An executive assistant CV written to a recruiter's standard · £39, pay once
For EAs, PAs, chiefs of staff and business support · From Lily Shippen, the EA recruitment agency
Your CV only knows what you remember to tell it.
Margot asks you the questions the best recruiters ask in a screening call, the ones that decide a shortlist before a CV is ever sent. Then she writes and designs your CV from your answers. Built for executive assistants, PAs, chiefs of staff and business support professionals, and for anyone moving into EA work from another career.
Most EA CVs fail on content, not effort. The difference between shortlisted and ignored is rarely the experience itself, it's how that experience is told. Margot asks what you'd never think to ask yourself, and writes it to the standard Lily Shippen holds her own shortlists to.
Lily Shippen
I've placed EAs, PAs and chiefs of staff for thirteen years, and every question Margot asks is one I ask across the desk, so what you're getting here is my judgement, written down. Who I am
£39 ONCE, WITH OR WITHOUT A CV · SEARCH KIT £59 · SEE HOW THE INTERVIEW WORKS
Margot is Lily Shippen's screening interview, given a name.
Margot is not a person, and we won't pretend otherwise. She is Lily's screening interview turned into software: every question, rule and standard is Lily's, and Margot applies them one conversation at a time. Not a template, and not a form, an interviewer who does three jobs for you.
01 · SHE INTERVIEWS YOU
The questions the best recruiters ask in a screening call, one at a time, in plain language. She pushes where a recruiter would push.
02 · SHE WRITES YOUR CV
Your answers become a profile, achievement lines and role summaries written to the standard Lily signs her name to, laid out in four designed templates.
03 · SHE KEEPS IT CURRENT
Forward her an email where someone thanked you and it comes back a CV line. She nudges you after board meetings and appraisals, so your CV is never out of date again.
Watch Margot turn an answer into a line.
( ONE MINUTE · PRESS PLAY FOR THE SOUND )A REAL RUN OF THE INTERVIEW WITH A SCRIPTED CANDIDATE. THE QUESTIONS, THE SPEAK BUTTON, THE TEMPLATES AND THE CV ARE THE PRODUCT AS IT IS TODAY. THE SCORES SHOWN ARE AN ILLUSTRATION.
Answer on the left. Watch the right.
( 01 · THREE QUESTIONS FROM THE INTERVIEW · TRY IT )TAP A SUGGESTION, OR TYPE YOUR OWN ANSWER AND MARGOT WRITES THE LINE FROM WHAT YOU SAID. NOTHING IS SAVED; YOUR OWN INTERVIEW STARTS AFTER CHECKOUT.
Charlotte Reeve
SCORE 34 OF 100Executive Assistant
Selected achievements
Experience
How does your CV score?
( 02 · THE SCORECARD, FREE )Drop your CV in and Margot marks it out of 100 on the five things that decide whether you get the call. The score is free, and you see it before we ask for anything, including your email address.
A NOTE FROM LILY SHIPPEN
THIRTEEN YEARS PLACING EAS, PAS AND CHIEFS OF STAFF
I have read tens of thousands of EA CVs over thirteen years and I know within seconds whether one is going on the shortlist, so the scorer marks yours the way I do at my desk, on the five things above and out of 100, with the three changes I would make first. It is free and takes about ten seconds, and you see the result before anyone asks for your email.
If the number is lower than you hoped, please know that it is where most first drafts land and it is not a verdict on your career, because what it usually means is that the evidence is missing from the page, and most people have the figures and have simply never been asked for them.
Lily
You can't guess your way to a recruiter's judgement.
01
Writing your own CV means asking yourself the questions. Every question Margot asks exists because a real EA CV failed a real search without it.
02
She asks about the things you would never think to write down: the decision you make without asking, the process that outlasted you, the thing colleagues come to you for.
03
Everything she writes is held to the standard Lily signs her name to: the CV Lily would produce if she sat across from you for an afternoon.
Same career. Same person. One got the interview.
( 04 · BEFORE / AFTER )Charlotte is a worked example, but the marking is real: the same scorer that marks your CV free at the top of this page marks every finished CV before Margot lets it go. The left column scores in the thirties. The right column is what the interview, the metrics rule and the rewrite do to the same career, and if your finished CV scores under 80, Margot keeps working on it with you, free, for up to three more rounds: she names the weak dimension, asks the questions that lift it and marks it again.
Charlotte Reeve
charlotte.reeve@gmail.com | 07XXX XXXXXX | London
Personal Statement
Hard working and highly organised Executive Assistant with excellent communication skills and a proven track record, seeking a challenging new role in a fast paced environment.
Key Duties
- Diary management for a busy CEO
- Booking travel and accommodation
- Assisted with board meeting preparation
- Liaised with clients and stakeholders
- Supported onboarding of new employees
- General ad hoc administrative duties as required
References available upon request.
Charlotte Reeve
LONDON · UK
Executive Assistant to CEO · Board Level · Fintech
Executive Assistant to the CEO of a 400 person fintech through its Series B and C raises. I decide what reaches the CEO and what does not, own the board cycle end to end, and act in the CEO's name when they are unreachable, a trust earned across four years and never withdrawn.
Selected achievements
- Hold full authority over the CEO's calendar, protecting two strategic focus days a week and resolving 60% of inbound requests without them ever reaching the CEO.
- Built the board reporting cycle from nothing: nine papers, four committees, distribution moved from the night before to seven days ahead, unmissed for eleven consecutive quarters.
- Ran due diligence logistics for a £40m Series C, coordinating a five firm data room across three time zones to a deadline that never slipped.
