Tips to Advance Your Accounting and Finance Career

Every company needs accounting and finance professionals. This provides virtually endless opportunities to advance your accounting and finance career.

Whether you are just starting out or have many years of experience, learning from other professionals in your field is an effective way to advance your accounting and finance career. These suggestions may help.

Choose among these six tips to advance your accounting and finance career.

Find a Mentor

A professional in your field who has more knowledge and experience than you likely faced issues similar to yours. As a result, this professional can share their knowledge and provide insight to help overcome the issues that you might face. You can ask for advice and feedback to continue moving forward in your accounting and finance career.

Network

Build relationships with recruiters, hiring managers, company leaders, HR employees, and other professionals in your field. You can ask these individuals for ideas, advice, and guidance on your accounting and finance career path. They may share job openings with you, serve as employee referrals, or meet with you about opportunities that fit your skills, goals, and interests.

Learn New Technologies

Staying current on the use of technology helps advance your accounting and finance career. This includes enhancing your proficiency with Excel, using business intelligence tools such as Cognos or Crystal Reports, and understanding accounting systems such as SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or Oracle.

Gain Experience in Different Fields

Invest time learning different areas of the industry to develop your accounting and finance career. This may include bookkeeping, preparing financial statements, financial reporting, internal auditing, compliance, or taxation.  Changing your job duties every 2-3 years lets you gain the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to stay competitive.

Become a Certified Public Accountant

Earning accreditation as a certified public accountant (CPA) shows you have high-level industry knowledge, skills, and ethics. This certification demonstrates your commitment to the field and ability to take on higher levels of authority.

CPAs are in great demand because they enforce higher standards for the accounting industry. These professionals perform highly specialized job functions that provide significant value for employers. This provides the potential for high salaries and growth for your accounting and finance career.

Focus on Specialization

Develop your skills in a specific area to advance your accounting and finance career. These areas may involve regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, or the rules related to capital adequacy and consumer protection under the Dodd-Frank Act. High-level knowledge and experience in any of these areas are valuable to employers.

Find a New Accounting and Finance Job

Finding a mentor and networking help you gain valuable guidance to advance your accounting and finance career. Learning new technologies and gaining experience in different fields help you stay competitive in the job market. Becoming a CPA or focusing on a specialization let you provide additional value for an employer.

Work with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to find your next role. Learn about our job opportunities today.

Are You Getting Noticed? How to Stand Out in Your Job Search

Landing a job interview requires more than just a top-notch cover letter and resume. Your skills, experience, and qualifications likely align with other in-demand candidates.

This is why you need to add something that makes you stand out to hiring managers. They want to see how your contributions and results differ from other candidates’ contributions and results. Showing the unique value, you can offer a company increases your odds of being contacted for an interview.

Implement these tips to help secure your next accounting and finance interview.

Include a Pain Point Letter with Your Resume

Rather than a cover letter, submit with your resume a letter discussing a company pain point you noticed. Include a challenge the organization is facing and how you would solve it if you were hired. This shows you understand the company and are able to add value to it. Hiring managers appreciate candidates who are proactive problem-solvers.

Share Your Professional Portfolio

Create an online portfolio of your professional qualifications and work examples to submit with your resume. This may include a copy of your resume, transcripts, reference letters, or copies of your licenses or certifications. You also may want to add financial statements, variance reports, or financial analyses you created. Make sure your work examples tie in with the highlighted items from previous job postings you applied to. Change the numbers to avoid sharing confidential information.

Consider using information specific to the company you’re interviewing with to create financial documents. For instance, if the business is publicly traded, analyze the online financial statements to create different financial ratios and analyses. Then, use the information to prepare recommendations for the company. This may include paying down debt, reducing inventory, or increasing collection efforts. This shows proactive investment in the company’s success.

Secure an Employee Referral

Find out whether you know an employee at the company you want to work for. If you do, talk with them about referring you to the hiring manager. Include how your skills, experience, and qualifications make you well-suited for the role. Provide your resume as well. You’re more likely to land an interview with a referral than without one.

Partner with a Recruiter

Listing your skills, experience, and qualifications in your cover letter and resume likely isn’t enough to land an interview. You need to show how you stand out from the other candidates and can provide unique value to the organization. Submitting a pain point letter with your resume, sharing your online portfolio, or securing an employee referral can help.

You also can partner with a recruiter from Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to increase your odds of landing an interview. Contact a recruiter or submit your resume today.

How the Right Employees Impact the Growth of Your Business

Having the right accounting and finance professionals on your team promotes company growth. Along with finding ways to increase efficiencies and decrease costs, your employees contribute to the organization in other ways. By carrying out your company mission and remaining engaged in their work, they create a positive environment to work in. Because your team members prioritize professional growth, they strive to attain company goals that move the business forward.

Discover five ways having the right employees on your team benefits your company.

Company Mission

With the right employees on your team, your company mission is carried out. Because your team members help run your organization, they act according to its guidelines for conducting business. As the lifeblood for your company, your employees include company vision and values in their interactions. Behavior in line with your culture further enhances your workplace. Happy employees remain engaged and productive, increasing your bottom line.

Employee Engagement

When the right employees are on your team, they remain engaged in their work. Because your team members enjoy what they do, they continue to take on new challenges and excel. As their enthusiasm and confidence grow, collaboration, productivity, and job satisfaction increase. This improves employee retention.

Work Environment

When you have the right employees, they create a positive work environment. Because your team members effectively complete their work, morale increases. Since your employees stay motivated and engaged throughout the day, you provide recognition and rewards to promote their performance level. The energy of your team attracts other talented people who want to work for you.

