Executive assistant CV guides · by Lily Shippen, EA recruiter

Guides, from the recruiter's desk

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

Writing the CV

• How to write an executive assistant CV. The method section by section: the order that works, the profile, achievement lines, experience, formatting rules and the checklist before you send it.
• The eight executive assistant CV skills that get you shortlisted. Which skills actually matter to a recruiter, how to show each one, and how to write a skills section with context and level instead of a shopping list.
• Five executive 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.
• An executive assistant cover letter a recruiter reads. When you need one, the four paragraphs that work, a full worked example, and the lines that get letters binned.
• Executive assistant CV achievements: twenty examples. The key achievements section, the formula behind each line, twenty examples with figures by area, and where to find yours.
• Executive assistant CV keywords. What applicant tracking systems and recruiters actually scan for, where the words go, and why a keyword list on its own gets a CV skipped.

Your situation

• A personal assistant CV that gets shortlisted. How a PA CV differs from an EA CV, what to lead with, private support on the page, and the mistakes that get PAs overlooked.
• An executive assistant CV with no EA experience. How career changers find the EA work already in their history and translate it into the language recruiters read for.
• From executive assistant to chief of staff. The evidence that proves an EA is already doing chief of staff work, a worked profile and achievements, and what to stop saying.
• From PA to EA: showing the level you already work at. Why the title matters less than you think, what to describe instead, and the lines to stop writing.
• The executive PA CV. What the title means to a recruiter, the three questions answered in the first half of page one, private support written properly, and a full example.
• A PA CV example, annotated. A complete personal assistant CV with a recruiter's note on every section, and the lines that were cut.
• The assistant CV. For team assistants, office assistants, administrators and receptionists: scale, reliability and something built, and the step to PA.
• The senior executive assistant CV. What makes a CV read as senior: the principal, authority, people managed and things built, with a worked profile and achievements.
• The executive assistant to CEO CV. The scale, authority and building a recruiter reads for when placing a chief executive's assistant, with a worked profile and achievements.
• The private equity and family office EA CV. What funds and family offices read for, how to show confidential experience without breaching it, and the mistakes that end applications.

Getting the job

• Executive assistant interview questions. The questions that decide an EA interview, what each is testing, and how a strong answer sounds.
• The free executive assistant CV checker. Drop your CV in and get it marked out of 100 on the five things a recruiter shortlists on, with the three changes that would move it most.

See the standard

• How an executive assistant CV is marked. The five dimensions, what earns points in each, why a first draft lands between 30 and 45, and what Margot does with the score.
• A free executive assistant CV template in Word. The Brief and The Standard as blank Word documents with guidance in every section, ready to fill in.
• A complete executive assistant CV example. A finished CV, annotated with why each part reads the way it does.
• Before and after examples. The same career written twice, and what every strong EA CV has in common.
• The executive assistant CV template. The structure, section order and formatting rules that keep a CV readable by people and by the software that filters them.
• The CV writing service. What Margot does, who it is for, what it costs, and the guarantee.

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