Advice
Hub
Our advice hub is here to make recruitment a little easier. From finding your next role to making your next hire, we’ve pulled together practical advice, useful guides and industry insights to help you make sense of the recruitment process and feel more confident about your next step.
Candidate Hub.
Starting a job hunt can be overwhelming, we have created the following guides to help your CV and profile stand out amongst the crowd at every stage of the process.
Client Hub.
The market for top professionals gets more competitive everyday, we have created the following guides to ensure your position hits the right notes.
Interview Tips To Help You Stand Out
An interview is about more than answering questions. It's an opportunity to demonstrate your preparation, personality and genuine interest in the role and the organisation.
Go beyond the company website
Take a look at the company's LinkedIn page for the latest news, projects, industry updates, awards and achievements. This can give you useful talking points and demonstrate genuine interest.
Research your interviewers
Don't just research the company. Take a look at your interviewers on LinkedIn to understand their career journey, experience and progression. You may even find common ground that makes for a great conversation starter.
Look for mutual connections
Check whether you have any mutual LinkedIn connections. A relevant recommendation or introduction can be a great way to build credibility before you even meet.
Consider attending in person
Where possible, we'd recommend an in-person interview. It gives you the opportunity to build a stronger connection, read the room and experience the workplace and culture first-hand.
Take relevant documents with you
If appropriate, take examples of your work, qualifications or written references. Just remember to respect confidentiality and never share commercially sensitive information from a previous employer.
Prepare for the areas you don't know
Review the full job description and identify any skills or responsibilities you haven't yet experienced. Don't see this as a negative, it can highlight where there is room to develop and grow into the role. Do some research beforehand so you can demonstrate awareness and enthusiasm to learn.
Take notes with you
There's nothing wrong with taking a few notes into an interview. Key questions, reminders and points you want to discuss can help you stay organised and show that you've prepared. Just remember to maintain good eye contact and conversation.
Ask questions that matter to you
An interview is a two-way conversation. Ask the questions that will genuinely help you understand the role, manager and culture. Don't be afraid to go beyond the standard questions.
Be curious
Some of the best questions create a conversation rather than simply seeking an answer. Try asking:
"How has your role changed since you joined the organisation?"
"How have you developed and progressed within the business?"
"What do you enjoy most about working here?"
"What would success look like in this role over the first 12 months?"
The best interviews feel like a conversation, not an interrogation. Prepare well, be curious and, most importantly, make sure you're using the interview to decide whether the opportunity is right for you too.
Follow up afterwards
A short thank-you email after your interview is a simple way to reinforce your interest, reflect on the conversation and leave a positive final impression.
Back to Advice HubWriting A CV
Your CV should make it easy for a recruiter or hiring manager to understand what you do, what level you're operating at and the experience you can bring to a finance team.
Whether you're applying for your first finance role or your next Finance Director position, these are the things we'd recommend checking before sending your CV.
Your opening profile
- Is it clear what level you're currently working at?
- Does it explain your main area of finance experience?
- Does it mention your qualification status where relevant?
- Does it give an indication of the type of role you're looking for?
Avoid generic statements such as:
"Hardworking, enthusiastic individual with excellent communication skills."
Use your opening profile to tell us what you actually do, the level you're working at and where your experience sits.
Your employment history
For each role, include:
- Job title
- Company
- Location, if relevant
- Dates of employment
- A brief explanation of the business and/or turnover where useful
- Key responsibilities
- Relevant achievements or improvements
Your most recent and relevant roles should generally have the most detail.
Make your finance experience specific
Make it clear which areas of finance you've actually worked in, such as:
- Purchase ledger
- Month-end
- Management accounts
- Financial reporting
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Variance analysis
- Statutory accounts
- Business partnering
- Commercial analysis
- Systems implementation and projects
Only include what genuinely applies to your experience.
Show your progression
Have you progressed from:
Accounts Assistant → Assistant Accountant → Management Accountant → Finance Manager?
Promotions and increasing levels of responsibility are worth highlighting, particularly if you've progressed within the same business. Career progression can tell an employer a lot about your development without you having to spell it out.
Quantify your experience
Numbers add useful context to your experience. Where relevant, consider including:
- Team size
- Number of entities
- Budget responsibility
- Ledger size
- Number or value of transactions
- Month-end timescales
- Cost savings
- Process improvements
- Time saved
- Size of projects or systems implementations
For example:
"Managed the finance team."
