Office Assistant Resume

Office assistants make the lives of their managers easier by performing organizational, clerical, and administrative tasks. Office assistants often use software, write reports, organize paperwork and files, schedule meetings and appointments, and maintain an overall productive and friendly atmosphere for the office.

However, because managers rely so heavily on office assistants to make their days go smoothly, they’re often very picky about the people they hire. This means getting a good job as an office assistant isn’t easy, and you’ll need a great office assistant resume that displays your qualifications and relevant experience to get hired.

To help you write the ideal office assistant resume, here are four essential writing tips.

1. Start with a great resume summary or objective

The best way to grab the attention of any employer is by starting your resume with an introduction that concisely summarizes your key skills and experience.  It’s best to do this by writing either a resume summary or resume objective.

If you’re an experienced office assistant, you should write a resume summary because a summary focuses on your previous career-related achievements and skills. Here’s an example of a strong office assistant resume summary from our resume sample:

Punctilious Office Assistant with 8+ years of experience handling confidential paperwork and making routine office tasks efficient as possible. Proven managerial experience supervising clerks while managing CEO’s schedule and travel plans. Strong multitasking, organizational, customer service, and data entry skills, and possess a Technical Writing Certificate. Aiming to leverage my qualifications and skills to fill an office assistant managerial role at BP International.

However, if you’re just getting started in your career as an office assistant, you’ll want to use a resume objective. Resume objectives are a self introduction and statement of purpose that aims to show any relevant or transferrable skills you currently possess.

However, don’t make the mistake of simply telling the employer that you want the job. Employers already know that you want the job and only need to know why they should hire you instead of the next candidate.

Here’s an example of a well-crafted resume objective fit for an entry-level office assistant:

English graduate with 2 years part-time work as an office assistant. Friendly, organized, and efficient, with strong interpersonal and multitasking skills. Have experience with attending to customer needs and managing CRM data entry. Seeking to leverage and improve upon my skills by filling an office assistant position at the Daily Globe.

Notice how in both the resume summary and resume objective, each candidate:

1. Describes the length of their experience:

• Punctilious Office Assistant with 8+ years of experience handling confidential paperwork and making routine office tasks efficient as possible.

• English graduate with 2 years part-time work as an office assistant.

2. Highlights their traits, skills, and achievements:

• Strong multitasking, organizational, customer service, and data entry skills, and possess a Technical Writing Certificate.

• Have experience with attending to customer needs and managing CRM data entry.

3. States their goal and which position they’re applying for:

• Aiming to leverage my qualifications and skills for an office assistant managerial role at BP International.

• Seeking to leverage and improve upon my skills by filling an office assistant position at the Daily Globe.

You’ll want either your resume summary or resume objective to be a quick summarization of the qualifications you include throughout your office assistant resume. Any experience or skills you state in your summary should be backed up with evidence in the following sections of your resume.

2. Quantify your work experience and accomplishments

Quantifying your accomplishments and achievements is the best practice for creating an office assistant resume. Using hard numbers to illustrate your experience gives the hiring manager a clearer picture of how you contributed to your previous job.

Office assistants in particular should add hard numbers to provide evidence of their reliability, efficiency, organizational, and management skills.

Here are three examples of how to properly quantify your work experience:

1. Candidate quantifies their achievements in terms of dollar amounts and total hours saved:

• Simplified data retrieval processes, department record maintenance, and typing and compiling of reports, saving company an average of 500 hours and $24,000 in labor costs annually

2. Candidate quantifies their achievements in terms of percentages:

• Answered an average of 50 calls daily, processing orders, and resolving customer and billing issues. Consistently achieved 95% customer satisfaction rate

3. Candidate quantifies their management skills by detailing how many people they’ve supervised and trained:

• Managed CEO’s travel and daily schedule while supervising and training a staff of 3 clerks and 4 interns on office procedures, including sending correspondences and CRM data entry

Adding hard numbers throughout your office assistant resume will grab the hiring manager’s attention and keep them engaged, while also helping them quickly grasp the scope of your prior experience and qualifications.

Recalling past achievements is often the most difficult part of building your resume. An effective trick is to look up resumes from similar fields, such as a receptionist resume or an office administrator resume, for ideas and fresh ways to frame your qualifications.

3. Include certifications and relevant skills

Office assistants need various skills to do their jobs well, such as managerial skills, organizational skills, customer service skills, and data analysis and processing skills.

To show employers that you’re qualified for the job, you need to highlight your talents in the skills section of your resume.

If you’re not sure what kind of skills to list, here’s a list of common hard and soft skills for an office assistant resume:

Hard skills:

• Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.)
• Expert typist: >50 WPM
• Proficiency in POS systems
• Proficient with scanners, photocopiers, printers, projectors, and fax machines
• Database management
• Proficient with Xero and Quickbooks
• Editing and proofreading
• Transcription
• Inventory management
• Billing, filing, and documentation

Soft skills:

• Oral and written communication
• Problem-solving skills
• Attention-to-detail
• Organizational skills
• Planning
• Phone etiquette
• Customer service
• Discretion and confidentiality
• Researching skills
• Time management
• Interpersonal skills 
• Adaptability

4. Use action verbs on your office assistant resume

In addition to using hard numbers, using action verbs on your office assistant resume is another great tactic to impress the hiring manager.

Actions verbs on your resume convey leadership skills and initiative to the hiring manager, whereas using terms such as “responsible for” and “duties include” are vague and don’t communicate what you accomplished in your previous roles.

Here are two work experience bullet-point examples with the action verbs in bold:

• Generated efficiency reports on order processing, identifying areas for improvement. Implemented new time-saving tactics, saving the company an average of 150 labor hours annually.

• Analyzed all company data entry systems, prepared recommendations for system-wide efficiency improvement

If you’d like more verbs to use, here’s a list of common action verbs that look great on an office assistant resume: