Tax Accountant Resume Skills and Keywords

It is well established that job seekers increase their chances of earning a job interview if they tailor their resume to the position they are applying for.  An applicant that fine-tunes his or her resume to include the right skills and keywords will fare far better than the applicant that fires a standard resume to as many employers as possible.

So, if you are a tax accountant in the market for a new position, here are six must-have skills and ten keywords you need to include in your resume.

Must-Have Skills

A good resume makes use of both hard and soft skills. Hard skills relate to specific skill sets you might have, such as speaking a foreign language or your familiarity with a particular accounting tool or software.  Soft skills, however, speak more to your character or personality.

Here are several skills you should look to include (assuming you possess them of course) in your resume if you are applying for a job as a tax accountant.

1.     Tax Preparation

This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you are seeking employment as a tax accountant, you better be proficient in tax preparation.

2.     Certified Public Accountant

Most tax accountants are CPAs, and you can bet employers will want a candidate with this internationally recognized certification.

3.     Technology Proficient

QuickBooks, Microsoft Suite, SQL-Ledger bases.  Qualified tax accountants know how to use accounting tools and software to get the job done.  In this modern world, your technology proficiency is likely a make-or-break skill.

4.     Analytical Skills

Tax accounting professionals must interpret financial data and analyze its interplay with the overall organization and individual departments within it.

5.     Collaborative Skills

While film and other media may give the impression that accountants are solitary individuals always confined to a back-office room, that is not at all the reality.  Depending on the size of a client, tax accountants will work in teams and must therefore possess collaborative skills to function in that setting.

6.     Time Management

Life would be easy if we could only focus on one thing at a time before considering another.  So would working as a tax accountant. But that is not the case. Tax accountants must balance the demands of multiple clients and multiple deliverables for each client. The ability to effectively prioritize tasks and manage time is a necessary skill.

Must-Have Keywords

The application process has become increasingly automated.  Many companies now use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to quickly filter out applicants and resumes that do not meet certain criteria.  These ATS tools use algorithms that reward (and punish) the usage of particular words and phrases.  To ensure you are using the right keywords in your resume, start by reviewing the job ad as a cheat sheet and incorporate prominent words from the job description into your resume.  You can also consider these prominent tax accountant keywords as applicable.

• Trust management
• Compliance
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
• Tax reporting
• Account experience
• Client management
• Financial statements
• Public accounting
• US GAAP
• Income tax

See who is hiring tax accountants at CyberCoders.com.