Personal Assistant Resume  to Download [+ guide and top tips]

As a Personal Assistant, it’s likely you’re too busy running errands, managing meetings, and planning your boss’ schedule to even think about your future. Luckily, we make it easier to coordinate your next career move with our professional resume templates!

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Lauren Hamer
Reviewed by
Lauren Hamer
Career Expert
Updated on October 29, 2024
Written by
ResumeGiants Team
Resume and Cover Letter Experts

Being a personal assistant is a pretty big deal.

You have the professional, and sometimes personal, life of another individual in your hands and it’s your job to make it more efficient and organized than ever before.

You’re not only an expert in business management but you’re an impresario when it comes to personal organization.

Planning, executive communication skills in all its forms, and even boosting personal social media are all in your wheelhouse.

But before you get to do all that, you’ll need a personal assistant resume that’s optimized to impress.

This guide explains everything you need to know to get your personal assistant resume template right, including:

Table of contents:

As well as that, we’ve also got another resume trick up our sleeves to help you save time.

Our free resume builder has everything you need to whip up a stylish personal assistant template in minutes.

This will help you quickly set up your template using your newfound knowledge from our guide.

Let’s get started.

Personal Assistant Resume Sample

To get you started, let’s first look over some pre-prepared personal assistant resume examples.

These can help you get a head start in deciding how to structure the document and prepare your info

Use our personal assistant sample resume below to get a better idea of how things should look.

Resume Example
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[Sandra Franks]

[Personal Assistant]

[5690 Canterbury Drive, NYC, NY, 10069 | 506-123-1638 | sfranks22@gmail.com]

Summary

Dedicated and organized executive personal assistant with 5+ years of experience managing the personal affairs of mid-level executives.

Skilled in overseeing confidential communications, personal social media, and time management.

Proven ability to improve scheduling efficiency by 15%.

Experience

Personal Assistant

Finnegan’s Insurance | NYC, NY

2019 – 2021

  • Responsible for the calendar and communications of the CFO at Finnegan’s
  • Drafted and prepared essential personal and business communications and contracts Managed and protected confidential information of stakeholders, businesses, and clients
  • Improved time organization methods, improving the scheduling of the CFO daily calendar by 15%

Personal Assistant

GCJ Corp | NYC, NY

2016 – 2018

  • Arranged and managed travel plans for mid-tier executives with GCJ
  • Saved over $8,000 through smart scheduling and improved organization
  • Responded to requests for information quickly and professionally Reduced clashes in daily schedules by 10% over 3 months

Education

BS Business Administration

Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY

2013 – 2016

Achieved a 3.5 GPA

Relevant coursework: Planning, budgeting, time-management methodologies, formal writing, business contracts

Skills

  • Organization Correspondence by email, letter, and phone
  • Budgeting
  • Events planning
  • Social media management
  • Confidential information
  • Flexibility

Languages

Spanish – Advanced French – Intermediate

Certifications

Hubspot Academy – Social Media Marketing Course – 2020

Hobbies and Interests

Playing the piano

Photography

This sample resume contains all the main elements recruiters look for in a personal assistant resume.

So we’re going to look at each section step-by-step in the following sections to explain what you should be doing to get you an interview.

What’s the Best Personal Assistant Resume Format?

The first big decision of any resume is the format.

That normally leaves you with 3 choices:

  • Reverse-chronological: Placing your work experience front and center
  • Functional: Focused more on your skills
  • Combination: Giving equal weight to skills and experience

Generally speaking, a personal assistant resume should be a reverse-chronological format.

This is because it’s critical to quickly show a hiring manager that you have recent experience in the field in some form or another.

However, always default to the requested resume format if a job ad states a specific type.

These days it’s never been more essential to use a machine-readable file type.

This is thanks to the rise of applicant tracking systems (ATS) filters into the world of job hunting.

Overall, it’s best to save your personal assistant resume as a PDF file or a .TXT as the filters tend to prefer these formats.

However, as always, if a recruiter specifies a specific file format on the job advert you should always default to that.

