You know your financial resume is fairly strong. Your education is complete, your track record of previous positions is fairly strong, and for the most part, your accomplishments speak for themselves. But here are a few additional moves you can make that can help you outshine your equally qualified competitors. Add these to your job search strategy and your interview invitations will start to increase. Raise your Financial Resume to the Next Level 1. Develop a branding statement. In the world of marketing, this is also sometimes called a “value proposition”. This is a simple, concise, and clear summary of the contributions you can offer to a potential employer that no other candidate can. This statement should be less than five lines ling and should appear at the top of your resume, just under your contact information. Before you begin to write and draft your statement, think carefully about what you do best and how your unique skills align with this specific employer’s needs. 2. Incorporate your own voice. Your resume and cover letter give you a chance to list and show off your credentials, but they also give you chance to share something about who you are as a person and what you’re like to work with. Don’t sacrifice your personality in the pursuit of a robotic, “professional” tone. As you search for work in the financial field, write (and speak) in a high, polished register, but be yourself. 3. Focus on keywords. Read carefully through the job posting for the position you’d like to purse. Are there any specific phrases that stand out or are used more than once? Does the list of required credentials contain specific certifications and areas of experience? If so, list these things in your resume using the exact phrases and wording that are written in the post. If these employers conduct a keyword search to pull your resume out of a database, these are probably the phrases they’ll use. 4. Quantify your accomplishments. As you list your strongest skills and accomplishments in your work history section, add numbers wherever you can. If you developed a new data management system or exceeded your call quotas, make sure you quantify the revenues raised for the company or the degree to which you surpassed your goals. Numbers make your claims easier to visualize, easier to understand, and easier to remember. If you are looking for temp agencies in Seattle, or looking to improve your financial job search, make an appointment with the Seattle financial staffing experts at Pace.