Instead consider: "Managed a team of 7 across transactional finance and management accounts." This gives more detail to who and what you managed.
The more senior you become, the more useful this context can be.
Don't just list responsibilities
Ask yourself: what did I improve, change, deliver or achieve?
For example: Reduced month-end reporting from 10 days to 6 by introducing a revised close timetable.
Or: Improved credit control processes, reducing aged debt over 90 days by 25%.
You don't need an achievement for every bullet point, but where you've made a genuine difference, tell people about it.
Qualifications
Include relevant qualifications such as:
- ACA
- ACCA
- CIMA
- AAT
- Relevant degree or accounting qualifications
If you're studying towards a qualification, include your current progress where relevant.
For example: "ACCA: 10 of 13 exams completed" or "CIMA: finalist, currently completing Strategic level"
Systems and Excel
Be specific about the finance systems and software you've used. For example:
- Sage
- Xero
- QuickBooks
- SAP
- Oracle
For Excel, consider whether you use:
- PivotTables
- XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP
- SUMIFS
- Power Query
- Financial modelling
- Macros/VBA
If you've implemented, upgraded or improved a finance system, mention it. This can be particularly relevant for more senior finance positions.
If you're a senior finance professional
At Finance Manager, Financial Controller, Head of Finance and Finance Director level, think about scale and impact, not just responsibilities. Can your CV answer:
- How large is the business?
- What's the turnover?
- How big is your team?
- How many entities are you responsible for?
- Who do you report to?
- How senior are the stakeholders you work with?
- Have you led change?
- Have you implemented systems?
- Have you improved controls or processes?
- Have you supported M&A, investment or growth?
- Have you influenced commercial decisions?
The more senior you become, the more important scope, leadership and impact become.
Keep it readable
Consider:
- Clear headings
- Consistent formatting
- An easy-to-read font
- Plenty of white space
- Bullet points rather than large blocks of text
- A straightforward layout
Creating A Better Candidate Experience
Practical ways to make your interview process feel more like a conversation, and leave candidates with a strong impression of your business.
- Conversational. Interviews don't need to feel like a checklist or interrogation. Creating a more relaxed, two-way conversation encourages candidates to open up about their experience, motivations and circumstances, while giving you a much better sense of the person behind the CV.
- Face to face. Teams can be a useful first stage, but we're finding that candidates increasingly value the opportunity to meet in person before making a decision. Inviting someone to site allows them to experience the environment, meet the team and get a genuine feel for the organisation.
- Understand career moves. A CV can show you where someone has worked, but not always why. Asking about career decisions, progression and what they're looking for next can give you useful context.
- Ask for examples, not just explanations. Rather than asking "Are you confident with month-end?", ask the candidate to talk you through their month-end process, what they're responsible for and where they've improved it.
- Understand the numbers behind the CV. If someone has managed a £10m budget, a large ledger or a particular reporting process, ask questions that help you understand the scale and complexity of their involvement. "I managed it" can mean very different things in different businesses.
- Test commercial understanding. For more experienced candidates, don't focus solely on technical accounting knowledge. Ask how they have used financial information to influence decisions, improve performance, manage risk or support the wider business.
- Explore systems and processes. Technology and systems experience can be important, but avoid turning the interview into a software tick-box exercise. Ask how they have used systems to improve processes, reporting or efficiency.
- Share your experience. Don't underestimate the impact of talking about your own experience. Explaining your role, how it has developed and what has kept you with the business can help a candidate picture themselves building a career there too.
- A clear process. Be upfront about what the interview process looks like, how many stages there are and when candidates can expect to hear from you. Uncertainty can quickly create doubt, particularly when someone is considering multiple opportunities. A clear and well-managed process can make a huge difference.
- Meet the team. Where possible, give candidates the opportunity to meet the people they'll actually be working alongside. Whether that's the wider finance team, their line manager or key stakeholders, those conversations can create much more engagement and give candidates confidence that they'll fit into the team.
- Team stability and retention. Candidates can be understandably curious about how long the existing finance team has been together and what the retention looks like within the department. You don't necessarily need to have a perfect retention record, but being able to explain the stability, development and structure of your team can give candidates confidence in the opportunity.
- Think about tests. Technical assessments can be valuable where they genuinely help you assess the skills required for the role, but consider how and when they are being used. Could the test be completed after the interview, once the candidate is more comfortable? Is it reflective of the role they'll actually be doing? The candidate experience matters as much as the assessment itself.
