How to write an administration CV

Writing an effective administration CV poses quite a challenge. Firstly, the competition for admin roles is intense, yet you need your CV to stand out. Secondly, administration roles can – on the surface at least – appear very similar in nature. Thirdly, because many administrators provide support and not ownership, it can be difficult to find quantifiable outcomes or achievements. However, all these challenges can easily be overcome by following our advice in how to write an administrator CV.

Contact details

The most important contact details to include after your name are an email address, telephone number and link to your LinkedIn profile. These are the primary ways an employer will want to get in touch. However, you should never include any personal information like date of birth or marital status. You want your CV to be assessed only on your ability to do the job.

Consistency in formatting and presentation

Many administration roles require working with documents and presentation materials and being proficient in applications such as Word or PowerPoint.  Your CV need to reflect this expertise so that the formatting is consistent throughout. Make sure the headings are clearly labelled. Of course, there should be zero typos or grammatical errors.

Not all administrator jobs are the same, so you shouldn’t use the same CV

In the face of stiff competition, your administration CV will perform best when it is tailored for each role. This may mean just minor tweaks or substantial re-writing but aligning your CV to the specific requirements of a role will reap benefits in making sure your CV hits the mark. Spend more time on fewer applications. This is better than the scatter gun approach of using the same CV to apply for multiple roles.

Achievements

Although some tasks can be repetitive, there is always the opportunity to make a difference in your job. What does success look like? You may have improved or automated a process that will save time and money. May be you organised a major event or conference. You may have trained a new starter or received written praise for a special project well done (secret CV tip: including snippets of positive quotes can look really good in a CV). Use facts and figures to describe the outcome of your work.

Your unique administrator CV

Administrator roles provide vital support to functions. This includes managing processes, systems and people to ensure a service is delivered effectively. But whilst a process is a process, the reality is that every administration role will have something different. Bring each of your administration roles to life. Allow each job to tell its own success story.

It is important when writing a CV for administrator roles to stand out from the crowd. Take a step back from your day-to-day activities and show how you have made a difference in your work. Describe your achievements and the outcomes to gain maximum traction when writing your administrator CV.

This article is written by Neville Rose, Director of CV Writers. Please do connect with me via LinkedIn.

Check out our CV writing service with details of our packages that include LinkedIn profiles, cover letters and more. You can get things started with a Free CV review. I am also a qualified career counsellor and provide Career Counselling services for people looking to change career paths.