Executive assistant CV guides · by Lily Shippen, EA recruiter

Executive assistant CV profile examples: five that could only be one person

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 good executive assistant CV profile is three or four sentences written in the first person that say who you support, at what scale, what you're trusted to decide and the one thing that runs through your career. It's the paragraph at the top of the page and the first thing I read, and if it would still be true with someone else's name on it, it isn't finished yet.

The profile is the first thing I read and the first thing most EAs get wrong, not because they write badly but because they write safely, and "Highly organised and proactive executive assistant with over eight years of experience supporting C-suite executives in fast-paced environments" is a sentence I've read, or its twin, thousands of times. It's true of every applicant in the pile, so it tells me nothing about you, and I'm sorry to say my eye slides straight off it.

Below are five profiles written the way I'd want to read them, one for each situation I see most often, with a note on what each one is doing, and I'd ask you to use them as patterns rather than as text to copy, because the moment two candidates send me the same profile it stops working for both of them.

The test every profile has to pass

Cover your name and read it back, asking whether it could belong to anyone else, and if the answer is yes then it's missing one of three things, which are the scale you work at, the trust you've been given and the thread that runs through your career. Those three are what every example below is built from, and once you've seen them you can't unsee them.

1. Executive assistant to a CEO

I am executive assistant to the CEO of a 400-person asset management firm, holding her diary, inbox and board cycle across UK and US offices. I am trusted to decline meetings, approve spend to £5,000 and handle the confidential matters that reach her desk before anyone else sees them. The thread through my career is rebuilding: every role I have held ran better when I left it than when I arrived.

My note. There's scale in the first sentence, trust with figures in the second and a personality in the third, which means I could pick this candidate out of a pile of a hundred, and you'll notice there isn't one adjective describing her, because every word describes what she does and that's what makes it hers.

2. Senior EA supporting a founder

I have supported the founder of a 60-person technology company since its Series A, running his office as the business grew from 12 people to 60 and from one office to three. I hold the investor calendar, prepare every board paper he presents, and manage a £180,000 events and travel budget on my own authority. Founders move fast; my job is to make sure nothing gets lost when they do.

My note. Growth is the evidence here, from 12 to 60 and from one office to three, so I can see the business changing around her and her keeping up, and the last sentence is the personality, which tells a founder reading it exactly what they'd be buying.

3. EA whose role has grown into chief of staff work

I am executive assistant to the managing partner of a 40-partner law firm, and the role has grown into chief of staff work: I run the partnership meeting cycle, own the firm's annual planning calendar, lead the office team of six and hold her diary as the smallest part of my week. Over four years my remit has moved from supporting decisions to shaping them, and I am looking for the role where that is the job title.

My note. This profile does two things at once, because it evidences the current role and states the target honestly, and "has grown into chief of staff work" claims the responsibility without claiming a title she doesn't hold, which is exactly the line to walk.

4. First executive assistant role, coming from another career

I spent six years as a client services manager in a private bank, running the diaries, travel and client events of a team of eight relationship managers and acting as the first point of contact for their 200 highest-value clients. I am moving into an executive assistant role because the parts of my job I am best at, managing who gets senior people's time, the judgement calls, the quiet fixing of problems before they are noticed, are the whole of an EA's job.

My note. Career changers usually apologise in the profile, whereas this one translates instead, with every EA skill already there and named in the language I use, and I'd shortlist it without an EA title anywhere on the page. There's a full guide to this situation in the no-experience article.

5. PA returning after a career break

I was personal assistant to the finance director of a listed retailer for seven years, holding her diary, board reporting deadlines and a travel budget of £90,000, before taking three years out to raise my family. I have kept my systems current, retrained on Microsoft 365 and Concur this year, and I am returning at the level I left: an assistant a director can hand things to and stop thinking about.

My note. The break is stated in one clause and then the profile moves on, which is exactly right, because employers don't need the break explained so much as they need to know you're current and confident, and the final phrase is the kind of line only one person would write and the one I'd remember.

How to write yours

Write in the first person and the present tense, so "I am executive assistant to" rather than "Executive assistant with", because a profile in the third person reads like a reference someone else wrote.
Use sentence one for who you support and at what scale, with the title, the company size or sector, the offices and the headcount, in figures rather than adjectives.
Use sentence two for what you're trusted to decide, which means spend limits, what you decline, what reaches you first and the meetings you sit in for your executive.
Use sentence three for the thread, meaning the one thing that has been true of every role, whether that's rebuilding, calm under a founder's pace or making yourself unnecessary.
Then cut every adjective and read it back with your name covered, because if it still sounds like you, it's done.

If you want to know how yours scores on this before you rewrite it, the free scorer marks the profile under personality and tells you the one change that would move it most, and when Margot writes your CV the profile is the last thing she writes, once she's interviewed you and knows what your thread is, which is the same order I'd do it in.

Common questions

How long should an executive assistant CV profile be?

Three or four sentences, roughly 60 to 90 words, which is long enough to state scale, trust and one distinctive thread and short enough that I read all of it in the eight seconds I give a first pass.

Should an EA personal statement be written in the first person?

Yes, because "I am executive assistant to" reads as a person whereas "Executive assistant with eight years' experience" reads as a template, and the first person is also how the rest of your CV should sound.

What should I avoid in an executive assistant profile?

Adjectives about yourself, years of experience as the lead fact, and any sentence that would be equally true of another candidate, because if it could be pasted onto someone else's CV it isn't working for yours.

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