Executive assistant CV guides · by Lily Shippen, EA recruiter
Executive assistant CV achievements: twenty examples, and how to find your own
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
A key achievements section is a short list that sits after your profile and before your first job, with four to six lines that each carry a figure and each describe something that changed because of you. It's the section that puts what you've done in front of what you do, which makes it the fastest way for me to see you doing the job rather than describing it, and most EAs have five of these in them and leave them out because nobody asked and because it feels like boasting. The twenty below are the kinds of lines I see on the CVs that get the call, with the formula behind each one and then the questions that dig yours out.
When I shortlist, the key achievements section is the second thing I read, straight after the title line, and if it's there with figures on the lines I read the rest of the CV expecting to put you forward. If it's missing I go looking for the evidence in the experience section, and I'll be honest that most of the time it isn't there either, because the same modesty that left the section out has written the bullets as duties.
The formula
Every achievement line has three parts, which are what changed, the figure that proves it and the scale it happened at, and while not every line needs all three, every line does need the figure, because a figure is the one thing on a CV I can't argue with.
Not an achievement
Responsible for board meeting preparation and improved the process.
An achievement
Moved the board pack from the night before to five working days ahead, eight meetings a year, with no late paper in three years.
The first version is a duty with "improved" added to it, whereas the second tells me what was wrong, what you did about it, how often it happens and how long it's held, so that I can picture the boardroom and the person who sorted it out.
Twenty examples, by area
Use these to recognise your own rather than to copy, because every one of them is the kind of line that comes out of a conversation with an EA who didn't think they had anything to say.
Board and governance
- Moved the board pack from the night before to five working days ahead, eight meetings a year, with no late paper in three years.
- Took the board cycle over from the company secretary: agendas, papers for ten directors and three committees, actions tracked to completion.
- Brought in a board portal that cut printing and courier costs by about £9,000 a year and ended the version errors.
The principal's office
- Hold Friday afternoons in the chief executive's diary as thinking time, unbroken for two years against roughly 45 meetings a week.
- Answer about half of 300 messages a day in the chief executive's name, with no client deadline missed through email since 2021.
- Ran the chief executive's office through a four-month leave of absence, holding the executive team's weekly agenda and the board correspondence.
Money
- Cut the average trip cost by about 15% across roughly 60 trips a year with a move to a new travel agency.
- Brought the £60,000 hospitality and events budget in under forecast three years running.
- Renegotiated the group travel contract across about 400 trips a year, saving £85,000 in the first year.
- Rebuilt the expenses process for a team of 40, cutting the time to reimbursement from a month to five days.
Events and projects
- Organised the annual partners' conference for 60 partners and the Christmas party for 320 staff, both under budget three years running.
- Moved 90 staff into a new office over one weekend with no lost working days and the diary running as normal.
- Held the merger due diligence data room alone, turning round every document request within a day. The deal completed on its set date.
People
- Line manage two team assistants: appraisals, development plans and one promotion to EA in 2024.
- Set up the executive office from nothing after the merger: two assistants recruited and trained, one diary standard across the executive team of nine, within three months.
- Wrote the two-week induction every new starter in the office goes through, about 12 a year.
Trust and authority
- Approve spend to £2,500 on my own signature across travel, hospitality and office costs.
- Took the principal's private diary, two houses and the family's travel in-house from an outside concierge, saving the fee and cutting the mistakes to none.
- Made key holder and deputy to the general manager after six months, senior person in the building about 90 nights a year.
- Promoted from team assistant to EA to the managing director within two years.
Where to find yours
Go through the last two years with the questions below and write down the figures before you write a single sentence, and if I can pass on a tip I give to everyone I coach, do it out loud on a voice note on your phone and then write down what you said, because talking about your job is easier than writing about it and you'll be surprised how much comes out.
- What hasn't gone wrong since you arrived, whether that's a late paper, a double booking or a missed deadline, and for how long has that held?
- What costs less than it did, across travel, events, suppliers or printing, and by how much and across how many?
- What happens faster than it did, whether expenses, papers, replies or onboarding, and from what to what?
- What did you cover, meaning whose role, for how long and holding what?
- What did you build, whether a process, a rhythm, an event or a team, and is it still in use?
- What were you trusted with that the job description never mentioned, such as a signing limit, keys, the family or the board?
- Were you promoted, and if so when and from what?
Most EAs find six to ten lines this way, and from those I'd choose the five that best show the job you want next rather than the job you had first, so if you're going for a chief executive's office lead with the board and the authority, and if you're going for a founder lead with the building.
What to leave out
- Duties, because "Managed the diary" is the job rather than an achievement, whereas "Kept Friday afternoons clear for two years" is the achievement and tells me what managing the diary was for.
- Lines without figures, because if you can't put a number on something yet it belongs in the experience section rather than here, and you can come back to it once you've counted.
- Anything older than about five years, unless it's the biggest thing you've ever done, because I'm hiring the person you are now.
- More than six lines, because past six the section stops being a highlight and starts being a second experience section in which the best lines get lost.
The full method covers where the section sits and how it's marked, the free checker scores five things separately and the one called proof is the one a missing achievements section costs you most on, and Margot's interview asks for the figures one at a time and writes the lines as you answer, which is the easiest way I know to get past the blank page. Above all, I'd ask you not to talk yourself out of a line because it feels like boasting, because it isn't boasting at all, it's evidence, and it's exactly what I'm looking for.
Common questions
How many achievements should an executive assistant CV have?
Four to six in the key achievements section, each with a figure, because fewer than four looks thin and more than six stops being a highlight, and any further achievements go into the experience bullets of the role they belong to.
Where does the key achievements section go?
After the profile and before the first job, because it's read second, straight after the title line, and it sets my expectation for everything below it.
What if my achievements don't have figures?
Then find them, by counting a typical week, asking finance for the budget and looking at last year's diary, because the figures exist in the job and an achievement without one reads as a claim, and claims get skipped.
Can I include achievements from outside work?
Yes, if they show the same qualities at scale, such as running a 400-runner event each month, holding a charity's accounts or organising a school's fundraising to a figure, in one line in the interests section with the figure attached.
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