Office Assistant Resume: Free Example & How-To Guide

As an Office Assistant, you’re used to giving the higher-ups a hand and making sure the office runs smoothly. Now it’s your turn to receive some assistance. Our customized resume templates can help you help yourself land your dream job.

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Margaret Buj
Reviewed by
Margaret Buj
Career expert
Updated on July 16, 2024
Written by
ResumeGiants Team
Resume and Cover Letter Experts

Office assistant jobs are competitive and only reserved for the best candidates, and for these reasons, you need a compelling resume that conveys your value as a worthy hire. This vital document outlines your experience, expertise, skills, achievements, and more, giving you a chance to secure the role.

A well-written office assistant resume encourages the hiring manager to learn more about you and schedule an interview better to understand your abilities and proficiency in the career.

For this reason, this guide presents some sure-fire tips and recommendations on home to create a compelling office assistant resume effectively.

In this article, you will learn:

  • The correct format for your resume
  • How to use an objective or summary
  • Wrong and right examples
  • What to do when you have no office assistant experience

Let’s begin!

Office Assistant Resume Sample

Your office manager resume is a crucial document that helps you get one foot in the door of your desired position. However, you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression; else, you’ll return to scouting for a vacancy in another company.

Fortunately, you don’t have to experience such misfortune thanks to our professional resume builder. This platform presents tips, guides, and temples; all you need to communicate your value on paper.

With our office manager resume templates, you won’t have to worry about using the correct format, font size, style, heading, etc. Instead, merely pick one of the thousands of templates and insert your qualifications. It’s an effective way to save time and energy on the task.

Resume Example
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[Lucia Scott]

[Office Assistant]

[Dakota, MN 9 | 963-451-6168 | lucia.scott@gmail.com]

Summary

Dedicated office assistant with over seven years of experience, aiming to provide office excellence at Capricorn Inc. Have fulfilled various office duties, including CRM data entry and shipping fulfillment at various firms. Raised customer complaint rectification by 69% and decreased schedule-related errors by 43% at Wolfgang Rock Mineral.

Experience

Work Experience

Office Assistant

Belle Beauty Inc., Boston, MA

2018-2021

  • Completed office assistant duties for a fast-paced beauty company, including customer relationship maintenance, communication logistics, and shipping handling.
  • Read and respond to client emails, increasing customer retention by 33% and resolving complaints 54% faster than previous office assistants.
  • Completed reports, correspondence, and scheduling using Microsoft Word, Excel, and spreadsheet, lowering scheduling mistakes by 54% and clerical errors by 15%.
  • Completed CRM data entry for all sales orders and solved a reoccurring office problem that saved the establishment $25,000 annually.

Cashier

Integrity Corp., Dallas, TX

2016 – 2018

  • Helped customers by answering questions and fulfilling requests
  • Processed new orders efficiently and completed 50+ daily transactions with impressive accuracy.
  • Confirmed the price of specific items for customers and processed products by scanning barcodes.

Education

BA, Liberal Arts

Walden University

2009 – 2012

  • Pursued public speaking as a passion and completed the coursework
  • Excelled in writing and document creation
  • Member of the Women in Technology Chapter
  • Monitored and scheduled shows for the campus radio station

>> Certifications <<

  • Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration

Skills

  • Data Entry
  • Customer Service
  • Written Communication
  • Organization
  • Time Management

Interests

  • Dance
  • Roller Skating

Choosing the Best Format for Your Resume

A document’s format is necessary as it makes information appearance more predictable and accessible to the reader. Essentially, the right formatting guides how you include headings, ideas, fonts, text size, and keywords, allowing you to make a good impression.

This factor is equally necessary when creating a compelling office assistant resume since having the correct format allows the hiring manager to review your application with little to no hassle involved.

The popular format in the corporate environment for writing resumes is the reverse-chronological method. Essentially, this format required you to put your most recent details in each heading first, with the older details appearing last.

This recommended office assistant format is ideal because most hiring managers care about your current skills, education, and achievements and are barely interested in impressive feats done 10+ years ago.

Since the economy and industry are always evolving, having your most recent performance appear first is a good way to quickly display your value to the employer.

Remember the following when composing your resume:

  • Use clear and popular fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman, etc.)
  • Attract attention to specific areas of your resume using italic, bold, and capital letters.
  • Avoid flashily or custom fonts as most word processors won’t display them properly.
  • Improve readability by using white spaces as they make the document easier to scan through and less intimidating.

💡 Top Tip

Save your office assistant job resume in pdf format. Word processors sometimes save in different formats and may look diferent on the hiring manager’s computer.

