The most important requisite of job searching is a resume. It is a statement that describes your educational qualifications, work experiences, and key skills. It becomes the basis for a recruiter to select the candidates and shortlist them for an interview. Thus, one needs to be careful while drafting it. We have realized the importance of effective resume writing practice, and hence, have endeavored to make this task easy for job seekers. Find here a variety of templates to get an idea on drafting an assistant resume.
Assistants are hired to lend a helping hand in the daily routine of a work setting. They help their seniors streamline their work procedures, improve their work performance, and achieve their set goals. Some assist with personal or home-related tasks, while others are strictly based at one's place of employment. They work in all the fields, be it academic, scientific, legal, politics, manufacturing, film production, medical, customer service, sales and marketing, etc. In a resume targeted for any assistant positions, you must emphasize your exceptional active-listening, coordination, and communication skills. The resume must highlight your competence in using work related tools and applications as well knowledge of various secretarial practices. Whether you are applying for an administrative assistant, lab research assistant, or a legal assistant job, the given below tips will help you get ideas for drafting your assistant resume.
Pick an appropriate resume format
Though an assistant can work in a different field, there is no change in the resume format. The widely used format for all fields is the reverse chronological order. This style of resume writing is easily available on the Internet and is ready to download. Once you are ready to work on the downloaded format, the content you will be adding should not match with it. The use of words and the way you are expressing your skills and experience should be your own. This is necessary because the employer can point out from where you have copied those words.
If you are a career changer or have a significant career gap, then functional resume is the best choice as it mainly focuses on relevant skills and achievements. You can also choose a combination resume, which combines the best elements of both the above resume formats, and emphasizes skills and recent work history together.
After selecting the appropriate resume format, the next step is to fill your assistant resume with the information or content needed under different each section.
Contact Information: Start your resume with personal and contact details at the top. This section is necessary for employers to know who you are and how to contact you. It must include your name, current residential address, valid phone number and professional email address. This chunk of information should stand out from the rest of the body text. So, add your name in bold letters and align this section either left, right, or center.
Resume Objective: An objective on your resume is a must to show your aspirations and the position you want to work on. However, relating your goals to your profession is necessary to sound convincing. For an assistant position, the objective should not read "to help the management in presenting and achieving business goals." This kind of statement will suit for those applying for a management position. Hence, don't go overboard in trying to impress the hiring managers with your objective statement. Be as simple and honest as you could.
For example: Seeking a job as an Administrative Assistant with ABC Group where I can utilize my communication, time-management, and organization skills along with the ability to provide high-quality, effective, and timely clerical or administrative support to the organization.
Summary of Skills: This section highlights your skills and abilities that are relevant to the career field or the job position you are applying for. Add around 5 - 8 bullet points that give hiring managers a complete idea of your area of expertise, competence, qualities, or traits. At the same time, avoid using common keywords and customize the skills to match with the ones listed in the job postings so that the chance of receiving an interview call is higher. Common skills used in all types of assistant resumes include communication, interpersonal, organizational, time-management, multi-tasking, problem-solving, technology, and active-listening skills.
Work Experience: When using a chronological resume format, start with your most recent job and move down. Mention your job title, name of the company and dates of employment as well as add a brief work description and related accomplishments in 5 to 6 bullet points using action verbs such as assisting, planning, organizing, scheduling, and others. List the important achievements and contributions to the organizations you worked with under a section with the same heading.
For Example:
Handled correspondence and phone calls as well as assisted in updating and maintaining office policies and procedures
Liaised with management staff, suppliers and clients as well as assisted in planning and organizing events, conferences or meetings.
Education: Outline this section in a reverse chronological order, and add the name of the degree along with the name of the college/university, and year of passing. You can also add any job-specific training or certification programs as well in the same format.
References :They should be put in your assistant resume only if it is requested by the employers.
To understand the exact nature and job profiles of assistants working in different job fields, go through the several assistant resume samples given below. You can easily grab an idea for drafting your assistant resume and present the necessary details. We have made efforts on presenting several ways of writing a career summary and resume objective that will ensure recruiter's attention at first glance.
These are just the tips to help in laying out your resume. Following are the assistant resume samples for varieties of fields:
Find more assistant resume examples here.
Also check out the cover letters for assistant job profile here.