- Talk about the future. Candidates want to know where the business and finance function are heading. Sharing your plans for growth, changes within the team, upcoming projects or opportunities to improve processes can help differentiate the role from other opportunities they may be considering.
- Feedback. Good, honest and timely feedback matters. Even when someone isn't right for a particular role, detailed feedback leaves a much stronger impression than a generic "we've decided to go in another direction." We often see candidates become relevant for other vacancies further down the line, so maintaining a positive relationship throughout the process can be incredibly valuable.
- Leave time for their questions. The questions a candidate asks can tell you a lot about what matters to them. Give them enough time to explore the role, team, culture and future opportunities.
Attracting Someone That Wants To Stay
We speak to accountancy and finance professionals every day about their careers, ambitions and potential next move. Increasingly, the conversation isn't simply about salary. Candidates want to understand whether a role will give them the opportunity to develop, feel valued and challenged, while still allowing them to have a life outside of work.
For employers, understanding what really matters to candidates can make the difference between attracting someone who is simply interested in a job and finding someone who is genuinely invested in joining your business.
Flexibility
We all have busy lives outside of work, and flexibility is one of the things candidates ask us about most. If your role requires someone to be office-based, could there be flexibility around start and finish times? If you offer hybrid working, is there scope to occasionally change days when personal commitments or circumstances require it? Being clear about what flexibility genuinely looks like from the outset helps candidates understand the expectations of the role and, importantly, feel that their life outside work is respected.
Salary
Salary remains an important part of the decision, particularly in a competitive accountancy and finance market. Making sure your salary is aligned with current market expectations gives you the best chance of attracting candidates with the level of experience and expertise you need. It is also worth considering the wider package. A strong salary combined with limited flexibility or progression may not be as attractive as a slightly different package that offers greater long-term value.
Benefits
Benefits can help differentiate your opportunity, but they don't always need to come with a significant financial cost. Flexible working, additional holiday, professional development, wellbeing initiatives, team events and a supportive environment can all contribute to the overall employee experience, particularly when they genuinely reflect your company culture.
Progression
Most candidates want to know where their career could go next. Progression doesn't always mean an immediate salary increase or promotion; it can be exposure to new areas of the business, greater responsibility, professional development or the opportunity to become more commercially involved. For finance professionals in particular, we are seeing increasing interest in roles that offer exposure beyond the traditional finance function, working alongside senior leadership, contributing to business decisions and understanding how finance supports the wider organisation. If you discuss progression during the recruitment process, make sure it reflects what you can genuinely offer and give candidates some indication of potential timescales.
Working environment
Not every candidate is looking for a hybrid role. In fact, we speak to plenty of finance professionals who genuinely enjoy being in the office and value the relationships and support that come with it. What matters is clarity. Candidates want to understand how the team works, what is expected of them and why the organisation has chosen its particular approach. Being open about working arrangements from the beginning helps ensure that the candidates you attract are aligned from the start.
Culture
Culture can be difficult to define, but candidates increasingly want to understand what it genuinely feels like to work for your organisation. Whether your finance team is fast-paced, supportive or more focused on stability, being honest about your working environment helps candidates understand whether they will thrive within it. The right cultural fit can make a real difference to long-term job satisfaction, engagement and retention.
Job Description
A job description should provide a realistic picture of both the opportunity and the challenges involved. Being transparent about the responsibilities, expectations and potential challenges of the role helps candidates make an informed decision and avoids mismatched expectations further down the line.
Job Title
Job titles can have more impact than you might think, influencing both how candidates perceive a role and whether the right people find it. Making sure the title accurately reflects the level of responsibility and aligns with terminology used within the accountancy and finance market can help you attract candidates at the right level.
Qualifications & Studying
Professional development remains a key consideration for many candidates. If you offer study support, make sure candidates understand what this includes, but also consider whether a qualification is genuinely essential, an experienced part-qualified candidate or someone with strong relevant experience may have the potential to develop into the role.
Workload And Expectations
Finance professionals are increasingly interested in what the role actually looks like day-to-day, particularly around month-end, year-end, deadlines and periods of increased workload. Being realistic about expectations rather than simply describing a role as "fast-paced" helps candidates assess whether the opportunity is right for them.
Developing Candidates
Does your ideal candidate really need to meet every requirement from day one? There can be significant value in hiring someone who has the right foundations and potential, then supporting them to develop into the role. Consider what training, mentoring, exposure or additional responsibilities you can offer, and whether investing in someone's development could create greater commitment and longevity within your finance team.
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