How to Write an Office Assistant Resume Summary or Objective

It’s not uncommon for applicants to only include the necessary parts of a resume in their document and forget to write a resume summary or objective. In other words, remembering to add this section at the beginning of your resume can set you apart from the competition.

Besides being a game-changer, a well-written office assistant resume begins with a resume objective or summary. Both concepts are short paragraphs that either summarize your resume or state your objective upon employment.

To better understand both concepts and how to use them in your resume, here’s more information:

Resume Summary:

An office assistant resume summary is a short paragraph at the beginning of your document summarizing your work experience and current skills. It’s an effective way for the hiring manager to quickly glance through your offering and decide whether the rest of your document is worthwhile.

💡top tip

Avoid making the resume summary exceed four lines as it will become intimidating to read and more likely to be discarded.

Right ✅

Dedicated office assistant with over seven years of experience, aiming to provide office excellence at Capricorn Inc. Have fulfilled various office duties, including CRM data entry and shipping fulfillment at various firms. Raised customer complaint rectification by 69% and decreased schedule-related errors by 43% at Wolfgang Rock Mineral

Wrong ❌

I have been an office assistant for many years and have worked for many corporations to raise their bottom line and customer satisfaction. As a result, I’m result-oriented and driven to succeed.

Resume Objective:

On the other hand, a resume objective is a brief paragraph that explains what you wish to achieve, assuming you were given your desired position. It’s a smart way to communicate to the hiring manager that your desires are consistent with the company’s goals.

Aligning your goal with the company’s objectives can impress most hiring managers, thereby encouraging them to continue reading your resume. However, it’s worth noting that a resume objective is mostly an option when you don’t possess much experience under your belt but have sufficient skills and education for the job. There is definitely no need for a Resume Objective for an experienced candidate.

Example:

Right ✅

Effective office assistant, looking to use proven communications and tech skills for business improvement at Styx, Inc. Have managed temp administrative assistant duties for multiple companies in tech, FMCG and retail sectors. Completed CRM Data entry, Answered calls, and performed administrative tasks. Received frequent commendations from management for efficiency and a positive attitude.

Wrong ❌

I am a Goal-oriented office assistant with the ability to analyze business models and improve them. Unfortunately, I have no office experience now, but I hope to get one once I work in your prestigious organization.

Not Sure How to Describe your Experience in an Office?

Hiring managers are bombarded with hundreds of resumes for the specific position, and the best way to stand out is to offer your experience with zero flaws. So, naturally, this section takes the bulk of your document since it’s necessary for employers to see that your skills were validated in your previous position.

We recommend including two or more descriptions of your past roles to understand your performance better. While outlying these details, proceed with additional information about your daily activities at the office and how you completed tasks and made progress.

When writing about your experience, it helps to include data like statistics or any other metric for measuring your success. Managers are impressed by numbers as they convey improvement and attention to detail.

Ensure that you keep your experience section consistent with the job description and the hiring manager’s expectations. For example, if the job description for the office assistant position requires candidates to know about database management and record-keeping, consider showcasing your proficiency in your experience section.

Essentially, including more details in your experience section and connecting them with some hard and soft skills effectively raises your chances of employment.

Right ✅

Office Assistant

Belle Beauty Inc., Boston, MA

2018-2021

  • Completed office assistant duties for a fast-paced beauty company, including customer relationship maintenance, communication logistics, and shipping handling.
  • Read and respond to client emails, increasing customer retention by 33% and resolving complaints 54% faster than previous office assistants.
  • Completed reports, correspondence, and scheduling using Microsoft Word, Excel, and spreadsheet, lowering scheduling mistakes by 54% and clerical errors by 15%.
  • Completed CRM data entry for all sales orders and solved a reoccurring office problem that saved the establishment $25,000 annually.

Cashier

Integrity Corp., Dallas, TX

2016 – 2018

  • Helped customers by answering questions and fulfilling requests
  • Processed new orders efficiently and completed 50+ daily transactions with impressive accuracy.
  • Confirmed the price of specific items for customers and processed products by scanning barcodes.

Wrong ❌

Impeccable Law

2014 – 2018

  • Completed my office duties despite the company’s fast pace
  • Types a lot in Microsoft Word and Excel
  • Monitored clients
  • Regularly kept the boss’s coffee warm

💡top tip

Keep the experience section consistent and relevant to the job description, as the slightest deviation can rapidly drop your chances of employment.

Entry-level Office Assistant: Experience Section

If you’re a fresh college graduate, you’re unlikely to have any or much experience yet. However, office experience exists in almost every profession, meaning you most likely have something worthwhile to include in your resume. With these points in mind, we recommend digging through previous jobs you’ve done (even internships) and finding related experiences like managing phone calls or handling customers.

