Executive assistant CV guides · by Lily Shippen, EA recruiter

The assistant CV: how to be read as more than your job title

Written by Lily Shippen, founder of the Lily Shippen EA, PA and chief of staff recruitment agency. Thirteen years of shortlisting, tens of thousands of CVs read, and every rule on this page is one I use at my own desk. Who I am

An assistant CV gets you shortlisted when it brings your job to life by showing the scale of what you handle, the things that haven't gone wrong since you arrived, and one thing that works better because you're there. Team assistant, office assistant, administrator and receptionist are modest titles, and most CVs that carry them are written modestly too, which is a problem because a recruiter like me takes modesty at face value, not out of choice but because there are two hundred CVs and no time to read between the lines. The fix is description, meaning how many people, how many meetings, how many calls and what you fixed, because written that way I can see the world you're in and how capable you are, and that's what gets you the call for the next role, whatever it happens to be called.

I place assistants at every level, from reception to the chief executive's office, and I'll be honest with you that the CVs at the junior end are the ones that undersell their owners most. The work is real and it's often relentless, yet the page says "assisted with" and "general administration" and leaves me with nothing to picture, and I've sat across from people whose CV said almost nothing and discovered within ten minutes that they were quietly running half the office.

This guide is for team assistants, office assistants, administrators and receptionists, and for anyone with one of those titles who wants the next one, because you've got far more on your side than you think.

What I'm actually looking for in an assistant CV

When I read an assistant CV I'm trying to picture your week, and these four things are what let me do that.

Scale means how many people you support, how many meetings you book, how many calls or messages a day and how many invoices a month, because "busy office" means nothing to me when every office says it's busy, whereas "fourteen surveyors and about 80 site visits a month" is something I can actually see.
Reliability is the thing that hasn't gone wrong since you arrived, whether that's no missed deadline, no double booking or no late submission, and it's the quality every assistant role is hiring for, yet it's almost never written down because it feels as though nothing happened. Something did happen, which is that nothing went wrong for two years, so say so.
Something built could be a room booking system, a supplier list, an onboarding checklist, a filing structure or an expenses rhythm, as long as it's one process that didn't exist before you and carried on after you, because this is what moves an assistant onto a PA shortlist by showing me you don't just do the job, you improve it.
Trust shows up in small things like keys held, the bank run, the Managing Director's expenses and the confidential post, which feel too small to mention and aren't, because each one tells me someone trusted you with more than the title says.

The profile

The profile is the short paragraph at the top, and I'd ask you to write three sentences in the first person covering who you support and how many, what you're trusted with and what you want next, and to leave the adjectives out. I know every template tells you to put them in and I know "enthusiastic" is true, but the trouble is that it's on every CV in the pile, so it can't tell me anything about you in particular.

Before

Enthusiastic and hard-working Team Assistant with excellent organisational skills, looking for an opportunity to develop within a dynamic company.

After

I support a team of 14 surveyors at a Manchester property consultancy: about 80 site visits a month booked and routed, 30 client meetings a week roomed, and the team's expenses and timesheets in to finance by the fifth every month for three years. I hold the office keys, the petty cash and the Managing Director's expenses. I want to move to a PA role for one or two principals in Manchester.

The bullets: figures, not duties

Here's the same role written twice, and nothing in the second version is invented, because the figures were always true and the first version simply never mentioned them.

Before

Diary management for the team. Booking travel and meeting rooms. Answering the phone and dealing with enquiries. Processing invoices and expenses. General administration and ad hoc duties.

After

Hold the diaries of 14 surveyors and book about 80 site visits a month, routed so each surveyor sees one area a day. Room and set up around 30 client meetings a week with no clash in two years, on the booking sheet I built. Answer about 60 calls a day and resolve most without passing them on. Process around 90 supplier invoices and 14 sets of expenses a month, in to finance by the fifth. Hold the office keys and petty cash, and order all stationery and supplies to a £900 monthly budget.

The first version could be any assistant in the country, whereas the second is one person I can see at her desk, and that whole difference costs nothing but an afternoon of counting.

