An executive assistant resume showcases your ability to excel in a high-level supporting role. It’s a concise professional document that outlines your key skills and accomplishments, helping you pass applicant tracking system (ATS) scans, impress recruiters, and land job interviews.
In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know to write an outstanding executive assistant resume. We’ll go through the different formats and layouts, talk about mandatory and optional sections, give you complete examples to learn from, and top it all off with expert tips.
Key Takeaways
The best format for the majority of executive assistants is the chronological resume format, with functional and combination formats being suitable for entry-level candidates and those with employment gaps.
Writing a catchy resume objective or summary that highlights your biggest strengths helps you grab the attention of recruiters.
When listing your work experience, focus on quantifiable results and KPIs over everyday tasks and assignments.
The skills section should contain both hard and soft skills, but you should keep them separated due to their differences.
You should always write a cover letter alongside your resume to demonstrate your willingness to go the extra mile and your motivation.
2 Outstanding Executive Assistant Resume Examples
Here are two complete examples of executive assistant resumes to help you visualize what this document looks like:
Keep reading to learn how to create resumes like these even if you’ve never written a resume before.
What Format to Use for an Executive Assistant Resume
There are three established formats for your executive assistant resume that are used by most job seekers. They are:
Popular Resume Formats
Chronological resume format. This is the most common format by far, and it arranges your work history and past accomplishments in reverse-chronological order. It’s recruiters’ favorite and is compatible with ATS.
Functional resume format. This format is for entry-level professionals, as it focuses on skills over work history. It allows you to emphasize your strengths even when you haven’t had any professional experience. The downside is that the format often isn’t compatible with ATS platforms.
Combination (hybrid) resume format. This format is useful when you have gaps in employment. It focuses on skills, just like the functional format, but backs up each skill with a list of accomplishments, just like in the chronological format.
Executive Assistant Resume Layout
A resume layout refers to the visual structure of the document. As an executive assistant, you want your resume to be clean, organized, and professional. Here are some tips on how you can achieve that look:
Resume Layout Guidelines
Length. Keep your resume to one page unless you have decades of experience or the employer specifically asks for more pages.
Font. Choose one of the standard fonts for resumes, like Arial or Helvetica. The size should be 10–12 pt for regular text and 14–16 pt for section headings.
Margins. They need to be uniform and at least 1 inch.
Line spacing. Standard line spacing is 1.0 or 1.15, depending on the contents of your resume.
Executive Assistant Resume Mandatory and Optional Sections
Your executive assistant resume should consist of mandatory and optional sections.
There are five mandatory parts, and they represent the core of any resume, as they convey the essential details about you. These sections are:
Mandatory Sections
Contact information
Resume objective/summary
Work experience
Education
Skills
Optional sections vary depending on your qualifications and the position you’re after. Some of the sections to consider for your executive assistant resume include:
Optional Sections
Certifications
Languages
Professional associations
Hobbies and interests
To ensure you don’t forget any critical sections and to get AI-powered recommendations when writing your resume, you can use our resume builder. It’s a comprehensive software solution that comes with ready-made resume templates and a user-friendly interface.
With our builder, you can customize the entire layout of the document, adjust the colors, and change fonts with a single click. Our AI assistant will polish your writing and help you include the important keywords, so that you can have a professional resume completed in minutes!
Executive Assistant Resume Template
Here’s one of the templates for an executive assistant resume that you can use with our resume builder:
Executive Assistant Resume Template
Name and Surname
Phone number: 000-000-0000 | Email: namesurname@gmail.com | Location: City, State
[Adjective] [your job title] with [years of experience, if applicable] in [your area of expertise, if applicable] looking for a [position] job at [company name]. Eager to apply [relevant skills] gained through [work/volunteer/other experience] to help [company name] [mention what you can do for the company].
Work Experience
Most Recent/Current Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Previous Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For recent jobs, use 5-6 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Oldest Job Title Company City, State [Start date] — [End date]
For older jobs, use 2-3 bullet points to list your top achievements and responsibilities
Use action verbs to make your responsibilities and achievements stand out
Add numbers to quantify your achievements
Education
[Degree] in [Major] [University/college name] [Start date] - [Graduation date]
Skills
Soft Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Hard Skills
Skill #1
Skill #2
Skill #3
Skill #4
Skill #5
Additional Sections
Add any relevant additional sections (languages, licenses, publications, hobbies, etc.)
Executive Assistant Resume Contact Information
Contact information is a straightforward section, where you list the following details in the header of your resume:
Your name
Job title
Phone number
Email address
These are standard details, to which you can also add your:
Address (but only city and state)
LinkedIn profile
Relevant social media
Let’s see what that looks like in practice:
Contact Information Example
Racquel Jones
Executive Assistant
415-863-6579
San Francisco, CA
linkedin.com/in/racquel.jones
Here are some things to avoid when writing your contact information:
Irrelevant social media profiles and links
Overly creative or funny job titles
Outdated email addresses
Personal photo
Sensitive private information
Executive Assistant Resume Objective and Summary
An objective and summary are introductory sections for your executive assistant resume. They represent your elevator pitch, helping you grab the reader’s attention with your key strengths.
