As an administrative assistant, you hold the keys to the castle. You communicate with nearly anyone, know how to manage the busiest schedules, and can handle multiple high-priority tasks simultaneously. But how can you build your resume and write a cover letter to showcase all those skills effectively?
That’s where we come in. We’ve reviewed dozens of administrative assistant resumes that have worked for candidates to land jobs with great companies. So, we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t for impressive resumes.
We’ve distilled those findings into 13 effective administrative assistant resume samples for all experience levels, and to top it off, we’ve included detailed resume tips. Here’s to landing your next job in 2024!
Why this resume works
- Your administrative assistant resume should demonstrate the impact you had in previous work. How are you supposed to do that? One word: metrics.
- Metrics are just numbers that provide evidence for your claims. They’re easy to read and great at demonstrating your abilities, so try to include numbers wherever you can.
- You can include how many people you collaborated with, how much you improved revenue, and how many staff calendars you managed, to name a few.
- Build employer confidence by including detailed skill keywords in your resume’s skills section.
- Words like “Microsoft Office Suite,” “Quickbooks,” reporting,” and “organization” are great for assuring employers you’ve got the chops for your future administrative assistant role.
Why this resume works
- Depending on where you’ll be working, your employer may want to see your resume in a different format.
- Luckily for you, there are many Word resume templates and Google Docs resume templates out there—just make sure you have a backup resume on hand in case the employer needs several copies with different layouts.
- Hiring managers are looking for senior administrative assistants who can meaningfully contribute from day one. The best way to convince employers of your worth is by showing ownership of your previous responsibilities in both your administrative assistant cover letter and resume.
- Action verbs like “coordinated,” “prepared,” and “maintained” do an effective job demonstrating ownership within your senior administrative assistant resume.
Why this resume works
- If you have a lot of experience as an administrative assistant (at least 10 years), consider adding a resume summary at the top of your administrative assistant II resume.
- Unlike a resume objective, a summary paragraph is a two-to-four-sentence overview of your achievements and successes in the field.
- If your resume summary is strong enough, it can be the selling point of your entire resume, so it’s well worth spending extra time to make sure this section of your resume is perfect.
- Numbers are some of the easiest (and best) ways to make your resume readable and relevant, so try to include metrics in at least 50% of your work experience bullet points.
- Focus on including a mixture of different types of metrics, including percentages, dollar values, and hard numbers (such as the number of executive schedules you managed, or the time you saved by streamlining invoicing systems).
Why this resume works
- When you’re an entry-level administrative assistant, you must make it clear to the hiring manager that you have the right skills and temperament to succeed in the role. You can do that by showing projects you’ve worked on or how you’ve exercised leadership while in school.
- For example, did you lead a club? Volunteer somewhere? Complete a group project while in your classes? There are many options to showcase your leadership abilities!
- If you’re still working out how to write a resume, just know it’s okay to include non-relevant work experience on your entry-level administrative assistant resume. No matter the role, it can still highlight soft skills like responsibility, time management, and document preparation.
Why this resume works
- You don’t need to have worked as an administrative assistant before to be a perfect fit for such a role in the future. You’re already versed in office operations, customer satisfaction, service, and inventory management from your past experiences.
- In your administrative assistant no experience resume, give precedence to achievements such as solving customer issues over the phone, boosting customer satisfaction, accelerating problem resolution, etc.
Why this resume works
- Use your HR administrative assistant resume to show potential employers that you’re capable than just updating employee benefits or checking their hours.
- Now’s the time to radiate a modern and fresh vibe with the Elegant template! Use colors that catch the eye of any reader at first sight. Next, secure the job by adding all the digital HR tools like BambooHR, JazzHR, and Google Workspace to stay ahead of the competition!
Why this resume works
- Even for something as simple as an assistant role, you’ve got to portray that you have what it takes to create a difference in building projects.
- Flourish your construction administrative assistant resume with bullet points like “Managed site operations for a $10M+ infrastructure project” and “slashing misalignment errors by 13%” to highlight your ability to supervise large-scale projects and keep important metrics like misalignment errors at a minimum.
Why this resume works
- Emphasizing your value through showing your strengths is the magic bullet for employers to pick your real estate administrative assistant resume from the stack. Package your achievements in a manner that solves the need of your dream company.
- Draw attention to your abilities to solve client problems, streamline office operations, bring new business, and so on.
