A Guide to Secretary Resume [+ Examples and Cover Letter Tips]

With this basic understanding, you may decide which one to use.

If you are going to write a secretary CV:

• Include your professional experience in detail
• It is acceptable to be longer than 2 pages

If you are going to write a secretary resume:

• Include only the relevant experience about the specific secretary job
• It should not exceed 2 pages

The must-have information:

• Full name
• Professional title (a job title tells hiring managers your professional level)
• Email address (the most crucial contact information)
• Phone number
• Address (unless the company requires the full address, include only city, state, and the country)

You can also add:

• Linkedin
• Personal website and blog
• Social media (only if it is relevant to the secretary position)

🚫  Do not include the following information in your secretary resume:

• Current salary
• National insurance number/ Social security number
• Gender, nationality, date of birth (Note that in EU countries, Europass CV is required and will reveal this information) 
• Sexual orientation, race, marital status, dependency, and religion or belief (Avoid information that might result in any unnecessary discrimination)
• Photograph (Note that in Singapore, Germany, and Asia, adding photos in a resume is a common practice)

• Headline example for an executive secretary resume:
  3-Year Proactive Secretary Specialized in Time Management and Schedule Planning
• Resume headline example for company secretary as a fresher:
  MBA Graduate who Displays a Strong Personal Commitment and is Skilled in MS Office and Fast Typing

Summary example for a unit secretary resume:

• Communicative secretary with great attention to detail. Currently seeking a position as a unit secretary at Hope hospital to utilize my interpersonal and file organization skills to enhance your hospital’s efficiency. Received Best Employee in 2019.

Career objective example for a school secretary resume:

• Patient Education graduate who would like to apply the knowledge and skills to a prestigious organization like Green Public School. Received 4 times Presidential Award during my college period.

Example of a secretary resume skills section:

📌 Hard Skills

• MS Office Suite
• Typing speed (words per minute)
• Schedule planning
• Writing and recording skills
• Ability to use database software

📌 Soft Skills

• Interpersonal skills
• Close attention to detail
• Communication skills
• File-organization 
• Time-management 

 Firstly, list down your past working experiences related to the secretary position, and include:

• The name of the organization
• Job location
• Role title
• Working period
• 3-5 bullet points outlining the duties and achievements

Example of the work experience section for a company secretary resume:

Secretary, Sep 2019 - Present
Powerest Corp., Chicago                                                                                                        

• Used MS Office to create spreadsheets, record memos, and present visualized reports to the executives 
• Scheduled daily appointments for senior managers and meetings for employees, which received Employee of the Month in Jan 2020 
• Organized 20+ events and cooperated with Marketing and HR teams

Typically, the education section will include:

• The name of the school
• Degree
• Majors & minors
• Year of graduation (or the expected graduate year)
• Honors & awards

It is optional to add:

• GPA
• Extracurricular activities (to prove your skills such as organizational skills, leadership, communication, etc.)

Tip 1: Customize your resume for the secretary position.

Recruiters always like to receive a personal assistant resume specific to their companies, so customize it! This is also why it is necessary to mention the company’s name in the summary and career objective sections.

Tip 2: Use numbers.

Quantified statements are more concrete to hiring managers. For instance, instead of merely saying “arrange meetings and events,” you can add the exact number of those events.

Tip 3: Craft an ATS-friendly personal assistant resume.

As you may notice, we emphasize much on job descriptions. Having those keywords mentioned in the job descriptions is compelling to recruiters and friendly to Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This software will scan resumes automatically and select those with relevant keywords.

Tip 4: Adopt action verbs to your personal assistant resume.

Word choice in your personal assistant resume can influence how recruiters feel. Action verbs can always strengthen the persuasive effect of your statements. 

Tip 5: Connect the similarities between jobs.

Some fresh graduates or job changers may need a resume for a secretary with no experience. Under this situation, connecting the similarities between jobs is a useful technique.

Take an office secretary resume as an example. If a candidate’s previous job was a flight attendant and he/she would like to apply for an office secretary position, he/she can describe his/her work like: 

• Coordinated with colleagues to ensure the comfortability and safety of passengers (to emphasize the interpersonal and communication skills)
• Scheduled timeline and executed training program of new cabin crew members (to prove the schedule planning ability)

1. Contact Information
We will tell the receiver who we are in our secretary resumes,  so as in our cover letters. It is necessary to include your full name, email address, and phone number. You can add your Linkedin and CakeResume links as well.

2. Greeting

Say hello to the hiring manager with his/her name! Search on Linkedin for the right title. However, if you are uncertain or afraid of making any mistake, it is better to start with, “Dear hiring manager, …”

3. Motivation to that secretary position
Many recruiters would like to hear from candidates why they want to apply for the companies’ secretary positions. Thus this part is for you to demonstrate your ambition and understanding about the hiring company.

4. Qualification
What recruiters also desire to know is why they have to choose you. Thus, qualification is the central part of your secretary cover letter. It is unnecessary to write all of your achievements, simply select the most distinguishing experiences to specify the value you can bring to the company. (click here to see examples)

5. Closing
At the end of your secretary cover letter, it is polite to appreciate recruiters for their time and consideration. Additionally, do not forget to use formal letter closings such as “Sincerely,” “Faithfully," or “Best regards,” and sign your name.