Entry-level executive assistants should write an objective to emphasize their skills and career goals. Experienced executive assistants, meanwhile, can use a summary to point out one or two of their career’s most notable accomplishments.
Executive Assistant Resume Objective
An executive assistant resume objective needs to show that you have the necessary skills to perform in an entry-level role and the motivation to learn and improve.
Let’s see that in a good example:
Good Example
Recent graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Philosophy, looking for an entry-level position as an executive assistant in [Company Name]. Adept at Google Workspace and Microsoft Office Suite. Eager to support your operations on the road to becoming an operations manager.
Let’s compare that to a bad example:
Bad Example
Entry-level executive assistant looking for their first job. No real-world experience, but I’m a quick learner.
This example doesn’t work because it doesn’t provide any details about skills or goals apart from stating that the candidate is looking for work.
Executive Assistant Resume Summary
A well-written executive assistant resume summary shows a couple of your key achievements, persuading the recruiter to look at the rest of your qualifications.
Here’s a good example:
Good Example
Detail-oriented executive assistant with more than three years of experience, looking for a position at [Company Name]. Experience in supporting three executive operations managers and a CEO. Managed monthly networking lunch for 35+ attendees. Eager to contribute to your operations and provide strategic support to C-level staff.
For comparison, here’s a bad example:
Bad Example
Executive assistant looking for a new job. I have years of professional experience in various environments.
If you don’t showcase anything concrete about your accomplishments, your summary will look vague and uninteresting.
How to Add Professional Executive Assistant Experience to Your Resume
Professional experience often represents the central part of an executive assistant resume, so let’s show you how to make it perfect.
General Tips
Let’s start with what you need to include in your work experience section. For each previous job that you add to your resume, you want to list the following details:
Work Experience Section
Your role
Company name
Employment dates
Notable achievements
If you’re adding multiple previous jobs, make sure that they are all relevant to the role that you’re applying for, and include them in reverse-chronological order.
For each job, you should include several (typically 3–5) bullet points with exceptional achievements that demonstrate how you excelled in the role. Here are some tips on how to make those achievements pop:
Focus on the results and KPIs over everyday tasks.
Use action verbs and power words to make your writing more engaging.
Incorporate numbers to quantify your efforts and make them more concrete.
Executive Assistant With No/Little Experience
If you’re applying for your first job as an executive assistant, you can still write a strong professional experience section by using analogous activities. This includes volunteer work, internships, and other jobs that require a similar skill set.
Here’s an example of a candidate using their previous job as a receptionist to demonstrate qualifications needed for executive assistants:
Executive Assistant With No Experience Example
Work Experience
Receptionist
High Rise Properties Denver, CO July 2025–Current
Spearheaded company-wide Calendly implementation, increasing call rate for sales appointments with executives by 13%.
Performed quarterly orders for office supplies and maintained accurate inventory in Excel.
Updated client lists every 3 months and conducted a relationship-building bi-monthly outreach via newsletters.
Experienced Executive Assistant
As an experienced executive assistant, you want to demonstrate a diverse array of qualifications. For instance, 70% of executive assistants work in hybrid models nowadays, so you should emphasize your proficiency in both office and remote work, if the role requires it.
Here’s an example of a well-written work experience section for seasoned executive assistants:
Experienced Executive Assistant Example
Work Experience
Executive Assistant
Streamline Solutions San Francisco, CA August 2022–November 2025
Provided dedicated support to a company CEO, managing their calendar, schedules, and events 5 days per week.
Assisted the CEO in developing board meeting presentations in PowerPoint, designing 3 templates to expedite the process.
Tracked deadlines and deliverables to improve remote collaboration using Asana, boosting project completion times by 27%.
Discovered 15% in company overpayments by analyzing Excel expense reports.
Executive Assistant Resume Education Section
The education section of your executive assistant resume adds validity to your skills.
If you’re an experienced executive assistant, you should keep this section short and let your work history do the heavy lifting. In that case, you want to briefly list the following details:
Education Section Details
Your highest degree
The institution that you attended
Years of attendance
In practice, that looks like this:
Education Section Example
Education
Bachelor of Science in Psychology San Francisco Bay University, San Francisco, CA 2018–2021
Entry-level executive assistants and recent graduates with modest work history can put more emphasis on this section. To do this, you can add a bullet list with notable academic accomplishments, such as a high GPA, relevant coursework, or extracurricular activities.
Also, if you’re applying for a job while still studying, you can include your unfinished degree. If you’re going to graduate soon, put “expected” next to the graduation year. Otherwise, omit the graduation year and write “current” instead.