Why this resume works
- You must be clear about the size and scope of the companies where you’ve worked previously. Working at a startup is fundamentally different from working at a Fortune 500 company.
- That’s where metrics come in! Include the number of people you worked with or the number of clients you assisted so employers know your experience.
- Your executive administrative assistant resume can be (almost) as bright and vibrant as your personality if you know how to customize a modern resume template.
- Change the font, color, and layout to match your preferences and content. Some templates allow for more work experience while others focus more on other sections, so choose accordingly.
Why this resume works
- Your medical administrative assistant resume needs to be appropriately structured to demonstrate your career progression.
- We’d recommend formatting your resume using reverse-chronological order to show your most current role first. That way, your future employer sees your most relevant abilities.
- Your future employer will need to know you can handle anything insurance can throw at you, so including any skills relating to insurance is crucial.
- Include your specific experience verifying information, performing billing responsibilities, and recording data.
Why this resume works
- You probably already know that first impressions mean a lot for your receptionist administrative assistant resume. But did you know that making your resume colorful can be the difference between getting noticed and getting passed on? Just be sure to adjust your color based on the type of job.
- If you’re applying for a company with a casual culture, use vibrant colors, like pink and purple. If you’re applying to work as a criminal defense law firm receptionist, you’d better stick with more professional colors like navy or gray.
- The goal is always to catch an employer’s attention in a good way, and color is a bright, fun way to do that! Whatever color you choose is up to you, but consider your employer when picking out shades.
- When writing your skills section for your resume, try to stick with six to eight relevant skills.
- Hard skills (aka specific technical capabilities and training) are more valuable to highlight and easier to quantify, so include them when you can.
- Keywords like “bookkeeping,” “Asana,” and QuickBooks” are great examples of technical skills.
Why this resume works
- You handle all kinds of tasks across different projects and tie them together, so your resume should do the same by highlighting the many important parts of your career. Picking the right resume format can help you do just that!
- Resumes distill everything about you into one page, so you need to organize all your career details into clearly defined sections with headers.
- You can still tailor your administrative coordinator resume even if you don’t have the specific skills listed in the job description—just add transferable skills.
- Make sure you include skills that can be relevant depending on what you read in the job description. For example, workspace management software is relatively universal, so if you’re already familiar with Google Workspace, you’ll likely adapt quickly to Microsoft Office Suite.
Why this resume works
- Administrative associates do loads of things in a day, so it can be difficult to decide what to include and omit as you’re constructing your administrative associate resume.
- Here’s a tip: highlight your achievements in light of the administrative assistant job description. Look for repeated keywords and phrases that match your experience, then include them on your resume.
- Want to include more skills but don’t know how? Try adding a hobbies section to your resume to highlight some of your abilities outside of work. Pick relevant pastimes that might interest the employer (and give you something to talk about during the interview).
- Effective resume bullet points and metrics can help clarify the work you were responsible for, but how do you write them?
- Instead of just saying, “collaborated with department staff to source job candidates,” try adding details like the total number of job candidates you hired, or the number of departments you worked with.
Related resume guides
Writing Your Admin Assistant Resume
As an administrative assistant, you’re the person who keeps the day-to-day operations running smoothly. You’re trusted to act as the face of the company for visitors, and you understand the importance of organization. But you might not realize just how important it is to perfect your resume. Your resume is the first thing hiring managers will look at, so ensure it demonstrates your aptitude for the job.
In this section, we’ll dive into four of the main tips we have for improving your resume, including:
- Administrative assistant skills
- Formatting your administrative assistant resume
- Quantifying your previous impact
- Customizing your resume for each job
1. Include your administrative assistant skills wisely
If you’re unfamiliar with how hiring managers filter applicants, you may be tempted to overlook the skills section on your administrative assistant resume. But, after learning about ATS, you’ll never make that mistake again.
Hiring managers use the ATS, or applicant tracking system software, to narrow their applicant pool. The ATS works by filtering keywords (usually in your skills section) on your resume and matching them to pre-selected words prioritized by recruiters. Your resume will be rejected if you don’t have enough matching keywords.
This system works well when there are a lot of job applicants, but it’s understandably a pain for you, the applicant, to deal with. That’s why it’s important to utilize a skills section that incorporates the right resume skills. You can do this by focusing on the administrative assistant job description.
