[sarah210]

So, I’m redoing my resume and need some advice on what to include/what not to include.

Here’s the background:

I went to undergrad thinking I wanted to be a teacher, so I took no business/accounting, etc. classes. I graduated 6 years ago. I taught for a year, realized I hated it, then took a job managing a coffee shop for a few years while I was getting all the business and accounting classes done. I’ve been working part time as a bookkeeper for the last year, and for the past couple of months I’ve been temping as a staff accountant in industry while this lady is off on maternity leave. I’ll probably keep temping there because she plans to cut her hours when she returns to work.

Things I want to put on my resume:

– the bookkeeping job

– the staff accountant job

– all my educational info, including the fact that I’ve passed a section of the CPA exam

– my community involvement/ volunteer work (I’ve been told that this is important to include because the accounting firms in my area place a large emphasis on being involved in the community)

Here’s the question:

– do I leave the coffee shop job on the resume?

If I leave it on, everything will be tiny and cramped. If I take it off, it will only look like I have one year of job experience. Is it good to look like you only have one year of job experience when you are trying to get into public accounting? I didn’t put the year of my B.A. on the resume, but I did put that I had completed my 150 hours in May 2012….so it could look like I am just fresh out of school. Is that bad? Good? Help!

REG- 53, 91
BEC- 88
FAR- 62, 85
AUD- 85

Ethics- 93

[Anonymous]

I would leave the coffee shop job on there especially since you were the manager. Management experience will look good on your resume even if it was “just a coffee shop.” I'm not sure I would bother listing the normal tasks one would expect to do at a coffee shop like make coffee, prepare pastries, etc., but I would put everything involved in either management or record keeping duties to the extent you have room. Good luck! And I had to laugh b/c I have a friend who recently decided to make the switch the other direction – from accounting to being a 4th grade teacher.

[Author]

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