Executive Assistant Resume Skills
When adding skills to your executive assistant resume, you want to create a compact list of your abilities that are most relevant to the specific role you’re applying for. This will give recruiters a concise overview of your critical qualifications.
Plus, an accurate skills section will help your resume pass ATS screening, since skills act as keywords for the software. That’s why it’s essential to research the company and the role to determine the abilities they are looking for in candidates. This will allow you to cross-reference them with your competencies to create an optimal list for your application.
Once you do that, you need to include hard skills first, followed by a separate collection of soft skills. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 50% of global employers want a strong mix of hard and soft skills. Both are critical for your job application, but they are quite different in nature and need to be displayed as such.
Finally, you showcase your skills throughout the resume, in your objective, summary, and work experience sections. Connect your skills to relevant accomplishments to substantiate them and turn vague claims of competence into concrete proofs. Whenever you mention a notable result, highlight a skill that helped you accomplish it.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are necessary to do the job, and they are role-specific. These skills are typically taught and learned through traditional channels or on the job. They encompass industry-specific competencies, technical skills, and more.
Here are some hard skills to consider for your executive assistant resume:
Microsoft Office Suite
Google Calendar
Calendly
Asana
Slack
Salesforce
HubSpot
Zapier
Soft Skills
Soft skills are usable across different jobs and industries. They encompass various interpersonal abilities and personality traits you obtain and improve continuously through real-world experience.
Let’s see what some of the most sought-after soft skills for executive assistants are:
Time management
Adaptability
Organization
Attention to detail
What Other Sections Can You Add to Your Executive Assistant Resume?
In addition to mandatory sections, there are many other optional sections that you can add to your executive assistant resume. They can help you get ahead of the competition as long as they provide information useful to the role that you’re applying for.
Certifications
Certifications represent concrete proof of your competence. Moreover, they demonstrate a proactive approach to improving and progressing your career, which is something employers always look for in candidates.
If you have certifications like an IAAP Certified Administrative Professional or the Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence (PACE), you should add them to your resume. Make sure to include the full name of the certification, the institution that issued it, the years you obtained it, and the year it expires, if applicable.
Languages
Language skills allow you to thrive in diverse environments and in companies that operate in global markets. They enhance your ability to collaborate with coworkers and communicate with clients.
When adding these skills to your resume, make sure to include your proficiency level using a standardized framework of reference. Then, list the languages in descending order, starting with your native tongue.
Professional Associations
Being a member of a professional association shows that you actively engage in the field and practice continuous professional development.
Memberships in organizations like the American Society of Administrative Professionals and the Association of Executive and Administrative Professionals can boost both your resume and your career efforts.
Hobbies & Interests
The section about hobbies and interests can add a personal touch to a formal resume. Keep this section brief and try to include activities that demonstrate soft skills, like organization or perseverance.
Do I Need a Cover Letter as an Executive Assistant?
Yes, you need an executive assistant cover letter to maximize your chances of impressing recruiters. By writing and submitting this document alongside your resume, you demonstrate dedication and willingness to go the extra mile. A cover letter is a professional but less formal document than a resume. As a result, you can use it to talk about your motivation and reasons for applying for a specific job, in addition to highlighting more of your skills and qualifications. Still, the letter should be brief and to the point, around 250–400 words, or 3–5 paragraphs.
3 Valuable Tips for Crafting a Strong Executive Assistant Resume
Before we wrap up this comprehensive guide on how to write a resume for an executive assistant, let’s go through expert resume tips that will help you turn the document from good to exceptional:
Highlight the right experience. One of the key strengths of the assistants is saving time for the executives. Depending on the requirements of the role, you should emphasize your proficiency in time-saving activities, like call screening, inbox management, and meeting organization.
Proofread with care. Attention to detail is a must for an executive assistant. While a mistake on any resume can raise red flags, it can be even more damaging to your case. Make sure to proofread your resume multiple times, use spell checkers, and give your resume to a trusted friend or colleague to give it another look before submission.
Match your cover letter to your resume. A cover letter isn’t a standalone document but an extension of your resume. The two documents should match both in design and content. Add new information to your cover letter instead of repeating what you’ve already included in your resume.
Build your standout executive assistant resume in minutes
Use our AI-powered resume builder now!Closing Thoughts
The percent of industry employment for executive assistants ranges from 0.23 in libraries and archives to 2.97 for securities and commodity contracts. This amounts to about 1,200 new openings per year. The best way to land one of those positions is with a strong and impactful executive assistant resume.
Remember to write a compelling resume objective and summary to grab the reader’s attention. Following that, you want to quantify your accomplishments to show proof of your competence. And don’t forget to check out our resume builder and refer to resume examples if you want to create a professional document that’s perfectly tailored to the job description.
