Office Assistant Resume Example & Writing Guide
Use this Office Assistant resume example and guide to improve your career and write a powerful resume that will separate you from the competition.
Office assistants are the first point of contact for many organizations, so it’s important that they have strong customer service skills and are able to handle both big and small tasks with ease. Office assistants are often tasked with answering phones, greeting visitors, taking messages, and scheduling meetings or appointments.
But there’s more to this role than just answering phones and taking messages. Office assistants are also responsible for maintaining their office’s administrative functions—they keep things running smoothly by organizing schedules, managing files, and tracking down important documents. They might also help out with event planning, create presentations, or manage the company newsletter.
Here are some tips and an example for writing a fantastic office assistant resume that hiring managers will love.
How to Write an Office Assistant Resume
Here’s how to write an office assistant resume of your own.
Write Compelling Bullet Points
The best way to make your resume stand out is to use specific, descriptive language. Rather than saying you “assisted customers,” you could say you “provided customer service by answering phone calls and emails, scheduling appointments, and providing receipts and invoices.”
The second bullet point is much more specific and provides more detail about what exactly you did and the results of your work. And that’s what hiring managers want to see—they want to know that you can do the job and do it well!
Related: What Is an Office Assistant? How to Become One
Identify and Include Relevant Keywords
When you submit your resume online, it’s likely that it will be scanned by an applicant tracking system (ATS) for certain keywords. These programs look for certain keywords related to the job opening in order to determine whether or not you’re a good fit. If your resume doesn’t have enough of the right keywords, your application might not make it past the initial screening process.
The best way to make sure your resume includes all of the right keywords is to read through job postings and take note of the terms and phrases that are used most often. Then, try to use those same terms on your resume. Here are some common keywords for office assistant positions:
- Office Administration
- Administrative Assistance
- Data Entry
- Time Management
- Teamwork
- Microsoft Access
- Receptionist Duties
- Clerical Skills
- Customer Service
- Administration
- Organization Skills
- Adobe Photoshop
- Accounting
- Communication
- Event Planning
- Research
- Social Media
- Payroll
- Marketing
- Cashiering
- Critical Thinking
- Project Management
- Event Management
- Filing
- Skilled Multi-tasker
- Leadership
- Interpersonal Skills
- Administration Support
- Customer Support
Showcase Your Technical Skills
Office assistants use a variety of software programs to complete their work, so it’s important to list any relevant technical skills you have. Programs like Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Google Suite (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar), and social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter are all commonly used by office assistants. Additionally, office 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.
Related: How Much Does an Office Assistant Make?
Remember The Basics
As you’re writing your resume, you’ll want to keep a few basic guidelines in mind.
Make It Easy to Scan
You can make your resume more readable and skimmable for recruiters by using some general formatting tips. First, use left-aligned text and a standard font throughout the document. You should also use bullets rather than paragraphs to list your experiences, and keep your bullets to no more than two lines. Additionally, you can use bolding and italics to emphasize important information, but should avoid using all-caps or too much formatting variation. Finally, try to leave some white space on the page to make the document less overwhelming.
Be Concise
A resume should be one page long, unless you have a lot of experience to include. Font type and size, margins, and line spacing can also be tweaked to save space on a resume.
When writing a resume, it is important to be concise and to the point. Too much information can be overwhelming for a potential employer, so it is important to focus on the most relevant details. If you have more than 10 years of experience, you can make a two-page resume to elaborate on that experience and highlight all of your job skills and qualifications. If you are a recent graduate or have less than five to eight years of professional experience, a one-page resume is ideal. When trimming down a resume, remove irrelevant information and streamline the content.
Check Your Work
Proofreading your resume is one of the most important steps in ensuring that it is effective and error-free. There are several things to watch for when proofreading, including spelling mistakes, punctuation mistakes, and grammatical mistakes. It is also important to be aware of easily confused words, so that you do not accidentally use the wrong one. Taking the time to proofread your resume carefully will ensure that it looks its best and conveys your qualifications in the most accurate way possible.
Consider a Summary
A resume summary statement can be a great way for job seekers to explain how they see their experience will translate into a new role. As you write your own, be sure to play up your relevant soft skills, mention your most highly transferable experiences, clearly state your intentions, and try to keep it to just a couple of lines. When executed well, summaries can serve to bridge the gap between your past experience, recent training, and future goals, helping recruiters to better understand how your skills might translate into the role you’re hoping to land.
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