You updated your CV, found a role that looked perfect, and hit apply.
Then…
Nothing. No call, no interview, not even the classic: “We’ve decided to progress with other candidates.” Just silence.
If that happened to you during August, don’t immediately assume your experience isn’t good enough. Summer recruitment can be strange. Hiring managers disappear on holiday. Interview processes slow down. Decisions get pushed into September. Recruitment that looked urgent suddenly becomes something everyone agrees to “pick up after the summer”.
But here’s the important bit.. September is here.
Hiring activity starts moving again, businesses refocus on year-end priorities and candidates who have spent the summer considering their options start entering the market. So if your finance CV wasn’t getting the attention you wanted in August, now is the perfect time to do something about it.
Here are our practical finance CV tips to help you stand out during the autumn hiring rush.
First: Your CV Probably Doesn’t Need a Complete Rewrite
This is where people panic.
“Nobody is replying. My CV must be awful.” Delete everything, change the font, add some coloured boxes, move your education to page one and download a template from the internet.
Stop.
If you already have solid finance experience, your CV probably doesn’t need completely reinventing, it needs sharpening. The purpose of your CV is relatively simple, a hiring manager should quickly understand:
- Who are you?
- What have you done?
- What level are you operating at?
- And why should they speak to you?
If those answers aren’t obvious, you’ve got work to do.
1. Stop Listing Responsibilities. Show Us What You Actually Achieved.
This is probably the biggest CV mistake we see. Imagine you’re recruiting a Financial Controller and receive two CVs. Candidate one says:
- Responsible for month-end reporting
- Managed budgeting and forecasting
- Business partnered with senior stakeholders
- Managed a team of five
- Responsible for audit
Fine. But candidate two says:
- Reduced month-end close from 10 working days to 6
- Introduced a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast
- Led budgeting across a £60m division
- Managed and developed a team of five finance professionals
- Delivered year-end audit with no material adjustments
Who sounds more interesting? Exactly.
Your job description tells us what you were supposed to do. Your CV should tell us what you actually achieved. Where possible, quantify your impact. Think:
- £
- %
- Time saved
- Revenue
- Cost reduction
- Team size
- Budget responsibility
- EBITDA improvement
- Working capital improvement
- Forecast accuracy
Numbers make finance CVs significantly more tangible. You’re a finance professional – use them.
2. Give Us Some Context
Job titles in finance can be incredibly misleading. A Finance Manager in one company could be doing the job of a Financial Controller somewhere else. A Financial Controller in an SME might effectively operate as the number one finance person. A Head of Finance in a £10m company is very different from a Head of Finance within a £1bn group.
So give hiring managers context. For each significant role, consider making things like this clear:
Company: £75m turnover, PE-backed technology business
Role: Financial Controller
Team: 8
Reporting to: CFO
Immediately, we understand more about your experience.
- Company size matters.
- Ownership structure matters.
- Team size matters.
- Reporting lines matter.
- International exposure matters.
Without that context, hiring managers are forced to guess. Don’t make them.
3. Your Opening Profile Needs to Say Something
We need to talk about this:
“I am a highly motivated, results-driven finance professional with excellent communication skills who works effectively independently or as part of a team.”
Congratulations. You’ve just described approximately 97% of LinkedIn.
Your opening profile is valuable space. Use it.
Instead, tell us something meaningful:
“ACA-qualified Financial Controller with experience leading finance functions within PE-backed technology businesses between £30m and £100m turnover. Strong background in financial control, FP&A, systems implementation and building finance teams through periods of rapid growth.”
Now we know who you are. A good profile should make your positioning obvious within a few sentences. Think about:
- Qualification
- Current level
- Sector experience
- Company environment
- Specialist expertise
- Leadership experience
- Where you’ve created value
Specific beats generic every time.
4. Make Your Finance Qualification Obvious
Finance hiring managers frequently have specific qualification requirements, particularly for Financial Controller, Finance Director and technical accounting positions. Don’t hide yours halfway down page three. Equally, be accurate.
- If you’re part-qualified, say you’re part-qualified.
- If you’re studying, make clear where you are in the process.
- If you’re qualified by experience, own it and make your experience speak for itself.
Your CV should never make a recruiter play detective.
5. Tailor the CV to the Job You Actually Want
This does not mean rewriting your entire CV every time you apply. But it does mean thinking about relevance. If you’re applying for a commercially focused Finance Business Partner position, your stakeholder management, analysis, decision support and commercial achievements should be obvious.
If you’re applying for Financial Controller roles, employers will probably care more about:
- Financial reporting
- Controls
- Audit
- Team management
- Systems
- Month-end
- Process improvement
If you’re targeting Finance Director positions, strategic and leadership experience needs to come through. That could include:
- Board exposure
- Fundraising
- M&A
- Strategy
- Business transformation
- Commercial leadership
- Investor relationships
The question to ask is: Does my CV make sense for the job I’m asking someone to consider me for?
Not: “Have I included absolutely everything I’ve done since university?”
6. Put Your Best Evidence Near the Top
Your CV is not an autobiography. You don’t need to give equal space to every job you’ve ever had. If you’re a Finance Director today, the hiring manager probably doesn’t need half a page explaining your responsibilities as an Accounts Assistant 14 years ago.