Little details like this often count for a lot.

How to write a Personal Assistant Resume Summary or Resume Objective

You’ve got the skills and you’re ready to wow in the experience section.

But what’s the best way to get the recruiter’s eyes on your PA resume right away?

A strong personal assistant description for a resume that’s what!

💡 Top Tip

Read the personal assistant job description before starting your resume. This will help you pinpoint the best ways to impress the recruiter.

The job market is competitive.

You’ve only got a few seconds to contend with the competition.

This is something your description can quickly get sorted.

So what should a clipped and primed personal assistant resume description be like?

Here you’ve got 2 options:

  • A resume summary: A short summary of your professional profile tailored to the job description displaying your key skills, relevant experience, and achievements.
  • A resume objective: A quick introductory statement briefly introducing your career goals and providing some relevant examples of your suitability for the job.

Let’s look at both of these in a bit more detail with some examples.

Personal Assistant Resume Summary Example

The first option is a personal assistant resume summary.

This is a perfect way to quickly summarize your career, to show recruiters that you’ve got the right stuff for the job.

However, this must always be tailored to the exact position, otherwise, it’s not going to get very far.

Don’t ❌

Professional personal assistant, experience in organizing and managing executive daily schedules. Skilled in communication, planning, and time efficiency.

When is the recruiter going to respond to a summary like this?

Half-past never, that’s when!

This is bland, doesn’t tell us anything about you that 1,000 other resumes also say and it’s not going to light a fire under the hiring manager.

Instead, something more refined is needed.

Do ✅

Dedicated and organized executive personal assistant with 5+ years of experience managing the personal affairs of mid-level executives. Skilled in overseeing confidential communications, personal social media, and time management. Proven ability to improve scheduling efficiency by 15%.

Now, this is a bit longer, but it is quickly possible to see why this candidate is a good pick.

It quickly introduces the applicant, gives a few details that hiring managers want to know right now such as your years of experience and some useful transferable skills.

Better still, the personal assistant professional summary here uses numerical figures to break up the text and demonstrate where you’ve provided real value in your career so far.

How to Write a Personal Assistant Resume Objective

Ok, so with option 2, a personal assistant resume objective, things are a little different.

If you’re writing a personal assistant resume with no experience a resume objective can help drum up some support.

This is because it focuses more on detailing your career goals and using them to explain why you’re a good choice for an opening, even if you’re more inexperienced.

💡 Top Tip

Use this opportunity to make yourself as marketable as possible even with a lack of experience.

The resume objective does however still need some special care.

It must still focus on the job at hand and explain why you’re a suitable fit by detailing the skills and experience you can bring to the position.

Let’s see how this works in some practical examples.

Entry-Level Personal Assistant Resume Objectives

When you’re preparing a resume objective as an entry-level candidate, you need to grab the attention of the recruiter first.

This means focusing on why you’re a good fit for the role rather than solely why you want the job.

Something our first example misses entirely.

Don’t ❌

Eager business administration graduate looking for a position as a personal assistant to a mid-high level media executive. Lacking relevant experience but possessing skills in organization, planning, and formal writing.

This has nope written all over it.

In the case above, the candidate spends way too much time on what they want rather than what the position requires.

A career objective for a personal assistant needs a fundamentally different approach than this to succeed.

Do ✅

Graduate with a B.S. in Business with expert experience in managing schedules, planning events, and email management from participating in the Syracuse Young Business Society. Seeking a role as a personal assistant with the Junior CTO of Xero Corp to enhance my practical experience in a corporate setting.

Ok now, this checks a lot of boxes.

It still contains most of the same information as the other example above.

However, here things are inverted and focused on drawing in the recruiter first and foremost before talking about aims.

Most importantly of all, it shows where the candidate’s goals and the hiring manager’s are aligned, with some practical examples thrown in too.

How to Describe Your Personal Assistant Work Experience

You might have the best PA experience possible for the position.

Yet, it’s not going to count for anything if you don’t get the information on the page properly.

