Secretaries & Administrative Assistants
Secretaries and administrative assistants work in nearly every industry for both private sector companies and public (government) agencies. They perform routine clerical duties as assigned by management and provide vital support to key functions of business to ensure operations run smoothly by letting executives focus on growth. Althought administrative support is a very important role for most businesses, the overall employment of secretaries and administrative assistants is projected to decline 9% by the year 2029, slashing 327,400 jobs from the workforce according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Administrative assistants earn a median annual wage of $40,990 as of May 2020 with over 3 million jobs held nationwide. High school graduates who possess experience using computer software aplications such as Microsoft Office usually qualifie for entry-level positions as secretaries in many different fields. However, some fields such as medical/legal require additional training.
Having a resume that accentuates your skills and abilities is very important to get your foot in the door, such as preparing calendars, scheduling meetings, planning special events, greeting guests, collaborating between departments, and providing direct support to executives/CEOs. See below how we transformed Susan's resume into an organized document that reflects her own organizational skills within itself.
Conclusion of Susan's Resume
We were able to capture Susan's core skills using a one-page format by drafting a concise summary paragraph at the top followed by a list of key strengths, education, technical skills, and employment history. Below are a few points on how this resume worked well for our client.
- It's extremly organized. Administrative assistants are expected to be highly organized individuals, and a resume must reflect this by being organized itself. Coordinating meetings, scheduling appointments, and planning travel are clerical functions that leave little room for error, else it will upset the boss and can throw off his/her entire agenda. They want to make sure you are the right one for the job and will keep things rolling on target.
- It includes a relevant and expected set of skills. Although administrative assistants work in many different industries, the responsibilities are usually the same or similar. Highlighting these key phrases helped Susan get noticed for administrative positions with various companies.
- It conveys some unique attributes. Even thought administrative work is generally the same across the board, not all companies are the same and require different functions to be performed. It's important to show things which are unique only to you. For example, with Susan's resume, we focused on points such as "Successfully optimized and streamlined the overall business process through effective administrative reorganization procedures." This not only validated her organizational skills which are expected, but showed the reader that she goes above and beyond to deliver results to the overall business infrastructure.
Writing an administrative resume can be a daunting task if you are afraid of sounding like everyone else. By working with Careers Plus Resumes, we can draw out unique areas of your background that you may not have even thought of before and present your experience in a way that is not boring to read.