In an industry that can be particularly tough for job candidates to stand out, you may wonder what differentiates your strongest competitors. Unlike many professions in which candidates are sorted by the quality and quantity of their achievements, the accounting and finance profession demands a unique set of qualities.

Those qualities include hard and soft skills, and attributes that you will present at each stage of the hiring process, from applications to interviews. So it makes sense to present them to you in the sequence you will present them to your next employer.

Resume Stage: Education, Certifications, Accomplishments, and Skills

Bachelor’s degrees are typically preferred as a minimum standard for both entry and mid-level positions. Associate degrees can land you an entry level job if you have experience through internships and can demonstrate a fundamental knowledge of accounting and finance principles. Mid to senior level candidates should also have appropriate certifications and designations for the position, including CPA, CMA, and CIA.

Many accounting resumes appear lackluster to hiring managers, and are destined for the mythical “to be considered for future roles” filing cabinet. It’s not usually because accomplishments are missing; it’s that they are poorly expressed. The fix is simple. Use animated words that convey actions like “forcecasted,” “depreciated,” and “projected” and avoid boring phrases like “training in” and “experience with” that simply detail your role.

Technological and software prowess can also make you a much more attractive candidate. Your knowledge and familiarity with general ledger tools like QuickBooks and UltraTax, as well as ERP software like Oracle and SAP will dramatically enhance your resume. Since most systems use relational databases which are managed by SQL queries, this knowledge also proves that you can pull data and create customized reports for enterprise level clients. If you have Visual Basic skills, be sure to highlight the complex functions that you have performed.

Interview Stage: Soft Skills, Business Acumen, and Regulatory Knowledge

Your resume and preliminary recruitment screenings got you in the door. Now it’s time to really impress with intangible soft skills, general business acumen, and knowledge of the regulatory environment. You’ll also want to demonstrate your genuine passion for the industry. So think of the interview as a cocktail party where everybody wants to talk about your favorite subjects (and they just happen to prefer coffee to martinis).

You know the typical interview questions, and you may have read about formulas for answering them (“My reason for a decision was X. What I liked most about it was Y. What I wanted to do differently was Z.”) Within the structure of your answers, be sure to incorporate soft skills. Three of the most important in this industry are communication skills, collaborative personality, and leadership, so prepare for your interview by thinking about how you successfully managed projects, people, and challenges.

As you approach the end of your interview, you can see the job offer as clearly as the tape at the finish line of the Ironman triathlon. You’ve made it… almost. But before you raise your arms in victory, there’s a final leg to this race. Hiring managers want ambitious candidates who don’t slow down with the finish line in sight. Finish the interview like a champion by initiating a discussion about the industry and regulatory environment, and how they relate to the position. This clearly shows that you are not only today’s winner, but you can eventually be promoted into positions of increasing authority.