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How to tailor your resume for a Tax Preparer role

A screener on a Tax Preparer posting checks credentials, season volume, and complexity in that order, because prepared individual and business returns covers a strip-mall shop and a specialist alike. Tailoring means moving credential status above general duties. That match, more than any other line on the page, decides whether this resume gets a second look.

Four moves for this posting
  1. Lead with credential status, matching the posting's requirement; credentials decide which returns you can sign and which desks will even consider you for the role.
  2. State season volume and return mix, individual versus business, matching the posting's stated focus; volume and mix together describe the whole profile a firm is hiring for.
  3. Name the complexity you handle, multi-state, pass-through entities, rental schedules, matching any complexity the posting mentions; complexity is what separates preparers who charge more.
  4. Cut generic phrases like prepared returns and replace them with your return mix and credential; specificity here is what a hiring preparer is actually screening for.
The fact behind this

Referred candidates are roughly 40 times more likely to reach an interview than cold applicants. (referral-to-interview research)

Before you tailor anything

Start with the version a recruiter opens right now, then make these moves against it.

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