Employee Growth

Having the right employees on your team means they value ongoing professional growth. Your team members enjoy setting new goals, reaching milestones, and celebrating successes. They regularly engage in training and continuing education, hold themselves and others accountable, and learn from mistakes. Because your employee evaluations consistently show growth over time, you reward your team members with bonuses, raises, and promotions.

Goal Attainment

Working with the right employees helps you reach business goals. They continually find ways to increase efficiency and revenue while decreasing costs. Your team members also meet deadlines, reach milestones, and celebrate successes. This paves the way to achieve bigger goals long-term.

Source Top Accounting and Finance Professionals

Having the right employees on your team increases the success of your business. When your team members carry out your company mission and remain engaged in their work, they create a positive work environment. Because your employees prioritize professional growth, they are driven to achieve business goals. All of these factors attract top talent to your organization, further enhancing your bottom line.

Reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources when you need to add professionals to your accounting and finance team. See why we have been awarded the Best of Staffing® Award for service excellence for the seventh year in a row, an honor that less than 1% of all staffing firms in the U.S. and Canada receive. Get more information today.

Candidate Ghosting: What to Do When This Happens to You

Ghosting can happen at any point in your recruitment process. Candidates might not show up for interviews, respond to job offers, or follow up with you. Perhaps they lose interest in your company or accept an interview or job elsewhere. In any case, you need to figure out why candidates leave your recruitment process without a word and how you can resolve the issue.

Here are three steps you can take when ghosted by a candidate.

Follow Up

Contact candidates by their preferred communication method to see why they did not move forward in your recruitment process. Let them know they are welcome to pursue other opportunities; you simply would like an update on whether they still are interested in working for you. If you do not hear back, send an email with a survey link asking for feedback about your company. If the candidate had a bad experience, they are more likely to share details in an email than over the phone. Use the information you receive to improve your recruitment process.

Review Your Recruitment Process

Find ways to improve your recruitment process. For instance, be sure you are connecting with each candidate from the start. This includes reaching out several times throughout each stage to keep each candidate informed about where they are in the process and what to prepare for next. Also, use different touchpoints to share your company’s story and provide a feel for its culture. Also, maintain transparency in every interaction. This involves setting clear expectations throughout the hiring process and following up. Additionally, make sure your interview process is as short as possible. This includes taking out unnecessary steps and clarifying each person’s role to avoid redundancy. Plus, use recruitment marketing tools to create detailed performance reports that demonstrate candidate engagement in real-time. This shows where in your recruitment process candidates tend to stop moving forward. Use the data to improve this part of the process.

Improve Your Candidate Experience

Determine how you can enhance your candidate experience. For instance, use your employer brand to show the advantages of working for your organization. Also, set up personalized email campaigns focused on your company culture and impact in the community. Additionally, let your chosen candidates set and/or change their interview times to fit their schedules. This increases the odds of candidates meeting with you.

Contact a Recruiter

Candidate ghosting is becoming increasingly common. When candidates decide not to move forward in your recruitment process, follow up with them. Ask for feedback on why they decided to pursue other opportunities. Use what you learn to improve your recruitment process and candidate experience.

To avoid being ghosted by accounting and finance candidates, talk with Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We have a deep network of accounting and finance professionals with the skills and qualifications needed to enhance your team. Talk with a recruiter today.

4 Tips to Help You Negotiate the Best Salary

You’ve worked hard to secure that job offer and may be eager to sign the agreement and get started. However, it’s important not to miss the important step of negotiating a suitable salary for all the hard work you will be committing to in the upcoming months or years. Your salary requirements may be the deal breaker for many companies and you’ll want to avoid some common mistake when negotiating your wages.

Use the following tips to help you negotiate the best salary.

1. Be prepared.

Almost every employer will ask what your salary expectations are, and this usually happens during the screening process or the very early stages of the interview. Employers want to screen out candidates that they simply know would not be a good fit for their budget. It’s always a good idea to anticipate this question and be prepared to answer with confidence so you don’t end up getting nervous or suggesting something well below what you deserve. Do some research about the company and similar positions in the area so you have some realistic figures to work with.

2. Don’t lie about your salary history.

Many job seekers make the mistake of stating that they are earning more than they really are so they can get a high offer from an employer. However, this can get you in trouble when the employer checks in with your current employer or requests a recent pay stub of earnings. If you are caught lying or you even manage to start the job and then the company discovered you were lying, you may end up losing the new opportunity entirely.

3. Understand that the company will have salary budgets.

Employers are working with budgets and will try and maximize their human resources at the most effective cost. Even if you are applying for an upper management position, the financial or accounting department or a prestigious position with bonuses and other perks, you can expect the company to work within their compensation framework to bring you on board. This is why you do need to do your homework and find out what the salary would be for your position and go from there. Even if you have never earned that much before, be confident when asking for the salary and see how they respond. Working with a recruiter gives you an advantage because the recruiter will be able to negotiate the best salary for you based upon the company’s budget.

4. Always think about other benefits.

If your prospective employer simply won’t budge on their salary offer — or they are offering a lower salary than you anticipated — consider any other benefits that come with the job. Is the office within a short drive of your home so you don’t have a long commute? Do they offer an onsite fitness center or employee lunches? Do you have extra paid-time-off and extended vacation days? Does your employer offer comprehensive health and life insurance benefits? All of these extra benefits can offset some of the difference in salary expectations.

If you need help on your job search, consider working with a top financial staffing firm in Chicago in Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. We can position you in front of jobs with attractive salaries and benefits. Contact us today!

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