Office Assistant Resume Examples, Skills, and Keywords
Writing an office assistant resume becomes much simpler when you understand what employers want and how they find it. Read more to learn what an office assistant resume looks like and how you can structure it effectively.
Optimize Your Resume
Office Assistant Resume Sample
An office assistant offers essential support to a busy office workplace by taking on tasks like inventory management and directing visitors. Businesses want office assistants to have a strong work ethic, independence, and excellent organizational abilities, along with technological competence and interpersonal skills.
A great office assistant resume will explain how you have demonstrated those skills in the past. You’ll need to highlight hard skills like technical knowledge, soft skills like verbal communication, and your previous experience. Remember, your office assistant resume is a one-page opportunity to convince hiring teams you’re the perfect applicant for the job.
This office assistant resume example demonstrates a nice balance of hard and soft skills while still putting the candidate’s experience in the spotlight.
Chicago, Illinois • (555) 555-1234 • janetandersont@email.com • linkedin.com/in/j-anderson
Office Assistant
Event planning and administrative support expert, leveraging comprehensive knowledge of administrative operations and strong business acumen to provide support at the executive level and facilitate end-to-end coordination of large-scale, international corporate events.
Apply creativity, proactive planning, and strong organizational skills to ensure smooth event execution, with a focus on every detail to meet the needs of each attendee and foster an environment of learning and participation. Expert in managing facilities, schedules, travel, and accommodations on an international scale, while balancing priorities and meeting tight deadlines.
Project Management | Administrative Support | Event Planning & Coordination | Calendar Management | Vendor Negotiations | Travel Coordination | Purchasing & Procurement | Sales & Marketing | Cost Review & Containment | Corporate Communications | Corporate Branding | Customer Service
Manage and structure the organization’s mission and coordinate large-scale international meetings for this global organization representing co-operatives and the co-operative movement worldwide, covering Norway, Sweden, Italy, Egypt, Pakistan, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
- Collaborated with the Web Coordinator in Canada to manage the organization’s website and Facebook presence and communicate the CHI mandate, providing information on issues, upcoming events, legislation, etc., to CHDI member housing co-operatives.
- Organize all aspects of two international Board of Directors meetings annually, including the CHI meeting held in conjunction with the International Co-operative Alliance Global Conference. Coordinate registrations for the meeting and workshops, book hotel rooms, secure travel information, including visas and other travel documentation pertaining to the laws of the host country, and research currency exchange rates. Prepare board packages and forward to each member prior to the meeting.
- Partner with graphic designers to create the information brochure that communicates event educational opportunities, registration fees, locations, and times, etc. Edit and proofread the brochure before printing and distribution to the member co-operatives and upload to the organization’s website.
- Coordinate the educational program of CHDI’s large-scale, 5-day Annual Meeting with up to 800 attendees. Review travel/hotel arrangements for workshop leaders and forward all information. Edit PowerPoint presentations by the workshop leaders, for quality and adherence to the organization’s brand.
Resume written by Erin Kennedy, CPRW
Why this resume works
Office Assistant Resume Skills and Keywords
Administrative positions like office assistant jobs often receive many applicants in a short period. Hiring managers use tools to check for office assistant resume keywords in these applications. If your resume contains those keywords, the filter assumes you have the resume skills that make you a worthwhile choice for personal attention. Using the correct terms in your resume can help you increase your chances of being seen.
Top Office Assistant Resume Skills
- Work ethic
- Organization
- Time management
- Microsoft Office
- Flexibility
- Written communication
- Verbal communication
- Problem-solving
- Attention to detail
- Creativity
- Teamwork
- Google Suite
- Digital file organization
- Data entry
- Bookkeeping
- Phone etiquette
- Prioritization
- Invoicing
- Scheduling
- Report and document preparation
- Records management
- Transcription
- Resilience
- Research
- Interpersonal skills
- Editing
- Active listening
- Call routing
- Positivity
- Inventory management
After you’ve identified the strengths and skills you can offer potential employers, you can develop an excellent resume by following these five guidelines:
1. Use your summary effectively
Traditional resume structure includes a first paragraph known as a resume summary. This summary is your opportunity to describe in two to three sentences why you’re the right fit for the position. Your summary may be the only thing a hiring manager reads, so it’s important to make it count.
Your resume summary explains your work experience, your primary skills, and your objective or goal. An office assistant resume example summary might be, “Enthusiastic office assistant focused on using organizational and communication at Brown Co. 2 years of experience includes assisting a 5-person office, managing a 4-line phone system, and improving office efficiency by 15%.”
This summary is great for two reasons: it gives examples of how the applicant succeeded in the past and explains what they want to do at their new position. That offers the reader a clear idea of what this candidate may achieve in their business.
2. Clarity is king
If you haven’t had much experience in administrative work, you may not have had many specific responsibilities at past jobs. It’s still worth the time to describe what you actually did, even if it wasn’t in your job description.
For example, “answering phones” is vague. “Answering patron questions, directing calls, and scheduling appointments” is a more specific description of the same work. It shows you understand the details of what’s expected of you and allows you to use more keywords filtering systems can pick up.
Use hard numbers to add clarity to your resume, too. Quantifiable data lets hiring managers directly compare your major accomplishments to those of other applicants. If you answered 50 or more calls a day, say so. Additionally, if you use numerals instead of written-out words, your accomplishments will catch the reader’s eye.
3. Include an office assistant skills section
A skills section is a valuable addition to your resume. Most hiring managers will skim the majority of resumes they receive, and a skills section is a great way to make resumes skim-friendly. You can list your office assistant resume skills all in one place, so the reader doesn’t need to sift through your work history to spot them.
Skills sections also give you the chance to add more office assistant resume keywords to your application. Suppose your Microsoft Office skills haven’t been relevant to past positions. In that case, you can list them under skills without having to shoehorn them somewhere they don’t fit.
4. List education and certificates separately
There are certifications and programs you can complete that help you build the skills to be a successful office assistant. If you’ve taken these programs, list them under their own section apart from education. If working in assistant roles is your second career, your education may not directly relate to the field. Showing that you’ve taken the time to learn skills in your new area demonstrates your dedication.
Like your work history, list education and certifications in reverse chronological order. This puts your most recent and most advanced learning at the top of the list. Readers will see your most important qualifications, and they can skip the rest if they’re in a rush.
5. Showcase your communication skills
Many administrative positions require excellent communication skills, both written and spoken. Your resume is the perfect opportunity to showcase your ability to write well.
The easiest way to do this is to use active, straightforward language. “Make” and “handle” are generic verbs. Instead, use action verbs like:
- Write
- Create
- Implement
- Build
- Record
- Document
- Maintain
- Repair
These words describe more precisely what you did. They also show that you can communicate well.
Finally, always proofread your resume before you send it out. You may even have a friend or an online tool check your work for you. Typos and mistakes work against you in many administrative positions. An error-free resume is more likely to get you an interview than a document with grammar problems or misspellings.
