An administrative assistant is an office worker that handles many clerical tasks commonly associated with working in an office.
Some of the most important abilities of an admin assistant are being organized, working quickly, and learning quickly.
This page will help you make your own administrative assistant resume as well as provide you with free resume templates to download. Get started below:
Administrative Assistant Resume Template Menu
How To Make An Administrative Assistant Resume
Your resume will be a combination of what you have to offer mixed with what each employer is looking for.
Your abilities will of course depend on the things you’ve done in administrative roles in the past. But not all employers use the same systems and tools.
So as you go through each section below, try and think of each category in terms of what your future employer wants instead of what your past employer wanted.
Resume Summary
A professional summary on a resume is a quick way to tell an employer that you have the necessary experience & skills.
A summary usually goes near the top of your resume, right under your name and contact information.
There are a couple different ways to write a summary and which way to do so will depend on your personal experience and what is the employer is asking for in an employee.
Straightforward
The most straightforward way to write a summary is to write a short statement that includes the specific job title, number of years of experience, and what you would guess as one of their most desired skills.
For a sample resume, it may look something like this:
3+ Years as Front Office Administrative Assistant with Heavy Experience in Scheduling on Microsoft Outlook
This is a clean and simple way to let the employer know from the beginning of the resume that you are a perfect fit.
Making your summary short is especially useful if the rest of your resume is jam packed with details. The brevity informs the reader that continuing to read is worth their time and that yes, you are indeed qualified and the readers’ time will not be wasted.
More Detail
Some summaries can go into a bit more detail and turn into a short paragraph.
Here’s a bit more detailed example of a summary for an executive assistant position at a state college:
Two Years of experience as an executive level administrative assistant where I managed multiple secondary school calendars and school officials e-mail communications at the district office. Experienced managing statewide and national travel for multiple officials through MyTicket software.
As with the first example, you want to only go into detail about skills and experience that you think is most wanted by the employer. In the case of administrative assistants, scheduling and being organized are two of the more important themes you want to get across.
So do not be afraid to rely heavily on the job listing, changing your summary with each job you apply for.
Ultimately, I wouldn’t make your summary much longer than three sentences. The rest of your resume will need to speak for itself – the summary is just to entice them to read more.
Resume Skills
Depending on what an employer wants, it may be a good idea to put a skills section on your resume.
If you the employer wants to hear more about your daily experiences as as admin assistant then you may want to skip the skills.
But if a job is asking about more specific skills in it’s job listing then using a skills section to call them out can be very helpful.
For an administrative assistant, the types of skills that you’ll most commonly list will be knowing how to use certain programs or complete certain procedures.
Here is a brief listing of administrative assistant skills taken directly from job listings:
- Ability to schedule and manage multiple calendars through Microsoft Outlook.
- Proficiency using common business software applications (i.e. Microsoft Office Suite).
- Strong organizational skills
- Ability to perform event coordination duties
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to maintain effective working relationships
- Excellent customer service skills
- Working knowledge of financial record-keeping and procedures
- Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively
- Problem solving—the individual identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner, gathers and analyzes information skillfully and maintains confidentiality.
- Interpersonal skills—the individual maintains confidentiality, remains open to others’ ideas and exhibits willingness to try new things.
- Oral communication—the individual speaks clearly and pleasantly.
- Written communication—the individual edits work for spelling and grammar, presents numerical data effectively and is able to read and interpret written information.
- Planning/organizing—the individual prioritizes and plans work activities and uses time efficiently.
- Quality control—the individual demonstrates accuracy, thoroughness, and monitors own work to ensure quality.
- Adaptability—the individual adapts to changes in the work environment, manages competing demands and is able to deal with frequent change, delays or unexpected events.
- Dependability—the individual is consistently at work and on time, follows instructions, responds to management direction and solicits feedback to improve performance.
Job Duties & Work Experience
How you talk about your prior experience as an assistant will depend a lot on each particular job you apply with.
Each company will be looking for different skills and will have their own unique way of talking about who and what they’re looking for.
Take the companies lead and when applicable, let them know that you have the skills they need in words they can understand.
Here are just a few samples of how to talk about experience as an administrative assistant:
Non-Profit Administrative Assistant Job Description Examples
- Assisted in development and production for printed materials, brochures, signage, and other marketing pieces. This includes design of graphics or graphic concepts for events
- Maintained employment files, database, and applicant training and education certifications.
HR Human Resources Administrative Assistant Job Description Examples
- Processed bi-weekly payroll for 7 branches including final checks as needed for 200+ employees.
- Managed wage deductions including medical, garnishments and 401k.
Business Administrative Assistant Job Description Examples
- Completed expense reports, maintaining schedules, plan events, and coordinate meetings and events for our Fulfillment Center Staff.
- Ensured that office supply room and kitchen were kept neat and orderly and properly stocked (e.g. fill coffee maker; fill toner in printers and copiers).
Financial Administrative Assistant Job Description Examples
- Support real estate transactions, leases, assists in coordinating acquisition transitions.
- Captured invoice details into the accounts payable system while ensuring accurate coding of related expenses.
For more job description & duties examples click here.
Administrative Assistant Resume Templates
Legal Administrative Assistant Resume
This is a sample legal admin assistant resume.
It includes a larger summary area to expand upon your experience.
File name: Legal_Admin_Assistant_Resume_Template.docx
File size: 8.1 KB
Total downloads: 84
Medical Administrative Assistant Resume
This medical admin assistant template is great for lots of medical personnel in the healthcare industry.
Use the skills section to get specific about what you can do. Use the employer’s job listing as a guide on what to write.
File name: Medical_Admin_Assistant_Resume_Template_Bold_Professional_Summary.docx
File size: 8.6 KB
Total downloads: 70
Office Administrative Assistant Resume
An office assistant covers many different roles and this resume lets you expand on all of your varying experience.
Describe accomplishments under your job listings.
File name: Admin_Assistant_Resume_Template_Bold_Professional_Summary.docx
File size: 8.6 KB
Total downloads: 93