Looking For A New Job

[james8547]

I will receive my Bachelor degree in Accounting this coming August. I am looking for a new job so I can support myself & start paying off debt incurred while in college.

 

I hope to get a job that pays at least $38k+ with free health and dental coverage (retirement plan would be nice too). I haven't applied to any jobs yet. I figure that I'd start on Monday.

 

I know that it's common for people to puff on their resume but the one I have below is a fair presentation of my abilities.

 

I would greatly appreciate it if you can look over my resume and provide suggestions / comments. The resume below is a scannable version. It has no fancy formatting and loaded with info. It's good for companies that scan the resumes into a database and then managers just do a keyword search.

 

Thanks!

 

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OBJECTIVE: Versatile and focused Bookkeeper / Jr. Accountant with extensive experience in the full Accounting Cycle seeking a Staff Accountant position in a Corporate Accounting Department.

 

SUMMARY: Organized, self-starter, results-driven with proven experience in managing multiple projects under tight budgets and aggressive deadlines. Detail-oriented Bookkeeper / Jr. Accountant with excellent verbal, interpersonal, and leadership skills.

 

WORK HISTORY

Bookkeeper / Jr. Accountant, Picture-it Awards, Inc., Edison, NJ

September 2002 to Present

Organize material for monthly P&L report / analysis. Prepare journal entries. Submit monthly financial statements and sales tax reports to the firm's CPA. Assist the company's CPA in special projects including end of year closing, and income tax preparation. Enter sales data into Excel worksheets for analysis.

Reconcile various accounts such as bank, credit card, and shipping.

Accounts Receivable -- Responsible for billing, receiving payments, past-due account collections, operating the cash register, preparing daily bank deposits, credit card sales, returns, and settlements.

Accounts Payable -- Match and verify bills with purchase orders. Execute check runs.

Payroll -- Calculate employee work hours, bonus, commissions, health benefits, and Simple IRA contributions for PayChex, AETNA US Healthcare, and Fidelity Investments. Maintain Human Resource files.

Customer Service -- Create job estimates for customers. Process order forms. Answer inquiries by personal interaction, letter, fax, email, and phone. Investigate and resolve vendor / customer account discrepancies.

Manage logo royalty dues owed to Rutgers University by issuing checks and quarterly royalty reports to the Rutgers Trademark and Licensing Department.

Maintain Petty Cash account. Verify and reimburse employee expenses.

Upgrade the firm's existing accounting software to QuickBooks Pro 2003. This enabled a 70% reduction in the average time to generate estimates and invoices for customers. Set up QuickBooks user accounts with different access levels to safeguard company data. Create back-ups of critical files off-site.

 

Reduce company expenses and increase operational efficiency. Provide support in updating the firm's website and online catalog ("shop.Awards1.biz" and "www.MilitaryAwards.com") by code debugging and site testing. Configure the firm's osCommerce site (an automated online shopping cart system utilizing PHP coding and MySQL database). Populate the site with 826 products. Setup the system for easy editing of item information with Excel.

Cut the costs of domain name registration and webhosting for more than 87%. Utilize cPanel to manage website. Create and configure email addresses for the customer service and art department.

Establish and maintain the firm's online store, PayPal, and eBay accounts which increased sales, inventory turnaround, and customer base.

Develop and manage the Google Adwords marketing campaign which increased traffic to the website.

Provide support in the online marketing for a new line of military recognition awards by placing the item in eBay and launching a Google Adword campaign.

Assist in adjusting the profit margin and developing product pricing. Design a T-shirt Imprint Pricing Guide. The draft was the basis for the brochure that was distributed to more than 150,000 customers. Edit/proofread various company correspondence and forms.

Install UPS Worldship. Train employees on the use of UPS Worldship and FedEx Online Ship Manager. This decreased the time spent on generating shipping labels by an average of two minutes per package.

Upgrade the credit card terminal to meet merchant account and federal law requirements.

Troubleshoot computer system problems. Install and maintain various computer software / hardware such as network printers, ACT, Roland ColorChoice. Purge malware, virii, trojans from desktops.

 

Tutor, Middlesex County College – Tutoring Center, Edison, NJ

February 2003 to May 2003

Provided academic support and resource for students in various fields including Accounting, Mathematics, and Computer Science.

Supplied additional information gained from work experience and discuss new changes in the Accounting field such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

 

SKILLS

QuickBooks Pro, Peachtree Accounting, MS Excel, MS Word, MS Access, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, UPS Worldship, FedEx Online Ship Manager, CuteFTP Pro, osCommerce, Computer Hardware, Internet, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Windows 9x / ME / 2000 / XP, and MS-DOS, Adobe Reader. Fluent in Tagalog.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Technical Consultant and osCommerce Coder for FuzeLicious Morsels Records, and YeahMan Records.

Freelance Computer Technician. Build / repair / customize / upgrade Intel PCs.

Prepare or review Federal and New Jersey state individual tax returns for 2002 and 2003.

 

EDUCATION

Kean University, Union, NJ, August 2004

Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting

Major: Accounting

 

Middlesex County College, Edison, NJ, December 2002

Associate Degree in Accounting, Dean's List

Major: Accounting / Computer Science

[kaseytraeger]

The only thing I might suggest is to move your educational history towards the top of the page. Because you are right out of college (or will be), your education will probably be very important to potential employers. While this is a generalization, to be sure, it's been my experience.

 

Although I've never run into it, I've *heard* that it's not necessary to put an objective on your resume ... seems that you can put such things as an objective and your "summary" on a coversheet. BTW, I was told to ALWAYS put a cover sheet with my resume (this was 2.5 years ago when the economy was in the tanker and there were no jobs to be had, so things might be different now).

 

Have you checked out any career placement services offered by your university? They also sometimes offer resume review services. Just a thought.

[james8547]

Thanks for the input.

 

I moved education to the bottom because I think that my work experience is better. I work for a small business. It's a hands-on position. Plus I don't have anything good to put on my education. My GPA isn't that impressive. I missed cum laude by 0.003 >.>

 

I've also heard from workshops that it's better to leave the Objective and Summary out of the resume. However, I still see people including those and I've read online articles (& sample resumes) saying that it's better to leave them in there.

 

I already went to Career services and had them look it over. Thanks again.

[Virtual Imager]

Have you ruled out public accounting? Your objective would indicate that you have... you may be limiting yourself. Many public accounting firms offer well paid jobs with good benefits. .. even to non-CPA's.

 

One other thought.... you've noted that you prepared individual income taxes for 02 and 03 under the heading "Additional Information." You might want to consider that this was a sole prop business that could be part of your work history. Entrepenurial ventures always impress would-be employers.

 

Good luck!

[james8547]

I haven't ruled out public accounting. It would be easier for me to get a job in one of the local public accounting firms since I know a couple of people. However, they are looking for long-term commitment. I don't like getting stuck in NJ. I'd like to go somewhere. I eventually want to work as an auditor after I get my Masters, CPA, CIA, etc.

 

I wouldn't consider my income preparation (or even my PC work) experience as a business. Customers treat me out (movie and/or restaurant) as payment. I am doing those just to gain experience and to have fun. Plus, I didn't pay income tax from those activities