Your recent and relevant experience should carry the most weight, older positions can become progressively shorter. This creates space for the information employers actually care about. The same applies to achievements. If you’ve:
- Led an ERP implementation
- Supported an acquisition
- Raised finance
- Built a finance team
- Improved EBITDA
- Reduced working capital
- Prepared a business for exit
Don’t bury it. These are the things that differentiate you.
7. Don’t Forget the Commercial Stuff
The finance profession has changed. Businesses increasingly want finance professionals who can do more than produce accurate numbers. They want people who can explain them, challenge them and use them to influence decisions.
ACCA’s Global Talent Trends research continues to highlight the changing skills expected of modern finance professionals, including growing emphasis on technology, adaptability and broader business capability. So your CV should demonstrate more than technical competence. Show where you’ve worked with:
- Sales
- Operations
- Marketing
- Product
- HR
- Executive leadership
- Investors
If you’ve influenced a pricing decision, say it.
If your analysis stopped the business making a bad investment, say it.
If you identified an underperforming product or customer, say it.
The strongest finance CVs show how finance affected the business, not simply the finance department.
8. Think Carefully About Keywords
Most recruitment searches involve keywords somewhere along the journey. Recruiters might be searching for:
“ACA Financial Controller SaaS”
“CIMA Finance Business Partner FMCG”
“FP&A Manager Power BI”
“Finance Director PE backed”
If those genuinely describe your experience but aren’t mentioned anywhere on your CV or LinkedIn profile, you’re making yourself harder to find. Think about the terminology employers use. Relevant keywords might include:
- ACA / ACCA / CIMA
- Financial Controller
- Finance Business Partner
- FP&A
- IFRS
- UK GAAP
- Power BI
- SAP
- NetSuite
- M&A
- Private Equity
- SaaS
But don’t turn your CV into keyword soup. Use relevant terminology naturally and accurately.
9. Keep the Formatting Boring
Yes. Boring. A finance CV does not need to look like a graphic designer’s portfolio. You want:
- Clear headings
- Consistent formatting
- Sensible fonts
- Logical chronology
- Plenty of white space
- Easy-to-read bullet points
You don’t need:
- Skill percentage bars
- Five different colours
- A giant photograph
- Complicated graphics
- Three columns fighting for attention
Your experience should be the interesting bit. Not your template.
10. Check Your LinkedIn Profile Too
You’ve fixed the CV. Brilliant.
Now open LinkedIn. Does it tell the same story? If your CV says Financial Controller but LinkedIn hasn’t been updated since you were a Finance Manager three years ago, that’s not ideal. Make sure your:
- Job titles
- Employment dates
- Qualifications
- Career progression
- Key skills
are broadly aligned.
Your LinkedIn profile can also provide information that doesn’t necessarily belong on the CV. Recommendations. Professional content. A stronger personal summary. Your network and industry involvement. Candidates increasingly have a digital professional identity as well as a CV. Make sure yours supports the story you’re telling.
And What If Your CV Wasn’t Actually the Problem?
This is important. Not every unanswered application means your CV failed. Sometimes:
- The role was already close to offer.
- An internal candidate emerged.
- The vacancy was put on hold.
- The hiring manager went on holiday.
- The business changed direction.
- The recruiter received 300 applications.
- Or the process simply moved incredibly slowly because it was August.
Don’t let a few unanswered applications convince you your career is going backwards. But equally, don’t waste the opportunity to improve. September and the wider autumn period traditionally bring renewed recruitment activity as businesses return from summer and refocus on year-end priorities.
As we explored in The September Surge Is Real: Are You Ready to Move (or to Hire)?, being prepared before the market gets busy gives candidates an advantage.
Don’t Just Apply. Talk to People.
One final finance CV tip. Your CV is important. But your job search shouldn’t depend entirely on it. Some of the best opportunities come through:
- Recruiter networks
- Former colleagues
- Professional contacts
- Recommendations
- Direct approaches
- Conversations before a vacancy is advertised
So yes, apply for relevant jobs. But also talk to people.
If you’re thinking about making a move this autumn, speak to specialist finance recruiters who understand your market and can tell you what employers are actually looking for.
At We Do Group, we work with finance and accounting professionals across the UK, from transactional and part-qualified finance through to Financial Controllers, Finance Directors and CFOs.
Sometimes we’ll have the perfect role immediately. Sometimes we won’t. But a good recruitment conversation should still leave you with a clearer idea of your market value, your options and what your next move could look like.
Your Autumn CV Checklist
Before you send another application, ask yourself:
✅ Can somebody understand what I do within the first few seconds?
✅ Is my qualification obvious?
✅ Have I explained the size and type of businesses I’ve worked for?
✅ Have I quantified my achievements?
✅ Does my CV show commercial impact as well as responsibilities?
✅ Is my recent experience given the most space?
✅ Have I removed generic statements that don’t say anything?
✅ Does the CV contain relevant keywords?
✅ Is the formatting simple and readable?
✅ Does LinkedIn tell the same story?
If the answer is yes to all ten, you’re already in a stronger position.
Ready for the Autumn Hiring Rush?
If your CV disappeared into a black hole during August, don’t panic. But don’t simply resend the same version throughout September and hope something changes either.
Use the opportunity. Sharpen it. Add context. Quantify your achievements. Make your positioning clearer. Then get back into the market. Because your CV doesn’t need to tell employers absolutely everything you’ve ever done.
It needs to do one thing exceptionally well: Give them a reason to speak to you.
And with the autumn finance recruitment market getting moving, now is a very good time to make sure it does.
