You'll learn:
To write an outstanding office assistant resume, we should first absorb the knowledge about this position. An office assistant is an entry-level administrative job. Usually, an office assistant has to ensure the office works smoothly. Therefore, he/she will do things like schedule arrangement, organizing files, answering phone calls, email reply, ordering office supplies, etc.
These responsibilities also sound similar to those of administrative assistant and secretary. True, all of them are related to clerical work, but sometimes their responsibilities may be divided more specifically due to the larger size of a company. According to Corporate Job Bank, a secretary and an administrative assistant are often entry-level positions, but an administrative assistant can sometimes be a mid- or even high-level one.
How should one write a resume for an office assistant job? And why is a good office assistant resume important for one to land a job?
📝 Fact: Take the statistic of Glassdoor into consideration: a hiring manager spends no more than 6 seconds on one’s resume, and a position will receive 250 resumes on average.
Hence, a well-structured office administration resume and a well-prepared candidate form an impeccable formula for getting an office assistant job.
Here are some tips to know before writing an office assistant resume:
Currently, many companies use the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to scan resumes for position-relevant keywords and select qualified candidates automatically. Hence, it is recommended to adopt an ATS-friendly resume format with as few graphs or charts as possible.
Taking a look at professional resume samples and templates can bring you ideas. At the bottom of this article, we have provided a text-format office assistant resume sample. You can also see more office assistant resume examples on Cake!
This tip is more crucial when it comes to resume writing. Compared with an office assistant CV, an office admin resume usually requires more customization for the position.
A proper office assistant resume should not exceed two pages, and using skills mentioned in job descriptions can increase the chance of getting an interview.
However, a curriculum vitae (CV) is usually more than two pages and contains lots of details about one’s experience.
Previously, we stated that it takes a recruiter no more than 6 seconds to browse one’s resume, and the average number of competitors is 250. Imagine that we simply told you instead, “ a hiring manager reads your office assistant resume in a short amount of time, and you have a lot of competitors.”
Which one convinces you more of the importance of a good resume?
It is probably the one with exact figures. Thus, quantifying your achievements can make your office assistant resume more compelling.
Soft skills, also called personal skills, are often as important as technical ones. However, figuring out how to clearly illustrate one’s soft skills is sometimes a difficult task. One useful method is to showcase them in the work experience section to make these skills more concrete.
✍🏻 Pro tips:
A career objective is the description of one’s career goal and therefore is more suitable for applicants who have less experience. If you are not creating an entry-level office assistant resume, it is better to use a resume summary. Having a concise office assistant resume objective can grab hiring managers’ attention at first glance.
To create a compelling hook, here are 4 elements to include in one’s career objective:
Office assistant resume examples for the career objective:
📝 Note: A good office assistant resume objective should be within three lines.
The format of an office assistant resume summary is similar to that of the career objective. However, a resume summary is more common since it tends to be more explicit. An office assistant summary should be placed right after the personal information so hiring managers can quickly understand your outstanding features.
Five things to put in your office assistant resume summary:
Office assistant resume summary examples:
Skills are a prominent and efficient standard to compare between different candidates. Hence, it is crucial to write an excellent skills section for your office administration resume and select the right listing format.
Here are some tips to use:
👍 Be short and concise in the skill section of your office admin resume.
Skill section should not take up a large space in your office assistant resume, especially if you are a seasoned job seeker (if so, you should emphasize more in your work experience).
👍 Only include relevant skills in your office assistant resume.
Even if you have many professional skills, only those related to the office assistant position are meaningful to recruiters.
👍 Be legible.
Later we will discuss the skill listing format for your office assistant resume. Choosing the proper layout can make your resume more readable to hiring managers.
👍 Add both hard skills and soft skills to your office administration resume.
As you may notice, many companies mention the expected technical skills and personal characteristics in their job descriptions. Hence, it is vital to add those hard and soft skills to your office assistant resume.
👍 Use keywords mentioned in job requirements.
An office assistant resume with keywords is more ATS-friendly. Even if the company does not adopt ATS, recruiters will focus more on resumes with relevant statements.
Hard skills
Soft skills
💡 Four ways to list your office administration skills for a resume:
1. Simple bullet list
It is the simplest way to demonstrate your competencies (also the listing way we use in this article). Back these skills up in the work experience sections or your office assistant cover letter.
2. Expanded bullet list
3. Integrated with work experience in your office administration resume
This technique is more suitable for seasoned employees because it needs piles of work experience to elaborate on your skills.
4. Categorized skills section in your office assistant resume
This listing format is useful if the position requires a categorizable skill set. Keep note that you should have a deep understanding of the position’s know-how when using this method. Otherwise, it is easy to result in mistakes.
For instance, some typical office assistant duties for a resume can be divided into four parts:
File Organization | Scheduling |
- FileMaker Pro - Quickbooks | - Travel arrangement - Event organization |
Data Entry | Communication |
- MS Outlook, MS Office - WPM: 100 | - Business English writing - Bilingual in Spanish |
📎 Advice 1: Choose the right office assistant resume format.
A chronological or hybrid resume format is suitable for an entry-level office assistant resume, especially the latter. The skill section appears first in the hybrid resume format, and work experience is listed in a reverse chronological way.
📎 Advice 2: Adopt a career objective to your office administration resume.
Since an office assistant resume summary requires more experience than a career objective, it is acceptable to use an office assistant objective if one is a fresher for this position.
📎 Advice 3: Highlight your education in your office administration resume.
The importance of the education section will decrease with an increment in one’s professional experience. Since education is an authorized proof of one’s qualification, if you are at the beginning of your career, you can add more information in the educational section in your office assistant resume.
📎 Advice 4: Include your portfolio/side project/personal website in your office assistant resume.
Due to the lack of work experience, one can showcase hiring managers his/her portfolio, side project, or personal website. For instance: MS Office Suite is fundamental to an office assistant. If you have designed a PowerPoint for a side project or created excel spreadsheets, you can include them in your office assistant resume.
📎 Advice 5: Write a sincere office assistant cover letter.
An office administration cover letter is a further opportunity to indicate your core competency to hiring managers.
To write an office assistant cover letter but with no experience, there are five parts to include:
So far, you may wonder - how can I, a fresher, prove my qualifications? Don’t worry. Simply describing those overlapped or transferable skills you used in your side projects or extracurricular activities in your application letter for office assistant.
Further reading: How to Write an Entry-Level Office Assistant Cover Letter!
Communicative Office Assistant Skilled in Prioritizing Tasks and Scheduling Arrangements
Mobile: (666)666-6666
Address: Atlanta, U.S.
Email: [email protected]
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/michellecollins
2-year office assistant with strong interpersonal skills and MOS certification. Eager to enter a fast-growing startup like Freenergy to give administrative support. Conducted customization email strategy, which improved the retention rate by 15%.
Poweric Corp.
Office Assistant
Jun 2019–Present
Spring Hospital
Medical Office Assistant
Áu 2018-Apr 2019
2014-2018, M.D. in Pharmacy
University of North Carolina
--- Originally written by Angela Ye ---
Explore a range of job search tools and resources to achieve your dream career goals. Join the fastest-growing talent platform in the APAC region and expand your professional network.