terms below:
| Key Skills & Proficiencies | |
|---|---|
| Corporate Change Leadership | Cost Reduction & Elimination |
| Cross-Functional Coordination | Financial Analysis & Reporting |
| Financial Forecasting | Mergers & Acquisitions |
| Organizational Development | Partnerships Development |
| Project & Program Management | Public Speaking & Presentations |
| Regulatory Compliance | Revenue & Profit Growth |
| Risk Management & Mitigation | Stakeholder Relations Management |
| Strategic Business Planning | |
Common Action Verbs for Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Resumes
It’s easy to get stuck when writing the Experience section of your resume. You may find yourself running out of action verbs to describe your work. To help you over the hump, we put together this list of strong resume verbs for a CFO:
| Action Verbs | |
|---|---|
| Consolidate | Create |
| Decrease | Devise |
| Eliminate | Enhance |
| Establish | Generate |
| Improve | Increase |
| Initiate | Innovate |
| Introduce | Launch |
| Lower | Produce |
| Raise | Strengthen |
| Uncover | Win |
How to Align Your Resume With the Job Description
For each job in your Experience section, consider adding a company description. You can place this description in brackets right next to or below the company name. It also helps to match formatting. For instance, if you’ve italicized the company name, italicize the company description too. (See resume #1 above for an example.)
Company descriptions let you show any similarities between your past and desired employers. For instance, maybe you’ve worked for companies of a similar size or in the same industry. Or perhaps you’ve worked at organizations with a similar core mission or leadership philosophy. By working these details into your descriptions, you can make your resume more relevant to the job at hand.