Discover the top administrative skills to make your resume stand out

Having strong administrative skills means you're able to plan events and projects, manage time, and keep things organized and running like a well-oiled machine. It also means you come to the table with the ability to communicate and engage with the customers, clients, and stakeholders of a company. 

Though administrative skills are necessary for jobs like Administrative Assistants, Receptionists, and Office Managers, they also add value to virtually any position across the various industries you might find yourself employed in. Since they're highly valued by employers, it benefits you to ensure you highlight sought-after administrative skills on your resume. 

In this post, we cover:

  • What administrative skills are

  • Why administrative skills on resumes are important

  • Some of the most in-demand administrative skills for resumes

  • How to highlight administrative skills on resumes

  • Where to include administrative skills on resumes

Administrative skills defined

Administrative skills are a series of qualities that, when combined, allow you to help manage a business or department or run an office. They include both hard skills, like knowing how to use a specific software application, and soft skills, like communication and problem solving. Examples of essential administrative tasks might include communicating with employees, filing, running reports, calendar management, and answering client questions. 

Why administrative skills are important to employers

People with strong administrative skills tend to be reliable self-starters with the ability to organize and manage time well. With a diverse skill set, they're valued by employers because they help organizations to maintain productivity and keep things running smoothly - they're a cornerstone of a company's success.  Any successful business will not only have administrative staff with strong administrative skills on their resume, but will also have other employees throughout the organization that apply these types of skills in their various jobs.

Administrative skills are also some of the most transferable skills between industries and job types. Administrative skills required for a role in the marketing sector would be applicable and transferable to the energy sector, for example. 

What are some of the most in-demand administrative skills for resumes?

When it comes to administrative skills on resumes, there are many that can make you stand out to hiring teams. Here are 11 of the top administrative skills to consider for your resume, and why they're important. 

1. Communication

Communication - both verbal and written - is a daily requirement for virtually any position. Those in administrative positions often need to communicate in different forms with a variety of people, both internal and external to the business, from employees and executives to clients and contractors. 

2. Microsoft 365

We're all familiar with certain Microsoft 365 applications, like Microsoft Word and Outlook. However, those with solid technical administrative skills on their resume tend to be knowledgeable in how to use all applications in the suite, including Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive. 

3. Organization

With the many plates employees often have spinning all at once, it's vital they hone in on the administrative skill of organization. In fact, it's one of the most important administrative skills to ensure things run smoothly within a team, department, or business. When you're organized, you tend to have good time management and planning skills as well, which are also sought-after administrative skills on resumes. 

4. Problem solving

We're constantly solving problems every day, including at work. A good problem solver identifies the problem, proposes solutions, chooses the best solution, and implements the it. Strong problem solvers support business continuity, innovation, and inspiration, making it a highly valuable administrative skill on resumes.  

5. Scheduling

Though essentially all employees have to maintain their schedules, administrative positions, in particular, often have the daunting task of keeping up with several schedules at once. In addition to calendar management, Administrators often have to coordinate and schedule meetings, travel arrangements, and events for the teams or individuals they support, making scheduling a vital technical skill to have.  

6. Flexibility

Change is the only constant, as they say, which requires flexibility. Employees need to be flexible to successfully adapt to changing priorities, demands, and requests. Without flexibility, work can be more stressful and productivity can take a hit.  

7. Working well under stress

Tight deadlines, quick turnaround times, multiple requests, several projects all at once, and day-to-day tasks can feel like a lot for any employee. Being able to work well under stress is necessary to stay on top of things without becoming overwhelmed, which can slow things down. When you work well under stress, you also tend to be good at multitasking, another valuable administrative skill. 

8. Customer service

For positions that are customer and client facing, strong interpersonal and customer service skills are necessary administrative skills. This is especially true for service and support-oriented positions. 

9. Teamwork

Though administrative professionals tend to be on point to keep things operating as needed, they do so as part of a team. The same goes for individual contributors who, while being responsible for their own tasks and activities, contribute to the department and generally work as part of a team to accomplish department and organizational goals and objectives. 

10. Detail orientation

When you're managing calendars, sharing business information, planning events, or drafting presentations, you must pay attention to the details to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Mistakes in these areas can be costly - if not in terms of dollars, in terms of added stress and lost time. As such, employers want to know they can trust you to adequately cross all the t's and dot all the i's when they hire you to do a job, making attention to detail an in-demand administrative skill.    

11. Event coordination

Administrative professionals, in particular, are often responsible for planning events of varying sizes. Coordinating company events, holiday parties, staff meetings, and more can all fall under the administrative umbrella. What's great about highlighting event coordination skills is that you're showing several other administrative skills at the same time, including organization, communication, multitasking, collaboration, and problem-solving.

Additional administrative skills for resumes 

The above list is just a launching point to help you get started with your own list of administrative skills to include on your resume. Below are some additional hard and soft skills often found on administrative resumes to provide even more inspiration.

