Compliance professionals are now in demand world over, with vacancies opening up as banks grapple with new regulations and try to avoid billion-dollar fines.
But more people are also entering the sector as compliance roles become more interesting and more lucrative. If you’re applying for a job in compliance, toning up your resume is a crucial way to fend off competition from other candidates.
Here’s some expert advice on how to write the perfect compliance CV.
Don’t come across as a generalist
As compliance increasingly splinters off into different specialisms – from monitoring and surveillance to financial crime – it’s dangerous to write a one-size-fits-all resume.
The summary section is vital in compliance resumes
You can highlight your compliance specialism from the get-go by writing a summary of your skills and experience at the top of your CV. Don’t leave employers in any doubt that your product or functional coverage matches that of the job description. A CV that’s on point will attract more attention than one that simply reels off everything you’ve ever done within the compliance space.
STARS works well in compliance CVs
You can’t dazzle readers with your sales figures if you work in the middle office, so you need to carefully structure your achievements for each job. The STAR technique (situation, task, action, results), commonly used in job interview answers, works well in compliance CVs. For each achievement write one sentence on the ‘situation’ (i.e. the business need) and then add bullet points about the tasks you were accountable for and how you performed them. Finally and importantly, explain what you accomplished as a result – how you added value to your team and gained new skills in the process.
Don’t downplay your management skills
One of the key areas that more experienced compliance professionals consistently miss on their CVs is highlighting their leadership and management experience – this is one of the first questions that banks will enquire about. You need to clearly state details of the number of direct reports you have as well as their level/titles. If you don’t have reports, provide examples of leading projects or contributing to leading the promotion of a ‘compliance culture’ throughout a business.
Focus on regulatory relationships
Employers are keen to see what and how much interaction you’ve had with the regulators, and in turn how adept you are at interpreting and implementing current and upcoming financial regulations. This is a now seen as a crucial element to the complete compliance profile.
Show how well you work with ‘the business’
As compliance policy has become more critical to banks in the wake of the financial crisis, jobs in the sector increasingly demand liaising with different departments and influencing their decision making. Include details of your interaction with business stakeholders. You’re the contact between regulators and the bank, so effective communication is an essential soft skill.
Have the right hobbies on your compliance resume
Your ability to work with the business comes in many forms – these days the reader of your CV is even looking at your interests and hobbies for evidence. Travelling, music and reading’ are unlikely to set you apart and are best left out, but if you have interests that highlight competencies such as team work, competiveness, dedication or networking they will be worthwhile additions to your compliance resume.
Be careful if you’ve changed jobs a lot
Ideally your compliance resume should be full of lengthy tenures, but if not you need to give legitimate reasons for leaving each role and make it obvious if some of your jobs were contract positions. Retention is a major issue for compliance managers right now. And if you’re a manager, add a sentence about how you’ve attracted and retained staff – that could add enormous value to the reader’s perception of you.
Local regulations matter on your compliance CV
While the compliance world is still aflutter with Basel III, FATCA and other regulations with a global reach, most banks still like resumes that show a strong understanding of local regulations. As a lot of regulations differ across countries, so it’s important to state exactly how familiar you are with the domestic regulatory scene.
And so do qualifications
If you have a compliance-related qualification, include it in your summary section at the top of your CV, don’t just bury it at the bottom underneath your university degree.