In this section, you need to answer questions such as:

  • What are the duties and responsibilities of a personal assistant that gets hired?
  • What kind of personal assistant job are you looking for, will you be working as a celebrity, executive, or household personal assistant resume?
  • How can you get all your professional details written in a way that gets noticed fast?

💡 Top Tip

Tie examples of your skills in action into the work experience section for the best results.

The work experience section may be your biggest hitter on the resume.

But what you add and where you put it matters.

To make sure you get this right, follow these top tips for describing your experience as a personal assistant:

  • Start with your most recent work experience and work backward
  • Keep everything relevant to the position you are applying for
  • Detail examples and statistics of where you were a top performer
  • Add around 4-6 bullet points per job
  • Don’t go back more than 10 years into the past

Executive Personal Assistant Resume Examples: Experience

As an executive personal assistant, you know the ins and outs of the corporate world.

You also are second-to-none when it comes to planning and preparation.

But this won’t mean anything if your abilities are buried in dense prose.

Getting the personal assistant duties on your resume correctly is therefore the key to success.

However, there is a lot to fit in just a short section.

But, as the example below shows, there is a way to do this.

Personal Assistant
Finnegan’s Insurance | NYC, NY
2019 – 2021

  • Responsible for the calendar and communications of Bob Jenkins, the Jr CFO at Finnegan’s
  • Drafted and prepared essential personal and business communications and contracts
  • Managed and protected confidential information of stakeholders, businesses, and clients
  • Improved time organization methods improving the scheduling of Mr. Jenkins’s daily calendar by 15%

Now, this is a resume that can seal a deal.

The executive personal assistant duties for a resume are all present and correct and show this candidate excels at the skills needed in this field.

The executive personal assistant resume sample above does the business for a number of reasons.

Firstly it’s quick and easy to read.

It’s also using a few statistics to show the candidates level of ability

Lastly, it summarizes a lot of varied information, but with a clear focus.

This is precisely the thing a recruiter wants to see.

Celebrity Personal Assistant Resume: Experience Section

Do you have what it takes to work closely with a celebrity.

Can you memorize five coffee orders whilst putting 3 publicity events in the calendar?

Therefore, these are all things that your celebrity personal secretary resume should show off quickly.

Your work experience section can react to this like so:

Celebrity Personal Assistant
Katy McCormack | NYC, NY
2019 – 2021

  • Full-time assistant to musician and performer Katie McCormack
  • Organized and managed daily schedule, including publicity appearances, rehearsals, and book signings
  • Managed personal communications for Miss McCormack, including requests for information, press contacts, and social media on Twitter and Instagram
  • Made travel and accommodation arrangements for personal appearances

This resume deserves an autograph.

Here we’ve got a quick and informative rundown of the candidates’s many skills in dealing with a celebrity’s professional and personal life.

We also have some practical examples of things this candidate can do immediately made obvious.

This is just what a person making hiring decisions needs to know fast.

Is Your Education Section Not Doing the Business? Here’s What to Do

You might think your education section isn’t a big deal on a personal assistant resume.

That’s not the whole story though.

Overlooking, this section can be a grave error.

💡 Top Tip

The more you make your education connect with a job description the more appealing your resume becomes.

Your education section can simply be a quick note saying you have a degree or qualification.

Or it can show that from early on in your life, you’ve been building knowledge that prepared you for the very job you’re targeting.

That could be the difference between an average resume or one with a wow factor.

Let’s look at how this can work in practice.

Personal Assistant Resume Education Section

An education section doesn’t need to be jazzed up too much.

Sometimes just the core fundamentals of your qualification, place of study, and dates of study will do the trick just right.

Although it’s best to avoid information that doesn’t do the job of selling you for the position.

Don’t ❌

BS Business Administration
Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY
2013 – 2016

  • Completed course 2016
  • Participated in Syracuse jazz band society

Yeah, when we said ‘jazzed up’ before, we didn’t mean this!