Key achievements, even at this level

A key achievements section is a short list that sits after your profile and before your first job, with three or four lines that each carry a figure and each describe something that changed because of you, and most assistant CVs don't have one, which is exactly why having one gets you read first.

Built the room booking sheet the office still uses, ending the weekly double bookings for 30 meetings a week.
Replaced paper expense claims with an online form for 14 surveyors, cutting the time to reimbursement from a month to a week.
Covered the Managing Director's PA for six weeks in 2024, holding his diary of 25 meetings a week and his travel.
Promoted from receptionist to team assistant after 18 months.

That last one is an achievement and I'd put it on the list every time, because a promotion is the clearest evidence of trust there is, given that someone who watched you work every day decided to give you more, and it costs you one line. I know it can feel like showing off to include it, but it really isn't, and leaving it out only hides something I'd want to know.

Receptionists, administrators, office assistants: the lines that show the level

Reception is calls a day, visitors a day, the switchboard for how many staff, keys held, the post and couriers, and which clients come to you first, so a line like "Front desk for a 120-person firm, about 70 calls and 30 visitors a day" is one I can picture and it tells me you can hold a room.
Administration is the volume and the deadline, so "Prepared 40 contracts a month to the legal team's template, with no error returned in a year" works because the deadline met, month after month, is the evidence.
Office assistant work is suppliers managed, the budget held and the thing fixed, so "Renegotiated the stationery contract and saved £2,400 a year" is worth more than a paragraph about being proactive, because it's proof of being proactive.

Going for a PA or EA role next

If you want a PA or EA role next, your CV has to show me you're already doing parts of that job, because the title on your last contract tells me very little and the description tells me everything. Think about whose diary you've covered and for how long, which trips you've built, which meetings you've minuted and whose expenses you process, then put those lines first in your current role and in your key achievements and apply with the title you've got, because I place on the description of the job rather than the name of it. The PA to EA guide covers how to show the level you already work at.

What to stop writing

"General administration" and "ad hoc duties" describe every job and none, so if you mean the post, the couriers and the kitchen order, say that instead.
"Assisted with" and "helped to" make me wonder what you actually touched, so if you did it, say you did it, and if you did part of it, say which part.
"Enthusiastic", "hard-working" and "team player" are words I've read eight hundred times this week, and the honest truth is that a figure is believed while an adjective is skipped.
A skills list with no context, such as "Microsoft Office, communication, organisation", is a list of nouns that tells me nothing about your level, so keep the section but give each skill its scale, as in "Diaries: 14 surveyors and about 80 site visits a month", which the skills guide shows how to do.

The free Word template carries this structure with a note in every section, and the free checker marks your CV out of 100 against it in about ten seconds. You're doing more than your title says, so let the page say so too.

Common questions

How long should an assistant CV be?

As long as the good content needs and no longer, because I don't believe page count is the measure, so if a line repeats something for the sake of it then trim it, and if every line carries a figure or a thing done then don't worry about where the page breaks fall. Three lines with figures beat ten lines of duties every time.

Should I include a key achievements section on a team assistant CV?

Yes, with three or four lines with figures before the first job, because almost no assistant CV has one and that's why it gets you read first, and a promotion, a process built, a cover period and a saving are all achievements.

Can I apply for PA roles from a team assistant role?

Yes, as long as the CV shows you already doing parts of the job, such as a principal's diary covered, trips built, meetings minuted and expenses handled, because once those lines come first a recruiter can see the job you're ready for whatever your current title says.

Do I need a personal statement on an assistant CV?

A short profile, yes, meaning three sentences in the first person saying who you support, what you're trusted with and what you want next, rather than a paragraph of adjectives, and the profile examples show the difference.

See where your CV stands first.

Margot marks your current CV out of 100 on the five things a recruiter shortlists on, free, before we ask for anything. Then she interviews you and writes it to this standard.

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Lily Shippen

FOUNDER, LILY SHIPPEN, EA, PA AND CHIEF OF STAFF RECRUITMENT · THIRTEEN YEARS PLACING EAS

Lily has read tens of thousands of EA CVs and shortlisted the ones that worked. Margot is her screening interview, written down. About Lily and this site