Cost Analyst Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Cost Analyst resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Cost analysts are responsible for helping organizations understand and manage their costs. They conduct research, analyze data, and create reports that help organizations make important financial decisions.
To succeed in this role, you need to be able to think critically about your company’s operations and identify areas for improvement. You need to understand how costs are created, how they’re allocated across departments or divisions, and how they impact the bottom line. You also need to have strong communication skills—both verbal and written—to share your findings with stakeholders across the organization.
Here are some tips and an example to help you write a compelling cost analyst resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write a Cost Analyst Resume
Here’s how to write a cost analyst resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
Bullet points are the most important part of your resume because they’re the first thing recruiters and hiring managers will read. And if they’re not interesting or compelling, they’ll quickly move on to the next resume.
So it’s crucial that you use bullet points to showcase your experience, skills, and accomplishments. And the best way to do that is by using specific numbers and metrics whenever possible.
For example, rather than saying you “managed budgets for large-scale projects,” you could say you “managed budgets for $10M+ large-scale projects, reducing costs by 15% while maintaining quality of work.”
The second bullet point is much more interesting and provides a lot more detail about what you did and the results of your work.
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume for a job, it usually goes through an applicant tracking system (ATS). This system will scan your resume for certain keywords related to the job opening. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right terms, the ATS might disqualify you from the pool of candidates.
Because every job is different, it can be hard to know which keywords are most relevant for each position. But here are some commonly used keywords for cost analyst positions:
- Cost Analysis
- Construction
- Cost Engineering
- Microsoft Access
- Contract Management
- Cost Control
- Construction Management
- Project Estimation
- Procurement
- Value Engineering
- Strategic Planning
- Leadership
- Project Planning
- Budgeting
- Negotiation
- Team Leadership
- Customer Service
- Contract Negotiation
- Business Strategy
- Oil & Gas
- SAP Products
- Project Management
- Business Planning
- Teamwork
- Continuous Improvement
- Manufacturing
- 5S
- Financial Analysis
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Lean Manufacturing
Showcase Your Technical Skills
As a cost analyst, you are responsible for gathering data, analyzing it, and preparing reports. In order to do this effectively, you need to be proficient in the use of certain programs and systems.
Some of the programs and systems that cost analysts typically use include: Microsoft Excel, Access, and Project; ERP systems such as Oracle, SAP, and PeopleSoft; and statistical analysis software such as SAS and SPSS. Additionally, cost analysts should be familiar with accounting principles and practices.