- Cut executive travel spend 18% (£30,000 a year) by renegotiating agency terms nobody had reviewed in six years.
- Trusted to decline meetings, reroute requests and commit spend up to £5,000 in the CEO's name during two months of back to back international travel.
Experience
Executive Assistant to CEO · Meridian Pay
2022 to NOW
Sole support to the CEO and two co founders through Series B and C. Own the board cycle, investor communications and the executive hiring pipeline.
Team Assistant · Halstead Capital
2019 to 2022
Supported a six partner investment team; promoted twice in three years.
SYSTEMS: GOOGLE WORKSPACE · CONCUR · NOTION · BOARD INTELLIGENCE | LANGUAGES: ENGLISH · FRENCH
LILY SHIPPEN · WHO MARGOT LEARNED FROM
The questions the best recruiters ask. In a screening call.
Lily Shippen founded Lily Shippen, one of the UK's top EA, PA and Chief of Staff recruitment agencies, at 22 years old. Over thirteen years she has placed into four figures of EAs and PAs with founders, CEOs and boards, and read tens of thousands of CVs to do it. She knows within seconds whether a CV will be shortlisted, because she's the one doing the shortlisting.
13 years
PLACING EAS, PAS AND CHIEFS OF STAFF
Age 22
WHEN SHE FOUNDED LILY SHIPPEN
Tens of thousands
OF EA CVS READ AND SHORTLISTED
UK wide
EVERY INDUSTRY, MANY CLIENTS IN LONDON AND MANCHESTER
Margot is Lily's screening interview, written down, automated and given a name. Lily does not personally write each CV: her judgement does, built into every question Margot asks and every rule she writes by. The questions are the ones Lily asks across the desk. The writing is held to the standard she'd put in front of a client.
Lily has always told every EA she works with the same thing: email yourself your achievements as they happen, don't wait until you're job hunting to try and remember them.
Almost nobody does it. So Margot does it for you. This was never just about updating your CV, it's about making sure it is constantly up to date.
Fonts matter. Design matters.
( 06 · FOUR TEMPLATES, ALL SAFE FOR CV FILTERS )A hiring manager forms a view of your CV before they have read a word, so the design is part of the argument. Every CV comes in four templates, each designed by hand and readable by the software employers use to filter CVs before a person sees them. Margot lays each one out around its owner: a strip of your three strongest figures under your name, achievements numbered so the eye counts them, two industry awards earning a place above your experience. Switch templates, accent colours and font pairings whenever you like. This is the same CV in all four.
THE SIGNATURE
Boska and Poppins with terracotta accents. Warm and editorial, for the EA whose CV should read like a profile.
THE STANDARD
Georgia throughout, centred and conservative. Nothing for a partner or a general counsel to argue with.
THE BRIEF
Switzer, with the section labels in the margin. Modern and spare, the most room for content of the four.
THE STUDIO
Boska and Switzer with a lime title. Confident and contemporary, for tech, media and founder-led businesses.
Pay once, it's yours. Or keep it current.
( 07 · PRICING · WRITTEN TO THE LILY SHIPPEN STANDARD )If your finished CV scores under 80 out of 100 on our own marker, the same one that scores everyone on this page, Margot keeps working on it with you, free, for up to three more rounds of questions. She names the weak dimension, asks the three questions that would lift it, writes your answers in and marks it again.
THE CV
The full interview, written to Lily's standard. Same price with or without a CV to start from.
THE SEARCH KIT · CV + LINKEDIN + TARGETING
Because the recruiter who likes your CV looks you up next. Everything in it stays open for 90 days from purchase, because a search takes weeks.
THE RECORD
Lily has always believed you should be updating your CV as your career happens, not rebuilding it from memory every few years. The Record makes that effortless: it launches soon, and joining the waitlist means you hear first.
Tell Margot your appraisal date and she asks you for the content from it. Reminders come as little or as often as you like, so you send her achievements and anything you've picked up while it's fresh. Next time you need your CV, there is no starting from scratch and no trying to remember what you've done since the last one.
EVERY CV IS YOURS TO KEEP. THE RECORD LAUNCHES SOON, AND CV BUYERS GET IT FIRST.
Questions, answered.
You can write perfectly reasonable words yourself. What you can't supply is the question set, because you can only answer what you think to ask, and if you knew exactly what to ask, your CV would already be working. Every question here exists because of a real executive assistant CV that failed in a real search, and that judgement is what you're paying for.
The executive assistant CV, done properly.
( 10 · FROM THE GUIDES · FOUR OF TWELVE )ALL TWELVE GUIDES →How to write an executive assistant CV
Evidence of judgement, not a list of duties. The strongest EA CVs name the seniority of the executive supported, the authority held, and what changed because you were in the role. Ours are built from a recruiter's interview, so that evidence is drawn out of you question by question.
READ THE ARTICLEExecutive assistant CV profile examples
Five personal statements a recruiter would shortlist, one for each situation I see most, with a note on what each is doing and why most profiles could belong to anyone. Pair it with the CV template guide and the before and after examples.
READ THE ARTICLESkills for an executive assistant CV
Facilitating access with real authority, board and investor support, stakeholder management, complex travel, event ownership and confidential judgement. Margot finds out which of these you can actually evidence, then writes them so a hiring manager believes them.
READ THE ARTICLEAn executive assistant CV with no EA experience
A personal assistant CV, office manager CV or a move from another career entirely: the same interview translates your experience into the language an executive assistant search is run on. Margot asks what you actually did, then writes it in the words a hiring manager reads for.
READ THE ARTICLEMargot will ask you thingsyou haven't even thought of.
Score your current CV free, see the standard in the example above, then let her build yours.