How to Find Remote Seasonal Tax Preparer Jobs
When you’re looking for remote seasonal tax preparer jobs, you can increase your chances of being hired when you know where to find opportunities and how to impress the hiring managers. These tips will help you make your search a success.
Prepare for Remote SEASONAL TAX PREPARER Interviews
It’s likely that a potential employer will want to conduct interviews using video conferencing technology. It will automatically give the interviewer an idea of how comfortable you are working remotely, so prepare for it beforehand. These tips will help you prepare.
- Prepare your home office before you start interviewing.
- Test your technology before the interview to avoid technical issues
Wear professional attire. - Plan your answers to commonly-asked questions and prepare questions of your own.
- Research the company so that you can speak intelligently about their business.
- Review any information you have about the position and its requirements and refresh your memory about how your background fits those requirements.
Use professional body language by sitting up straight and limiting your hand gestures because they can become exaggerated in a virtual setting. - Take time to build rapport by talking to the interviewer about things other than the job. For example, you could explain how you came across the opportunity and how excited you are to have the chance to talk more about it.
Make Your REMOTE SEASONAL TAX PREPARER Resume Stand Out.
A hiring manager will decide whether to contact you based on a very quick look at your resume. Make sure yours stands out by being easy to read and focusing on the most important things that a manager hiring for tax jobs will be looking for.
- Use a professional header that includes your name and full contact information (phone and email). If you’re credentialed, list that in the header “Sally Smith EA” or “John Smith CPA”.
- You can grab attention by starting with a professional profile that quickly summarizes your qualifications and primary objective.
- Under a work experience section, start with your most recent position and briefly describe your accomplishments. Use action verbs like “prepared” and “ensured” rather than the tired “responsible for.” Include statistics whenever possible. Many employers have requirements for work experience such as completing three seasons of paid tax preparation for customers, including federal and state individual 1040 tax returns, with a minimum of 30 tax returns per tax year.
- Consider creating a skills section to let managers see your skills quickly. Use skills such as Knowledge of Current Tax Laws, Relevant Computer Skills, Customer Focused, and Action-Oriented.
- Make sure you are consistent with punctuation, use a single font throughout the entire resume, and SPELL CHECK (you’d be amazed how many people don’t do that).
- If you have a current PTIN or certifications, note them in a separate section. If you don’t have a PTIN, we suggest applying for one, as it only takes 15 minutes. Reference this article on how to do this. A long resume is often too long for a hiring manager to review. If possible, condense your resume to one page. Use a professional font and prepare a Word document or PDF file for sending your resume electronically.
Update Your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is an excellent platform to help you attract the attention of managers hiring for tax jobs, but make sure your profile makes a big impression. These tips will help you stand out from the crowd.
- Use a headshot for your profile picture. It’s the first thing people will use to get to know you.
- Create an attention-grabbing headline. This is important real estate on your profile. It can contain up to 120 characters, and you can use it to show your specialty or something unique about your skillset. Avoid just listing your current job title.
- Streamline your summary. You can use up to 2,000 characters, but it’s better to use 1,000 to 1,250 characters. Use the space to talk about what you do best and what you can bring to a tax preparation environment. Use keywords to help employers find you.
- Use visuals. The background banner photo on your profile should tell a story about who you are and what you do. You can use free image websites such as Pixabay to find images that will make an impression. Make sure your image meets the size requirements of 1128 pixels by 191 pixels. If your image is a different size, it will be distorted when it appears online.
- Customize your link. The standard link to reach your LinkedIn profile will be your name followed by numbers and letters. You can look more professional by editing your link name (URL) to make it short and memorable.
- Increase your connections. If you haven’t spent much time connecting to others on LinkedIn, you’re missing an opportunity to get more exposure on the platform. If you reach over 500 connections, you look like a real networker.
- Add recommendations and skill endorsements. You may have connections who could recommend you or your skills but haven’t done so. Just like referrals, these are actions you need to ask your connections to take. LinkedIn has tools to help you get recommendations and manage skill endorsements.
- Stay Active. LinkedIn recommends that you are active at least three times each week. You can write articles and posts, like and share posts from your connections, and generally use LinkedIn as a networking opportunity.
Join LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups give you the opportunity to network with people who share your interests. As of this writing, there are 1,700+ groups listed under tax professionals. You can join groups and use your participation to attract the attention of other tax professionals—and you’ll probably learn something along the way.
Stay Active in Your Own Network
Everyone has a network of friends and business associates. Let those people know that you’re looking for seasonal tax preparation work. You never know when someone you contact could refer you to someone else who can help your search. If you see a job posted that would be a good fit for a peer or friend, share it with them; that creates a lot of goodwill online.
Contact Recruiters for Remote Seasonal Tax PREPARER Jobs
A number of online tax preparation services may be looking for experienced tax preparation professionals. When choosing the right employer for you, consider the level of professionalism the company displays, the effectiveness of the training you’ll receive, how easy it is to use their software, the requirements of the position, and whether you’ll be working with a team that understands what it takes to do things right and is concerned about your welfare.
Create a Website for Your Business
Creating a website for your business doesn’t need to be a complex undertaking. For example, there are easy-to-use themes available for WordPress, which is one of the most popular website creation platforms. You could create a simple website that has a home page where you explain who you are and what you do, and a contact page to make it easy for people to reach you.
You won’t be found in the search engines unless you actively use SEO techniques or pay for placement with AdWords, for example. But you can list the website domain name on your resume and your LinkedIn profile to emphasize your professionalism.