On the other hand, if you really don’t have any work experience yet, you can always volunteer for a few hours and get the necessary parts down. You don’t need to work a year or month while volunteering; a few hours or days may suffice.

You can find such volunteer work at call centers, Craigslist, friends and family, non-profit organizations, etc.

All you need is to put in sufficient hours to claim that you experienced the detail honestly you’re about to write in your entry-level office assistant experience section.

Here’s an example of an entry-level office assistant resume experience section:

Right ✅

Office Admin

Kingpin Global, Dallas, TX

2016-2017

  • Worked as an office admin in several temp and freelance positions.
  • Created PowerPoint presentations for Chief of Staff.
  • Answered phones, responded to approximately 50 customer emails every day

Wrong ❌

  • No experience yet. I hope to begin my journey and gain stability in your firm.

💡top tip

Since your experience section is entry-level, use a resume objective instead of a resume summary since the former focuses less on your experience and more on your skill.

Is Your Education Section Misfiled? It Might Be

Like with any corporate role, you need a certain level of education to qualify to be an office assistant for the company you wish to work for. You need to show the hiring manager that you have the necessary training to handle the job.

Detailing your education on your office manager resume is as simple as writing out the institution’s name, degree type, and graduation year. However, to maximize your chances of employment and outline your education without leaving room for errors, here’s our recommended format:

  • School Name and Location
  • Years in School
  • Degree type

Right ✅

BA, Liberal Arts

Walden University

2009 – 2012

  • Pursued public speaking as a passion and completed the coursework
  • Excelled in writing and document creation
  • Member of the Women in Technology Chapter
  • Monitored and scheduled shows for the campus radio station

Wrong ❌

Walden University

2009 – 20012

  • Graduated with a 2.1 GPA
  • Finished my courses

*Note: Only show your GPA if it’s an incredibly impressive score; else, fill the line with some other detail.

The Best Office Assistant Skills for Your Resume

It’s possible to be experienced in your fields, have worked for a few reputable companies, and still have your resume rejected with an email saying, “Thank you for applying; however, we’ve chosen a more skilled applicant”.

Your skill section is just as important as every other part of your resume, and a poorly written one can drastically decrease your chances of getting hired.

Remember that you need to divide your skill section into two parts, soft skills, and hard skills; both contain different content.

Here is more information:

Hard Skills

Hard skills are sophisticated sets of abilities that can’t be acquired intuitively but need to be taught. These skills can be taught through books, online courses, classrooms, or jobs.

In jobs like retail, hard skills can include restocking shelves and closing cash drawers, while in tech, it can be coding in Java or network configuration.

Soft Skills

Soft Skills are mostly not unique to any job; instead, they are abilities necessary for any business person that works either alone or with a team.

Unlike Hard skills, Soft skills don’t require any tutoring to learn since they can be acquired through interactions with other people as you grow into adulthood.

Soft Skills

  • Management Skills
  • Written communication
  • Verbal communication
  • Planning
  • Organization
  • Reliability
  • Detail-oriented
  • Time management
  • Problem-solving
  • Dependability

Hard Skills

  • Data Entry
  • Microsoft Office
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Shipping
  • Customer service
  • Phone answering
  • Billing
  • Office equipment
  • Quickbooks

Be Sure to Add Your Contact Details!

Your contact details section is as valuable as other parts of your resume. No matter how qualified you are for the position, it’s useless if the hiring manager can’t reach out to you for an interview.

Fortunately, this section isn’t difficult to include in your resume since all that’s needed is your name, email, and a phone number.

Here is our recommendation below:

  • Name (full name)
  • Professional Email address
  • Physical mailing address (optional except if requested)
  • Active cell phone number
  • Links to a professional profile or portfolio (optional)

*Note: Write your name in capital letters and make sure your address and email have no errors since such mistakes will doom your chances of employment.

To Summarize

Ultimately, a well-written office assistant resume is the key to acquiring your dream job, and the tips presented in this guide are sufficient to maximize your chances of employment. According to proven methods and industry standards, your resume should contain:

  • The reverse-chronological format since it brings your most recent achievements first
  • Contain information relevant and consistent with the job description
  • Use either a resume summary or objective to convey your value as a potential hire and keep the employer reading.
  • Separate your skills into soft and hard skills, and fill them with the appropriate abilities.

Writing a compelling office assistant resume is hard work, especially if you don’t regularly create official documents from scratch. Fortunately, you can ease the hassle by using our free Resume Builder, available for a trial period. It comes with thousands of templates and guides, ensuring you save time and energy while creating a professional document.

Free Resume Templates

Using resume templates that are proven to work will help you to move your career search forward. Start and customize as many resumes as you need with our free resume builder .