Resume Help - Finance Law Professional

For today’s résumé help, we are looking at an advanced graduate student who is transitioning her career from finance and investments into the legal field, while maintaining a focus on finance. We will call her Joanne. 

Joanne made several critical errors on her résumé that are costing her dearly. The very first problem is that she has limited it to only one page; as a result Joanne has neglected to include vital information. By trying to squeeze six years of work experience and six years of education into only one page, she has not made the most of the first half of her first page (prime real estate). 

Joanne neglected to include a headline to let the reader know exactly what she wants to do and what her strong suit is. This leaves the reader wondering what she really wants to do.  When you create a résumé, it should let the person who reads it understand immediately what direction you are taking; what you want to do specifically. 

To demonstrate to the reader what Joanne wants and her skills, she should have an effective headline and branding statement along with a strong summary. Joanne is also lacking is a core competency or key expertise section.  This is important to let the reader know what her strongest skills are and facilitates keyword search in applicant tracking systems.

Joanne should place her education at the bottom of her résumé, not the top.  She can use a brief career highlights section to point out some of her most impressive accomplishments.  This section can be used to mention accomplishments that pertain closely to the new role she seeks and could even mention achievements at law school.

Please click the image below for more details about Joanne’s résumé. We have only shown a portion of the résumé to give you an idea of some of the changes that need to be made and all personal information has been redacted.

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 If you would like résumé help, please email me at debra@careersdonewrite.com for a free consultation.