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How to Write a Winning CV as a Part-Qualified Accountant

Whether you’re halfway through your ACCA, CIMA, or ACA qualification, being a part-qualified accountant is a valuable position that opens doors to numerous opportunities...However, capitalising on those opportunities starts with one critical tool: a well-crafted CV. Your CV isn't just a list of previous roles — it’s a strategic marketing document. It's your chance to demonstrate to employers that although you're not yet fully qualified, you already deliver tangible value and have the potential to grow into a fully-fledged finance professional. Based on experience within the demanding and fast-growing part-qualified market, here are five essential elements your CV must include to stand out.1. Lead with a Powerful Personal StatementThis is the first impression — and one of the most important parts of your CV. A strong personal statement should make hiring managers want to read more. Your personal statement should cover: Your current qualification status (e.g., “ACCA part-qualified with 7 out of 13 exams completed”). Your professional ambitions and what drives you. Key strengths developed so far (e.g., process improvement, analytical thinking, stakeholder collaboration). Areas you’re eager to grow in. Tailor this section for each role you apply to. Show your enthusiasm for the specific opportunity and highlight relevant experience. Crucially, mention where you've added value — perhaps by streamlining a process, supporting a new project, or exceeding performance targets.2. Showcase Your Professional Experience with ImpactThe experience section is your chance to back up your personal statement with evidence. Avoid vague job descriptions. Instead, go into detail: Describe key processes you’ve worked on (include figures or financial details where possible). Highlight your role in cross-functional teams or collaboration with senior stakeholders. Focus on contributions you've made — especially in process improvements, efficiencies, or data-driven decisions. Rather than just listing duties, emphasise achievements. What did you deliver? What changed as a result? Who benefited from your input? Remember: employers in the part-qualified market want to see your potential and how you've already added value. 3. Highlight Transferable Skills and Tailor for Each JobIt’s easy to fall into the trap of sending the same CV to every job. Don’t. Tailoring your CV to each opportunity shows initiative and relevance. Start by thoroughly reading the job description. Identify what the employer is really looking for — and match that to your skills and experience. For example, if the role emphasizes SOX compliance, IFRS, or UK/US GAAP reporting standards, and you’ve had exposure to these, make it clear. If a job involves partnering with non-finance departments, highlight any experience communicating with cross-functional teams or presenting financial insights. Mention transferable skills such as: Problem-solving Analytical thinking Use of ERP systems Forecasting and budgeting support This shows you’ve not just read the job description — you understand what the company needs and the transferable skills and experience you have.4. Don’t Just List Technical Skills — Demonstrate ThemHiring managers don’t just want to see a list of accounting systems and tools you’ve used — they want to understand how you’ve used them. For each system (e.g., SAP, Sage, Excel, Power BI), include: What you used it for (e.g., “automated monthly reporting using Excel macros”). Any efficiencies or improvements achieved through its use. If you implemented or helped roll out a system or process, explain your role and the outcome. Example: "Developed a reporting dashboard in Power BI that reduced manual month-end reporting time by 30%, allowing the team to focus on variance analysis and forecasting." This showcases your technical ability and your contribution to the wider team.5. Include Key Achievements or Case Studies Using STAR In a competitive job market, including 2–3 concise achievements or mini case studies can elevate your CV. Use the STAR Method to structure them: Situation – What challenge or context were you working in? Task – What was your role or responsibility? Action – What steps did you take? Result – What was the outcome? Quantify it if possible. For Example: Situation: Month-end reporting was consistently delayed due to data inconsistencies. Task: Identify the bottlenecks and improve the workflow. Action: Collaborated with the data team to build an automated reconciliation process. Result: Reduced reporting time by 2 days and improved data accuracy, enabling earlier board review. Including achievements like this gives your CV personality and provides excellent talking points during interviews. Final ThoughtsBeing a part-qualified accountant isn’t a limitation — it’s a launchpad. The right CV will not only reflect your current abilities but also show employers your drive, value, and potential. To recap: Craft a compelling personal statement tailored to each role. Highlight achievements and value-adds, not just responsibilities. Tailor your CV to every application — make your skills match the role. Showcase your technical experience with real examples. Include 2–3 achievements using the STAR method to give your CV depth. With these elements, your CV won’t just get you through the door — it will set the tone for your progression toward full qualification and a thriving finance career. Visit Our Candidate Advice Pages HereLooking for your next career move in finance or accountancy? At Sharp Consultancy, our expertise lies in matching your potential with the perfect temporary, interim, or permanent position. With a well-established presence in Leeds and Sheffield, our seasoned team of consultants extends their services across Yorkshire and beyond. Don't wait for opportunity to knock, reach out to us TODAYand let's chart your career path together.