The stuff about being in the college jazz band society has no place on a personal assistant example resume unless you were doing something relevant to the role on offer.

Otherwise, this is just a waste of space on the page.

Instead, look to optimize things as the example below shows.

Do ✅

BS Business Administration
Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY
2013 – 2016

  • Achieved a 3.5 GPA
  • Relevant coursework: Planning, budgeting, time-management methodologies, formal writing, business contracts

Ok now, this is an education section that’s dressed to impress.

It tells the recruiter everything they need to know about how your education connects to the available position.

Approach things this way and you’ll be on the right track to the best personal assistant resume.

The Best Personal Assistant Resume Skills

Another great way to show your personal assistant duties on your resume is with an A-grade skills section.

Of course, the best abilities to show off on a PA resume always depend on the job you’re applying for and what they want.

The job advert can work as a crib sheet for the skills you should list.

Also, remember to get a mix of hard and soft skills down that show you’ve got the right kind of mindset as well as technical abilities for the job.

Some of the most appealing personal assistant skills to put on your resume include:

Soft Skills

Communication
Attention-to-detail
Flexibility
Time-management
Discretion
Organization
Planning
Diplomacy
Teamwork
Multitasking

Hard Skills

Events
Business administration
Public Speaking
Email, letter, and phone correspondence
Budgeting
Scheduling
Microsoft Office
Social media
Handling confidential information

How to Add Other Sections for an Effective Resume

Now that we’ve covered the most important sections, it’s time to look at some optional alternatives.

These aren’t essential to a personal assistant resume’s success.

However, if chosen right, that can make you 10%-20% more hireable.

💡 Top Tip

Think about what you add carefully, and only include extra sections if you think they’re relevant to the personal assistant job description in front of you.

The end of the resume is your place to round off your already expert abilities and history with some extra incentives.

For example, if you’ve won awards, earned special qualifications, learned languages, or even published some work that could interest the recruiter, now is the time to share it.

Let’s see how these extra sections can work practically.

Personal Assistant Resume Sample “Other” Sections

When you add extra sections to a personal assistant resume, they should stand out.

They must add extra strength to your profile and show that you’re a PA that should get hired right now.

Otherwise, it won’t do much except take up unnecessary space.

Like in the example below…

Don’t ❌

Hobbies and Interests

  • Smoking
  • Shopping
  • Miniature dog breeding

Aha…shopping and keeping miniature dogs. Is that right?

Even if you had a great resume prior to this, this finale might cause some confusion as it’s completely irrelevant to your performance as a PA.

It’s ok to share some information about your personal interests with the recruiter but always aim to put your best foot forward when you do.

Much like our specialized example below.

Do ✅

Languages

  • Spanish – Advanced
  • French – Intermediate

Certifications

  • Hubspot Academy – Social Media Marketing Course – 2020

Hobbies and Interests

  • Playing the piano
  • Photography

Ok, now this is an impressive mix of extra info.

We’ve got details about languages, additional qualifications, and even a few personal interests that can ease getting hired.

The photography part can even work well if your boss requires social media assistance.

Little bonuses like this are like gold dust to the reader.

Key Takeaway

Now that we’ve covered everything you need to know to complete a smart and snappy resume for a personal assistant job you’re ready to create an amazing PA resume template.

However, remember that to get the best from your resume, use these essential tips:

  • Start things off with a clipped and optimized resume summary or objective
  • Focus on your most recent and relevant experience first and foremost
  • Tailor your skills and education for the exact personal assistant job description at hand
  • Add a few extra sections that will make you look bulletproof as a candidate

Creating a resume isn’t everyone’s favorite task but it can be made a lot easier.

Our resume builder can help you put together a template that’s better optimized and easier to edit than the standard Google Docs or Microsoft Word resumes recruiters see all the time.

All it takes is a few clicks now that you have a better idea of what to add.

Lauren Hamer
Reviewed by
Lauren Hamer
Career Expert
Updated on October 29, 2024
Written by
ResumeGiants Team
Resume and Cover Letter Experts

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