Read this small excerpt from a job description and see if you can pick up on the most relevant skills for this particular administrative assistant job. Then, read ahead to see if your skills list resembles ours:
Optics Fusion is a fast-growing company seeking a self-starter administrative assistant who can recognize tasks that need completion with minimal supervision. The ideal candidate will thrive on interacting with clients and the public while displaying a high degree of professionalism. Must be comfortable working in fast-paced environments and dividing attention between many day-to-day operational tasks. Computer-savvy assistants are encouraged to apply!
Compare the list of skills you wrote down from this job description with ours:
- Scheduling and organization
- Communication
- Process automation
- Independent worker
- Billing
- Detail-oriented
- HIPAA
- Health insurance
- Computer software
The job you apply for may or may not have similar skill preferences, but there will typically be a common thread of recurring keywords.
Some of the following admin assistant skills will likely pop up in job descriptions:
- Microsoft Office
- Quickbooks
- EMR
- Data analysis
- Process automation
- Financial reporting
- Google Calendar
- Answering calls
- Multi-tasking
- Bilingual
2. Pick the best resume format
Like your skills section, your resume format is important for determining whether the ATS will properly read and file your resume. Aside from the ATS, formatting your resume properly will make it easier for recruiters to read your administrative assistant resume.
To this end, we suggest using reverse-chronological formatting, with your most recent work experience listed at the top of your resume. This will help hiring managers quickly evaluate your most relevant and (likely most impressive) work.
These are a few other critical elements for your resume formatting:
- Page Length: Keep your resume to exactly one page: no more and no less.
- Bullet Points: Bullet points are a useful tool to break up large pieces of text when you’re describing your work experience. Aside from making your resume more visually appealing, they’ll also make writing these sections much easier.
- Icons/Images: Have you considered adding icons or images to your resume? Don’t! Recruiters and the ATS both dislike them.
- Job Title: Customize your job title for every position to which you apply. It shows that you care enough about the position to put in the extra effort, and hiring managers will appreciate it.
- Objective/Summary: If you include one of these, you’ll want to ensure it’s customized (more on this in the next section).
Should you bother with a resume objective or summary?
You might notice that we just hinted that resume objectives and summary statements are optional. While it’s true that they’re not an essential element of an administrative assistant resume, there are a few specific circumstances when they might be helpful. Let’s demystify these optional sections and determine when to consider including one of them on your resume.
A resume objective is a customized two to three-sentence opener typically included toward the top of your resume. In the visual example below, notice how the objective briefly covers the job title, the company name you’re applying to, and why you’re applying to the specific job. We recommend including an objective only if you’re just starting your career or transitioning to another field.
Let’s go over a few of these statements, including both poor and strong examples of each:
- Example 1: Working in administration for a few years and looking for a change of pace. Can start immediately.
- This is a poor example of an objective. It’s vague and doesn’t mention anything specific that would help the hiring manager. If you’re unwilling to customize your statement, you shouldn’t include an objective.
- Example 2: Detail-oriented medical administrative assistant with 3+ years of experience providing patients with empathetic care, settling insurance claims, and scheduling appointments. Seeking a position with Pediatrics United, where my organization systems and HIPAA compliance standards can contribute to providing the utmost quality care for patients.
- This objective is much better. It’s highly specific, mentioning years of experience, a particular job title, the company name, the candidate’s skills, and how they will contribute to the company.
- Example 3: Providing admin tasks for multi-years in the ofice. Backgrnd in detailed work & organizatian for multiple companys.
- This makes a horrible first impression. Note the misspelled words and abbreviations used. Remember: a good summary/objective can improve your chances of getting hired, and a bad one can do some damage. Do you think a hiring manager would want to hire this applicant?
- Example 4: Scrupulous medical administrative assistant with 16+ years of specialization in best practices in the medical field. Vast expertise and knowledge of HIPAA compliance standards, sensitive patient care, medical insurance billing, and EMR to efficiently provide the highest quality care. Looking for a role working at Felder’s Community Clinic, where patient care is at the forefront of operational goals.
- Do a little research on the job to which you’re applying. This applicant used their summary statement to demonstrate knowledge about the clinic they’re interested in working for, which hiring managers will appreciate.
3. Measure your admin assistant work with metrics
Many admin assistant applicants tell us they find it difficult to write their resumes in a way that displays confidence and job capability. Often, the problem is that they’re not quantifying their job impact with metrics (numbers). Metrics are the easiest way to provide measurable insight into your work performance. As an administrative assistant, there are many areas in which you can include numbers on your resume. Read below for some of the best ways to leverage metrics from your previous roles:
- Number of people: It’s a good idea to mention the size of the companies you’ve worked for, including staff size and customer base.
