What Are Resume Executive Assistant Skills? (With Examples)

Updated 20 March 2023

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Executive assistants provide extensive support to executive managers and coordinate various office administrative duties. With their help, supervisors efficiently manage their routine workflow and prioritise their different projects. Learning about an executive assistant's skills can help you understand them better and succeed in your career. In this article, we discuss what resume executive assistant skills are, review some examples of these skills, explore ways to help you improve them and share some steps to highlight them on your resume and during an interview.

What Are Resume Executive Assistant Skills?

Resume executive assistant skills include strengths and abilities, such as excellent communication, effective organisation and great attention to detail. Both the hard and soft skills of an executive assistant allow them to assist a company's executives in performing efficiently. These administrative professionals have strong technical skills and are adept at time management. Apart from helping executives to prepare multiple schedules, they utilise various software tools to record and implement strategies.

Efficient executive assistants work with little or no supervision. They proactively anticipate the requirements of managers and realise the importance of prioritisation. Since they work collaboratively with executive managers, they also possess knowledge of business concepts and customer service. Mention these skills in your resume to impress hiring managers when you describe how these skills help you to fulfil your duties.

Examples Of Executive Assistant Skills

Below is a list that includes both the hard and soft skills of an executive assistant:

Administrative skills

Executive and administrative assistants have similar duties and responsibilities. The role of executive assistant involves serving as a point of contact for employees, visitors or clients who intend to meet an executive. Their administrative skills allow them to efficiently communicate between departments and manage phone calls, emails and messages. Organising and managing executive operations like data entry also become easy when these professionals possess strong administrative skills.

Time management skills

Time management skills of executive assistants allow them to monitor and manage different schedules of their executive managers. They may often plan and balance their time between several tasks. Finishing work with tight schedules is also manageable as they possess excellent time management skills. Executive assistants use these skills to successfully organise conferences and communicate with clients. Stress management and flexibility are important features of these professionals' time management skills.

Communication skills

Executive assistants' routine work involves communication with supervisors, chief executive officers, staff, clients and other internal and external stakeholders. They employ their verbal and written communication abilities to deliver clear and concise messages. With the help of these skills, they are better able to share, listen and respond to ideas. Interpersonal communication, empathy, confidence and a positive attitude are some key aspects of communication skills that executive assistants possess.

Organisational skills

Executive assistants remain highly organised to perform different duties efficiently and help managers accomplish their goals. This includes allocating time appropriately, managing the workspace effectively and working on balancing conflicting priorities to manage a smooth workflow. These professionals handle varied schedules and also document company information and records. With organisational skills, executive assistants focus on setting realistic and measurable goals and have the ability to perform even under pressure.

Strategic planning skills

Executive assistants are proficient in strategic planning, as these skills allow them to help managers achieve their broad and specific goals. With the help of these skills, these professionals can ideate and plan a project that requires careful execution. Strategic planning results from attention to detail, and executive assistants consider several approaches to planning events, operations and processes.

Networking skills

With their networking skills, executive assistants build professional contacts that may help executive managers to find more business growth opportunities. These skills allow them to remain confident when reaching out to existing clients or finding new leads. They also employ networking skills to utilise their contacts and discover investment opportunities, new markets and novel methods for operations. These skills include empathy, public speaking and positivity.

Problem-solving skills

An executive assistant calculates budgets, creates plans and executes different projects and tasks. They may also schedule appointments or conferences and monitor executive operations within an organisation. To conduct these tasks effectively, they require excellent problem-solving skills. These abilities help professionals to handle challenging situations and solve complex problems. Adept at making decisions, they also use their creative skills to find more than one solution to a problem.

How To Improve Your Executive Assistant Skills

Below are steps you can follow to improve your executive assistant skills:

1. Communicate effectively

The communication skills of an executive assistant include listening actively, speaking clearly and writing coherently. These professionals focus on communicating concisely with people and know how to prioritise the urgency of messages and emails. When you focus on improving these abilities, you can better deliver courteous and professional correspondence, speak with confidence and keep your written communications error-free.

2. Anticipate requirements

A major part of this job is to predetermine the requirements of managers. For instance, when a manager has a busy working week, they might reschedule the meetings of secondary importance. This helps the manager to concentrate on their most important tasks. Executive assistants can predict challenges and find ways to overcome them quickly. Practise your analytical skills to effectively interpret the needs of managers.

3. Understand business concepts

Executive assistants collaborate with managers who have in-depth knowledge of business and client service. To work well with them, you can take steps to learn more about the fundamental principles of business. Read online or subscribe to a business magazine to understand more about the industry in which an organisation operates. Consider improving your communication skills in client service to interact professionally and respond courteously and promptly.

4. Improve performance

Setting short-term and long-term goals is a good way to improve your performance. Setting goals helps you complete tasks and fulfil responsibilities efficiently. Consider using a software tool for creating schedules to help you better organise conflicting appointments. This is a quick way to streamline your schedules and decrease the time you spend on this task. When you organise your time, you can complete important tasks efficiently.

5. Prepare updates routinely

You might prepare updates on business processes for managers bimonthly or quarterly. This exercise allows you to share updates with your manager about accomplished tasks or work in progress and new client acquisitions relevant to the organisation's operations. You may also prepare updates on your workflow and productivity, allowing feedback from your manager and informing you of your performance.

Executive Assistant Skills In The Workplace

Here are some tips to help you apply your executive assistant skills in the workplace:

Organise communication methods. Prioritise email messages and telephonic conversations to organise your communications. Develop a method that helps you categorise correspondence from the least urgent to the most urgent priorities.
Concentrate on planning. Plan your schedules, organise to-do lists and categorise tasks to manage work better. Planning is a great way to understand the matters and tasks that require your immediate attention.
Develop objectives. When you set objectives, you can better forecast different requirements of tasks. This allows you to deliver accuracy and remain motivated to accomplish your goals within deadlines.
Be resourceful. In a workplace, you may use different tools that help you to organise and prioritise work like managing schedules. Scheduling programs enable you to efficiently manage your timelines and remain productive.
Make good judgements. Executive assistants use their skills to make good decisions without the supervision of seniors. They also know when to report problems or issues to the appropriate person.

Highlighting Your Executive Assistant Skills

Here are some ways to highlight your executive assistant skills on your resume and in a cover letter, and discuss them during a job interview:

Executive assistant skills on a resume

Determine the relevant skills to highlight on your resume. These skills may include adaptability, teamwork and organisation. There are different places in a resume document to mention these skills, like the skills or work experience sections. Before making a list of your skills, ensure that they align with the job description. For example, exclude the skills employers have not mentioned in this description and include those that help you define your competencies through examples.

Executive assistant skills in a cover letter

A cover letter allows you to elaborate upon your skills, work experience and educational qualifications. Use this document to explain to hiring managers how your skills can help their organisation improve coordination and overall performance. Mention how each skill helped you accomplish different tasks in past roles. Show hiring managers how your skill set achieved quantifiable results.

Executive assistant skills during an interview

Interviews allow you to discuss your professional accomplishments verbally. During an interview, talk about your skills and how they help you remain competitive in your industry. Interviewers also ask questions regarding your work experience, like your administrative responsibilities in your previous organisation. To show your professional strengths, answer with a specific skill and how it enabled you to support executive managers in the past.