How to List Office Assistant Skills On a Resume: Best Skills and Examples

Office Assistant Skills | Best Skills & Examples | Resume.com

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If you’re applying for an office assistant position, there are many skills that you should include on your resume to demonstrate your capabilities. It’s important to include hard skills like bookkeeping and soft skills like time management to show employers you are a well-rounded candidate. Learn about some of the best office assistant skills to include on your resume, how to list them and how to improve them.

What is an office assistant?

Office assistants are responsible for handling administrative tasks to help keep offices running smoothly, such as answering phones and greeting clients. They use a wide variety of office equipment and generally take on any additional roles needed within the office. Their primary function is to help other office workers and create a more efficient working environment.

Examples of common office assistant duties:

  • Tracking payroll
  • Taking inventory
  • Filing paperwork
  • Answering customer inquiries
  • Handling customer complaints

Why are office assistant skills important to include on a resume?

Office assistant skills show employers that you have the necessary skills to handle the job duties effectively. Many different industries hire office assistants, so the skills you learn on the job are easily transferable. For example, no matter where you work, the role requires a high level of communication to converse with customers and vendors over the phone, communicate messages to other employees and deliver sensitive information through emails. This skill and many others are often required prerequisites that you should highlight on your resume to show you are a good match for the position.

Common office assistant skills to list on a resume

Here are some of the most common skills you can list on your office assistant resume.

Computer skills

Office assistants spend much of their time in front of a computer entering data, creating reports, developing spreadsheets, and crafting presentations for managers. This type of work requires expert knowledge in applications like Microsoft Office and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Detail-oriented

In most cases, office assistants are responsible for handling and inputting sensitive information, which means they need to pay close attention to detail to ensure they catch any errors. It’s also important they make sure that their work is accurate when working at a fast pace.

Communication

One of the most important skills for an office assistant is excellent communication, both verbal and written. The office assistant is often the voice of the company, especially when communicating with customers or clients in person and over the phone. They need to maintain a professional and friendly demeanor when helping and greeting customers.

Time management

Office assistants typically have to complete many different tasks throughout the day. Therefore, they must effectively manage their time, allocating appropriate lengths of time for each task. To be a good resource for the team, office assistants also need to plan ahead for certain objectives.

Resourcefulness

Office assistants need to be able to adapt quickly to help their coworkers with various tasks, and they should be able to think creatively and come up with solutions to problems.

Document management

Many administrative and assistant roles involve managing a high volume of digital documents. Paired with proper organizational skills, document management becomes a valuable asset. Keeping their desktop clean and having a clear and efficient directory and file-naming system are often necessary processes.

Bookkeeping

Some office assistants catalog incoming and outgoing transactions using QuickBooks and other similar programs. These programs often require training that employees undergo on the job or in their own time.

Data entry

Depending on the industry, some office assistants record data within spreadsheets. The ability to build, formulate and manipulate spreadsheets on a program like Excel is another valued asset at many companies.

How to list office assistant skills on a resume

Follow these steps to list office assistant skills on your resume.

1. First, look through the job description for keywords

Looking through the job description of the position you’re interested in is a great way to identify specific skills they want in a candidate. Some skills or keywords may appear multiple times. When developing your skills section, give special consideration to the hard and soft skills the description emphasizes.

2. Second, select the best skills for your resume

After compiling a list of necessary skills listed in the job description, compare them with your own skillset. Include the most relevant skills to the job to ensure you best demonstrate how closely your qualifications match the employer’s expectations.

3. Third, consider the relevance of common application skills

Office assistants need proficiency in applications such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. However, specifying that you’re experienced in an application like Excel may tell employers that you also understand more complex functions when you may only know the basics. Unless they specifically mention an application in the job description, it’s best to leave them off your resume.

Additionally, instead of listing individual applications, you could list certain aspects that you know well. For example, rather than saying you’re proficient in Word, you could list skills such as text formatting, proofreading, or editing.

4. Next, reference specific experiences

Consider tasks and projects from previous roles and reference them in your work experience section. Reiterate a few of your skills when you discuss your responsibilities, and explain how you used those skills effectively in the past. For example, you might say that you built a spreadsheet that recorded and calculated client payments and late fees, which allowed you to send out reminder emails and resulted in a 20% increase in on-time payments.

Use specific percentages to provide proof of what you can do with your skills. Including these references gives more credibility to your skills and provides talking points during an interview.

How to improve office assistant skills

Here are several ways to improve your office assistant skills.

1. First, seek further training and development

Find out if your company offers any training programs or if they are willing to pay for you to attend professional seminars. If your employer does not offer these programs or accommodations, seek out training programs on your own that can help you improve and develop specific office assistant skills. Certain local institutions, like libraries, offer workshops, and some technical schools provide weekend or evening programs for professionals to hone their skills.

2. Then, join industry associations

Organizations like the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP) provide beneficial information and other assets for office assistants. Stay active in these organizations by participating in committees and attending seminars. These organizations hold events that also provide valuable networking opportunities.

3. Finally, participate in unique tasks

On some occasions, your company may have interesting tasks or initiatives that they need additional help with. Signing up for these activities exposes you to new challenges and situations where you can develop new skills and improve current skills, making you more competitive and establishing yourself for better opportunities.

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