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This year, for most of us – whether by choice or through circumstances – we have been afforded a little bit more ‘me’ time. I’ve recently taken the opportunity to read, or rather re-read (actually its possibly re-re-read), a book which looked at why some people are able to achieve more in comparison to their peers and many of the points being examined resonated as much, if not more, with me this time around as I applied the author’s thinking to what I see every day working in recruitment. We probably all remember being a child and hearing the story about the hare and the tortoise? It’s a familiar tale; the super confident hare sets off at such a pace that he feels he can afford forty winks and still beat the cumbersomely slow tortoise to win the race. The outcome – which has no doubt been repeated by parents time and time again – is that it is the tortoise who in fact claims victory and the moral of the story is that ‘slow and steady wins the race’.

We tend to focus on how it is the hare’s 'sure-of-himself attitude' that causes his comeuppance, but, just for a minute, let’s consider what it was about the tortoise’s approach which resulted in him gaining success and how that can play out when we apply that to achieving our own career ambitions.

What we are seeing is momentum. Rather than charging off at a break-neck speed which cannot be sustained for the duration of the race, the tortoise adopts a much more manageable pace which he is able to maintain for far longer. And the real undoing of the hare was that after stopping, he found that it was much, much harder to get going again.

How does that translate into the work place? It’s quite simple really. Essentially, it comes down to doing most – if not all – of the right things for most of the time. Being consistent, getting better results for putting in small amounts of effort into tasks over a sustained period of time as opposed to having to make a huge effort to get something done in a shorter time frame.

I thought about this some more in the context of candidates that I’d interviewed and placed over the years; what sets those that had gone on to achieve arguably greater successes in their career over a longer period of time apart from those that perhaps hadn’t quite fulfilled the early promise they had shown was this idea of momentum. There will always be the few exceptions, but for the most part, you could see how those that had climbed the career ladder at a steady and consistent pace – a more manageable pace - over the course of a number of years were achieving ‘more’ than many who, in the early stages of their career, had burst onto the scene with a bang but had been unable to maintain the same trajectory.

After initially showing great potential, what were they doing – or not doing – that was holding them back? I kept coming back to this idea of momentum and how it is somehow easier to keep something going once it has been started – when it has become a habit - and how it’s harder, or more time consuming, to have to go back to tasks we’ve let slip but ultimately still need to be done. And these are often uninspiring, yet no less important, everyday tasks. For example, think back to when we had paper copies of everything and documents needed to be filed. It was a far less onerous task for those people who took a few minutes to diligently file everything away at the end of each day, rather than leave it to pile up until the end of the week (or month).

If we consider again the moral of the hare and the tortoise story – slow and steady wins the race – and understand that what we are really aiming for is ‘steady’ then we see that whilst the drive and confidence in one’s own abilities as displayed by the hare will undoubtedly serve you well, it’s the tortoise-like qualities - reliable, diligent, methodical, dependable – that are absolutely fundamental to achieving longer term career success.

Sharp Consultancy specialises in the recruitment and executive search of finance and accountancy professionals. With offices in Leeds and Sheffield our highly experienced team of consultants recruit for temporary, interim and permanent roles across the full spectrum of positions throughout Yorkshire and beyond. CONTACT UStoday and speak to a member of our team about your recruitment needs or next career move.