Administrative Assistant Resume Keywords (2026): Skills, Tools and Bullet Examples

The keywords, tools, certifications and achievement bullets that recruiters look for on an administrative assistant resume, plus a quick checker to see which ones yours already has. Use them honestly: only add what you can back up in an interview.

Top hard skills for administrative assistant resumes

These are the skill phrases that appear most often in administrative assistant job descriptions. Use the exact wording from the ad you're applying to; ATS searches are often literal.

Tools and software

Certifications and licences

• Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)
• Certified Administrative Professional (CAP)
• typing speed (e.g. 70 WPM)

Soft skills: show them, don't list them

Recruiters skip "team player" and "hard-working". Instead, prove organization, discretion, proactivity through results in your bullets. For example, "trained 5 new colleagues" shows mentoring, and "handled 60 calls a day at 94% satisfaction" shows patience under pressure.

How recruiters search for administrative assistants

Admin recruiters search software (Microsoft 365, Excel, Google Workspace), who you supported (executives, teams), and specific tasks (calendar management, travel, invoicing).

Check your resume against these keywords

Administrative Assistant achievement bullets you can adapt

Strong bullets follow action verb + what you did + measurable result. Replace the numbers with your own real figures.

• Managed calendars and travel for 4 senior managers across 3 time zones with no missed meetings.
• Coordinated 20+ internal meetings and 6 client events per month, including catering and room bookings.
• Set up a shared digital filing system in SharePoint that cut document search time by about 70%.
• Processed 150+ invoices and expense reports a month with 100% accuracy.
• Cut office supply costs 18% by consolidating vendors and tracking usage.
• Onboarded 25 new hires with IT access, badges and induction schedules.

Resume summary example

More examples: resume summary examples for 20 roles.

LinkedIn headline examples for administrative assistants

• Administrative Assistant | Executive Calendar & Travel | Microsoft 365
• Office Administrator | Operations & Vendor Management
• Executive Assistant | Supporting C-Level Leaders | Discreet & Organized

Generate your own with the free LinkedIn headline generator.

Strong action verbs for administrative assistant resumes

See the full list of 120 resume action verbs.

Common administrative assistant resume mistakes

• A list of tasks with no scale (how many people, meetings, invoices).
• Leaving out software skills; admin roles are often filtered on Excel and Outlook.
• Using "proficient in MS Office" instead of naming specific skills (mail merge, pivot tables).

Format it for the country you're applying in

Keywords get you found; format gets you read. A US resume is 1–2 pages on Letter paper with no photo, a UK CV is 2 pages of A4 with a personal profile, and a Gulf CV shows visa status and notice period in the header. See the CV and resume format guides by country or build yours in the free resume builder.

Related