Administrative assistants are the workhorses of an office—they’re the ones who keep things running smoothly while their bosses are out making big plans, closing deals, and brainstorming new ideas. Administrative assistants are great at multitasking and are usually excellent communicators. They’re also organized, detail-oriented, and highly efficient. If you want to break into the administrative … Continued
Administrative assistants are the workhorses of an office—they’re the ones who keep things running smoothly while their bosses are out making big plans, closing deals, and brainstorming new ideas. Administrative assistants are great at multitasking and are usually excellent communicators. They’re also organized, detail-oriented, and highly efficient.
If you want to break into the administrative assistant role or just want to make a switch after years in another field, you’ll need a resume that showcases your skills and experience in a way that hiring managers will appreciate. Here are some tips and an example to help you craft yours.
Here’s how to write an administrative assistant resume of your own.
The best way to make your resume stand out is to use specific examples and numbers. So rather than saying you “provided administrative support,” you could say that you “provided daily administrative support for 10+ employees, ensuring timely and accurate processing of expense reports, scheduling of meetings, and distribution of weekly schedules.”
The second bullet point is much stronger because it provides specific details about what you did and the results of your work. And it also includes a number to help quantify the level of responsibility and scale of the project.
When you apply for an administrative assistant role, your resume is likely to be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. These programs look for specific terms related to the job, like “administrative skills” or “office management” in order to determine whether your skills and experience are a match for the job opening. If your resume doesn’t include enough of the right keywords, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
The best way to make sure your resume contains the right keywords is to carefully read through each job posting and take note of the terms that are used most often. Then, use those same terms on your resume when you describe your experience and skills. Here are some commonly used administrative assistant keywords:
There are a number of programs and systems that administrative assistants use on a daily basis to manage their work. Being proficient in the use of these programs and systems is essential to the job. Some of the most commonly used programs are Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Google Suite (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar), and social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. Additionally, administrative assistants may be called on to use specific software programs relevant to their industry, so it’s important to be familiar with as many programs as possible.