- Efficiency improvements: Have you streamlined policies or systems? Orchestrated the switch to a new type of admin software? Has your work saved a significant amount of time?
- Scheduling: How many meetings do you schedule per week? Of how many executive calendars are you in charge? Do you set up appointment reminders for clients, and, have these reminders reduced the rate of late/missed client meetings?
- Billing: Do you process customer/patient/insurance billing? If so, how much money are you charged with managing? Do you compile expense reports?
Now that you’ve thought through areas of your job from which you can pull metrics, read through these sample work experience bullet points to get a little more inspiration:
- Met 95% of project deadlines by mitigating all engineering hurdles and roadblocks
- Provided remote troubleshooting to customers over the phone with a 90% success rate, resolving calls in less than 7 minutes
- Managed 3 essential projects that facilitated more than $5 million in annual revenue
4. Modify your resume for each admin assistant job
We’ve mentioned it a few times, but it’s so important we’ll repeat it: you must customize your resume for each job to which you apply. After all, administrative assistants have widely varying job responsibilities, and you should take the extra step to best align your resume with the specific job for each application you submit. Fortunately, you don’t have to change your entire resume, but let’s go over the areas you should customize:
- The objective/summary: Without a doubt, if you include a resume objective or summary statement, you’ll need to customize it. Focus on highlighting relevant skills for the position, and mention the company name. One warning—always tailor this section before you submit your application. Please don’t be the person who forgets to change the company name before submitting it to multiple jobs!
- Skills: Customize your skills section by referencing the job description. Usually, hiring managers are upfront about the desired skills required for the job.
- Job description bullet points: You can alter your job description bullet points to emphasize different types of administrative assistant jobs. For example, highlight your efficiency and time management for jobs that require multi-tasking and the ability to work in a hectic environment. Other positions, such as medical assistant jobs, may be more concerned about billing, policy compliance, and patient privacy.
Administrative assistant resume
- Do you have experience in the essential aspects of administrative work?
- Focus on covering key areas such as your computer and software literacy, customer relations, scheduling, financial reporting, billing, internal communication, and hiring.
- If the job description mentions that some aspects are more important than others for the role, you can emphasize them more heavily.
Entry-level admin assistant resume
- It’s okay if you don’t have years of admin experience. Instead, you can highlight transferable skills.
- For example, you may want to highlight your ability to get along well with others, your organizational skills, and your ability to stay organized.
- This savvy entry-level candidate absorbed excess white space with a metrics-packed internship.
Executive admin assistant resume
- Executive administrative assistants typically work on more complex, higher-stakes administrative issues. Demonstrate your increased work responsibility.
- This may mean managing more assets, overseeing staff, or making decisions that have an impact beyond day-to-day operations.
- You need to format your executive resume using the reverse-chronological format, which will best showcase your career growth.
Medical admin assistant resume
- An excellent medical admin assistant resume should be highly specialized.
- Focus on highlighting your capacity to manage insurance billing and claims.
- Do you have an understanding of electronic medical records (EMR)? If yes, you should consider including it on your resume.
- Like anyone in healthcare working in direct contact with patients, you should have a strong understanding of HIPAA.
- Demonstrate your understanding of important skills for admin assistants specific to the medical field.
Notice this applicant’s mention of keyword skills like HIPAA and EMR.
Senior admin assistant resume
- How involved are you in collaborating with executives to improve administrative or organizational functioning? Do you manage a large sum of assets? Are you in charge of a team? Do you run day-to-day operations for an entire company or department?
- Ensure you showcase skills that set you apart from less experienced administrative assistants.
Our parting advice for your admin assistant resume
You should be proud of yourself for taking your resume seriously! You’ve made it to the end of this guide, and you’re on the right path to creating your best, most professional administrative assistant resume yet!
Let’s review the four main tips we’ve covered in this guide as a quick recap.
We’ve discussed how to build your skills section, how to format your resume for the ATS, how you can add metrics, and why you should modify every administrative assistant resume you submit.
With these tips in mind, upload your resume to our free resume checker to see how your masterpiece can be improved with our AI-powered tips. If you’re thinking about starting your resume from scratch, try our resume builder, where you can begin the process with built-in AI-powered tips and proper formatting.
