How to tailor an administrative assistant resume to a job description
Administrative postings list the tools and tasks of the job: calendars, travel, Microsoft Office, meeting minutes. Here are the keywords to mirror, where they go and how to back them up.
What office managers look for
Administrative assistant applications are screened quickly, often by a recruiter or applicant tracking system looking for the posting's tools and tasks: Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, calendar management, travel arrangements, meeting minutes, expense reports. Titles vary a lot (administrative assistant, executive assistant, office coordinator), so the posting's own words matter more.
Then the office manager or executive reads for trust and scope: whose calendar you ran, how many people or sites you supported, what you handled confidentially. Tailoring means putting the posting's tools and duties first, with the volume behind them.
Administrative assistant resume keywords that usually matter
Pull these from the posting itself, and only use the ones you can back up with real experience.
- Office software: Microsoft Office or Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Google Workspace, SharePoint — under whichever name the posting uses.
- Scheduling and travel: calendar management, meeting coordination, travel arrangements, itineraries, booking, conference rooms.
- Communication: correspondence, phone and email handling, reception, taking meeting minutes, agendas, drafting documents.
- Records and data: filing, document management, data entry, databases, CRM updates, confidentiality.
- Finance admin: expense reports, invoice processing, purchase orders, petty cash, QuickBooks, Xero or SAP Concur — only if the posting asks.
- Office operations: supply ordering, vendor coordination, event planning, onboarding new hires, office management.
- Scope and credentials: executive or C-suite support, team or department size, multi-site offices, and certifications such as CAP or Microsoft Office Specialist if you hold them.
Where each keyword belongs
Your title, years and who you support, in the posting's words — for example, "Administrative assistant with five years supporting a 20-person sales team".
Tools named the way the posting names them — "Microsoft Outlook", "Google Calendar", "QuickBooks" — in a plain list, plus any certification and its year.
Where keywords count most: the task, the tool and the volume (calendars, trips, invoices, people), then what improved.
Onboarding, events, office moves, a new filing system. Postings ask for initiative, so show a time you improved how the office ran.
Before and after: one bullet (example)
Before: "Managed calendars and booked travel for managers." After, for a posting asking for calendar management, travel coordination and Outlook: "Managed the Outlook calendars of three directors and arranged about 15 trips a quarter, resolving scheduling conflicts before they reached the directors." The numbers show the shape, not figures to copy. Use only the volumes you actually handled.
Tailor it in about a minute with JobTailor
The same method, done for you — with every change shown for your approval.
- Open the posting
Open the job on LinkedIn, Indeed or a company careers page with the JobTailor extension, or paste the link into your dashboard.
- Check the match
See your ATS match score and the keywords the posting uses that your resume is missing — like "calendar management" or "expense reports".
- Review the rewrite
JobTailor proposes tailored bullets as tracked changes. Accept the ones that are true, reject the rest, then download a PDF or Word file.
Frequently asked questions
What if my job title doesn't match the posting?
Keep your real title, because employers check it. Use the posting's wording in your summary and bullets for duties you actually did. If you supported executives, say so, even if your title was office assistant.
Should I list soft skills like "organized" or "detail-oriented"?
Only if you show them. Those words are on nearly every resume and prove little. Show the trait through the work: the calendars you juggled, the deadlines you kept, the process you tidied up.
Should I include typing speed?
Only when the posting asks for it or the role is heavy on data entry, and only with a figure from a recent test, such as 60 words per minute.
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