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Cost analyst resume examples from 2025

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Updated March 26, 2025
6 min read
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How to write a cost analyst resume

Craft a resume summary statement

Your resume summary sums up your experience and skills, making it easy for hiring managers to understand your qualifications at a glance. Here are some tips to writing the most important 2-4 sentences of your resume:

Step 1: Start with your professional title, or the one you aspire to.

Step 2: Detail your years of experience in cost analyst-related roles and your industry experience.

Step 3: What are your biggest professional wins? Here is your opportunity to highlight your strongest accomplishments by placing them at the start of your resume.

Step 4: Don't forget, your goal is to summarize your experience. Keep it short and sweet, so it's easy for recruiters to quickly understand why you're a great hire.

These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some cost analyst interviews.

Please upload your resume so Zippia’s job hunt AI can draft a summary statement for you.

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List the right project manager skills

Your Skills section is a place to list all relevant skills and abilities. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

  1. Look to the job listing. You often need to include the exact keywords from the job description. Take note of the skills listed for the job.
  2. Put all relevant hard and soft skills in your skills section.
  3. Be specific. If you are too broad, you may not be giving the best picture of your skills and leave the hiring manager uncertain of your abilities.
  4. Be up to date. Software names change and companies merge. Don't look out of touch by being careless.
  5. Be accurate. Spelling and even upper or lowercase can dramatically change meanings. Make sure you are correctly listing your skills.
These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some cost analyst interviews.

Here are example skills to include in your “Area of Expertise” on a cost analyst resume:

  • Cost Analysis
  • Financial Analysis
  • Cost Estimates
  • Data Analysis
  • DOD
  • Variance Analysis
  • Project Management
  • Cost Models
  • Cost Data
  • Pivot Tables
  • Project Cost
  • Strong Analytical
  • Journal Entries
  • Reconciliations
  • Logistics
  • Accruals
  • Risk Analysis
  • Cost Reports
  • Project Controls
  • Historical Data
  • Product Cost
  • Process Improvement
  • Cost Control
  • ERP
  • WBS
  • Cost Reduction
  • Earned Value Management
  • Financial Reports
  • Cost Proposals
  • Cost Accounting Standards

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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How to structure your work experience

Your work experience should be structured:

  1. With your most recent roles first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order.
  2. Job title, along with company name and location on the left.
  3. Put the corresponding dates of employment on the left side.
  4. Keep only relevant jobs on your work experience.

How to write cost analyst experience bullet points

Effective job bullet points do more than just describe your job duties. Instead, they should be specific and measurable accomplishments. Here are some strategies to mastering job bullet points:

  • Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
  • Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
  • Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.

Here are effective examples from cost analyst resumes:

Work history example #1

Associate Auditor

PricewaterhouseCoopers

  • Designed, implemented, and reviewed audit procedures over company s internal controls for financial reporting in accordance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.
  • Assisted PwC Tax team in the tie out of vantage point tax returns.
  • Monitored and investigated employees' compliance with SEC, AICPA, and other regulatory guidelines.
  • Cultivated expertise of internal control design, implementation and remediation through performance of Sarbanes-Oxley audits.
  • Fulfilled Sarbanes-Oxley internal control testing quarterly and at year end.

Work history example #2

Budget Analyst

United States Department of Defense

  • Conducted evaluations of DoD-wide issues to support management decision-making.
  • Reviewed, developed and coordinated recommendations to improve and strengthen controls over DoD operations and programs.
  • Managed efforts to resolve complex issues identified by other DoD entities or elements.
  • Participated extensively in the government planning, programming, budgeting, and execution (PPBE) process.
  • Served as the Administrator for the Standard Labor Data Collection and Distribution Application, SLDCADA Payroll System.

Work history example #3

Cost Analyst

Bank of America

  • Presented monthly business reviews to executives providing KPIs and portfolio recommendations.
  • Presented regular statistical reports and audits to ensure compliance with government regulations as well as control procedures to internal QC/QA partners.
  • Prepared detailed analysis of operations and technology procedures/processes with the goal of creating meaningful activity based unit cost information.
  • Developed end-user programs to extract and manipulate data with approved cost accounting techniques.
  • Integrated unit cost information into product, lines of business and customer profitability models.

Work history example #4

Associate Auditor

Deloitte

  • Reviewed and evaluated internal control compliance under SOX
  • Prepared PowerPoint summaries of the teams internal audit analysis, and provided recommendations for areas of improvement.
  • Performed testing on journal entries made by audited company to ensure all GAAP procedures were followed.
  • Audited a variety of Asset Management entities including hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds.
  • Planned and completed audit assignments to both U.S. & International auditing standards using the Deloitte Global Audit Methodology.

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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Add an education section to your resume

The education section should display your highest degree first.

Place your education section appropriately on your resume. If you graduated over 5 years ago, this section should be at the bottom of your resume. If you just graduated and lack relevant work experience, the education section should go to the top.

If you have a bachelor's or master's degree, do not list your high school education. If your graduation year is more than 15-20 years ago, it's better not to include dates in this section.

Here are some examples of good education entries for resumes:

Bachelor's Degree in accounting

Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

2006 - 2009

Highlight your cost analyst certifications on your resume

If you have any additional certifications, add them to the certification section.

To list, use the full name of the certification and the organization that issued it, along with the date of achievement.

If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your cost analyst resume:

  1. Certified Management Accountant (CMA)
  2. Project Management Professional (PMP)
  3. International Accredited Business Accountant (IABA)
  4. Master Project Manager (MPM)
  5. Certified Cost Professional (CCP)
  6. Program Management Professional (PgMP)
  7. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)

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