Administrative hard skills for resumes

  • Office equipment use

  • Quickbooks

  • Data entry

  • Reporting

  • Research

  • Database management

  • Videoconferencing

  • Messaging

  • Expense reporting

  • Accounting

  • Google Docs

  • File management

Administrative soft skills for resumes

  • Decision-making

  • Interpersonal skills

  • Prioritization

  • Active listening

  • Critical thinking

  • Creativity

  • Open-mindedness

  • Patience

How to highlight administrative skills on your resume

  • Make a list of your administrative-related skills and accomplishments. Using this post as inspiration, sit down and thoughtfully list all of the administrative skills you possess. From there, make a list of all of the administrative duties and responsibilities you've held, as well as any work accomplishments related to administrative skills you've applied or positions you've held. 

  • Refer to the job description. Review the job description you're interested in and highlight any administrative skills and experience required. Then, compare that to the list you created based on your work history. Be sure your resume includes the administrative skills and experience you have that align with the job description. This is a great way to incorporate keywords into your resume to pass an employer's applicant tracking system, or ATS, and grab the attention of hiring managers.

  • Showcase soft and hard (technical) skills throughout your resume. For maximum benefit, highlight both hard and soft administrative skills throughout your resume. Hard skills are measurable and learned skills, whereas soft skills are intangible and difficult to measure, though vital for job success. We discuss where and how to include hard and soft skills in the next section. 

  • Highlight soft skills through on-the-job accomplishments and achievements. Unlike with technical skills, you don't want to merely list soft skills on your resume. Instead, you want to show off your soft skills through the achievements you choose to highlight. For example, consider the following:

    Oversaw and coordinated a 5-hour corporate event for 1,000 employees, showcasing the executive team and highlighting employee achievements and milestones for 2023

    This achievement highlights organization, time management, attention to detail, critical thinking, and creativity administrative soft skills, to name a few. 

Where to highlight administrative skills on your resume

Now that you know how to come up with administrative skills to include on a resume, where can you incorporate them? Any of the following are excellent options:

  • Resume Summary

  • Skills or Core Competencies section

  • Experience section

  • Certifications section

  • Additional sections

Resume Summary

Your resume summary, that sits just below your contact information, is where you can pack a punch to entice resume readers to keep reading. Here are a couple of examples of how to include administrative skills in your resume summary:

Administrative professional example

Administrator with over 5 years of experience working with C-suite executives to navigate organizational challenges and provide solutions to maintain business continuity and operations. Managed up to 15 calendars at one time using effective scheduling, time management, and organizational skills. 

What are some of the administrative skills this summary speaks to? How about:

  • Communication

  • Organization

  • Problem solving

  • Time management

  • Stress management

  • Scheduling

  • Multitasking

Non-administrative individual contributor example

Focused engineering professional with 10 years of experience in the oil & gas sector. Leverages solid problem-solving skills to address concerns in high-stakes environments, with the flexibility required to adjust priorities and maintain productivity. Organized and led a $2M pipeline construction project to upgrade pipeline requirements, meeting current industry standards. 

Some of the administrative skills that this summary highlights include:

  • Critical thinking

  • Stress management

  • Prioritizing

  • Flexibility

  • Problem solving

  • Focus

  • Attention to detail

  • Communication

Skills or Core Competencies section

It can be beneficial to include a Core Competencies section just below your resume summary to showcase your technical skills, as well pertinent soft skills. For example:

Core Competencies

Customer Service | Microsoft 365 | Quickbooks | Research | Scheduling   |   Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) | Oracle Applicant Tracking System | Certified Administrative Professional (CAP) | Event Coordination

Alternatively, the hard skills listed could all also go under a Technical Skills section near the end of your resume:

Technical Skills

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)   |   Microsoft 365   |   Quickbooks   |   Research   |   ATS Proficiency   |   Event Coordination   |   Scheduling

Avoid being repetitive and listing the same skills in both a Core Competencies and Skills section - only choose one of the two if you don't have different skills to include in each list.

Work Experience section

Another section to highlight your stellar administrative skills is in the Work Experience section. Here's an example that showcases focus, stress management, communication, filing, organization, switchboard management, time management, and more, all in just three bullet points!

Receptionist

ABC Company, Houston, TX

July 2021 - Present

  • Managed switchboard for three office buildings housing over 750 employees

  • Answered client questions regarding products and services, handling a high call volume of 40 to 50 calls per day

  • Spearheaded development of a new filing system for improved organization of client cases related to issues and concerns

Certifications section

If you hold any administrative-related certifications, you can choose to include them in a Certifications section on your resume. Relevant certifications not only showcase acquired administrative skills and knowledge, but also indicate your dedication to professional development. 

Examples of in-demand administrative certifications are:

  • Microsoft 365

  • Certified Administrative Professional (CAP)

  • Administrative Assistant Certification (CAA)

  • Microsoft Office Specialist Certification (MOS)

  • Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

  • Professional Administrative Certification of Excellence (PACE)

Additional sections

Finally, some might choose to highlight administrative skills on their resume by including additional sections, such as:

Including additional sections on a resume can benefit those who have gaps in administrative work experience, skills, or education.

Top tip: why not check out our Office Administrative Assistant resume example?

Administrative skills = valuable assets for any resume

Whether you're applying for an administrative position or any other type of position, administrative skills on resumes add value and tend to stand out to hiring managers. Now, you're equipped with some of the most in-demand administrative skills to include on your resume, as well as advice on how and where to incorporate them. With these tips, you'll be landing those interviews in no time! 

Are you representing administrative skills on your resume appropriately? Why not submit it for a free resume review to find out?

Recommended reading:

Related Articles: