The moment you see an executive assistant position on any job list, certain things come to mind, like:
– Who is the prospective employer?
– What is the job description?
– Do I have the skills to be an executive assistant?
– How much money does an executive assistant make?
All this is fine and dandy if you work or have worked in a previous administrative assistant position. But if you want to transition from an earlier role with no prior experience, you must highlight transferable skills to show you qualify to be an executive assistant.
Transferable skills are the skills you immerse in your different working positions over the years but use in interchanging roles. These skills might not entirely relate to the executive assistant job description, but, in some cases, they can count as much as work experience, especially if highlighted convincingly.
Not every transferable skill applies. Instead, specific skills become the game-changer by showing your value to a company as an executive assistant. The trick is to express the skill and how it applies in the new executive assistant position as per the job description.
To determine the best transferable skill to add to your executive assistant resume, list all your skills and determine how they apply to the executive assistant role. Find different ways each skill, be it a hard skill or soft skill, applies to the position.
If one skill applies to the executive assistant position in more than one way, it’s a transferable skill to highlight in the job application or cover letter.
Here are some of the most common examples of transferable skills to highlight in a job search for an executive assistant position.
– Administrative skills
– Problem-solving skills
– Critical thinking
– Analytical skills
– Attention to detail
– Relationship building skills
– Communication skills
– Computer skills
– Management skills
– Organizational skills
This is the fundamental skill to have as an executive assistant. After all, your work ensures that you diligently perform every administrative task in your position. Show your daily data entry, phone etiquette, and record-keeping skills.
For instance, you should outline how you maintain, update, and record databases in your current organization. Include your typing speed for requirements like minute taking or data entry. Add other essential skills you deem insignificant, like knowing how to use excel or spreadsheets.
Part of the administrative skill is decision-making on the spot. Despite interruptions or changes in the schedule, you must have the leadership skills to handle tasks and meet deadlines without fail.
An excellent executive assistant also knows when not to abuse their power. Therefore, give instances where you make proactive decisions and when you reverted the concerns to your employer.
You must be excellent at solving problems to be an executive assistant because operations sometimes fail. For instance, if you handle multiple client relationships and there is miscommunication with a meeting schedule, it is your responsibility to remedy the issue.
As such, show the recruiters how you handle unexpected situations. Show your adaptability and your competence in dealing with unforeseen problems. Give examples that express your ability to think on your feet and come up with quick and out-of-the-box solutions.
Additionally, include instances where you identified bottlenecks in the business operations and your proposed alternative solutions. Remember to detail how these solutions improve business processes.
Critical thinking is your ability to evaluate, understand, and interpret different situations and information before concluding. Critical thinking allows you to act, resulting in productive outcomes for the business and your employer.
For instance, you prioritize tasks using critical thinking skills, ensuring operations run seamlessly. This is essential for new jobs in the post-pandemic world, where employers valueteam members who can seamlessly adjust to a more virtual workspace.
This works hand in hand with problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It is the ability to take a large problem, break it into smaller manageable issues, and find solutions to these issues.
As an executive assistant, showing you handle situations analytically indicates you have a logical aptitude for overseeing business operations.
Any errors in higher-level positions have dire consequences. You don’t want to misspell a client’s name or fail to send an email with information about a contract. Some mistakes lead to lawsuits or ruin the business’s reputation.
Therefore, attention to detail is a skill to showcase diligently. You are the last line of defense against errors, especially where an executive is concerned. Keeping that in mind, ensure you show your recruiter a clear track record of no mistakes in your previous positions.
As an executive assistant, you are responsible for building good relationships between clients, departments, and other senior partners. This requires people, conflict resolution, patience, interpersonal, and persuasion skills.
Therefore, in your resume, give examples of situations where you build rapport. If you have evidence of instances where you ask and receive a favor from someone, include it as part of your relationship-building skills.
The goal is to express how helpful you are to different individuals that relate to your organization. Show how assertive you are with your employer, yet friendly and respectful. Address your negotiation skills, which are important to ensure your employer always has what they need to work efficiently.
For example, tell your recruiter how you convince collaborators to partner with your employer on specific projects. Have you found yourself in a high-stake conflict situation? If yes, how did your composure and patience ensure the opposing parties reached an agreeable conclusion?
How do you show your support if your employer is frustrated because of an unsuccessful collaboration? How do you show empathy? Do you use your built relationships to foster new investment in its place?
Showing how you express these qualities tells the recruiter you have excellent relationship-building skills.
As an executive assistant, you cannot escape communication with an organization’s CEOs, staff members, teams, customers, and supervisors. Every day there are multiple people to talk to, listen to, and provide information, whether in verbal or written form.
Therefore, communication skills are critical for optimal performance. Besides, as an executive assistant, you are privy to sensitive or important information, most of which break or make a company.
This means that communicating correctly and discreetly isn’t something to take lightly. You must have interpersonal skills and understand how to communicate with senior management, high-level clients, and low-level employees. That is, how do you share your ideas? Are you clear and concise? Are you good at public speaking?
Do you make it easy for people to understand what you say? If it is verbal communication, how competent are your listening skills? Is active listening to others a habit of yours? Do you take the time to understand their thoughts before providing a solution or an answer?
In writing, do you aim to reflect the position of the addressee with your choice of words and tone? For instance, an email to a senior executive is best done with a formal tone, and one to a customer with a personal touch because they appreciate it more.
Also, show that you know how to convey your messages clearly without physical and visual cues, avoid spelling mistakes, and are respectful but assertive.
Technology has become an integral part of business operations today. As such, any computer skills give you an edge over competitors. Additionally, an employer is likelier to choose an executive assistant that is more tech-savvy than they are because their technical skills become more valuable.
Therefore, include your software applications and certifications, and show how they enhance productivity and efficiency. Show your willingness to learn and utilize new technology.
This is one area to show how to use your management skills to be the best executive assistant for a company. Here’s how:
– Time management skills are vital for any executive assistant if they manage the different schedules, events, projects, and individuals in an organization timely and by priority. How executive assistants manage their time determines how successful they are at their job and the efficiency with which operations flow.
– It is also imperative to know how to manage people. As an executive assistant, you deal with people from senior management, subordinates, and customers. You also must coordinate and delegate between different people in different departments or companies. Facilitating this kind of teamwork requires excellent people management skills.
– Managing yourself is also just as crucial as managing tasks and other people. People come to executive assistants for help or information. You are also responsible for your employer’s schedule, tasks, and responsibilities. Therefore, you must know how to handle your business well, accurately, and fail.
A high-level executive assistant has numerous tasks and information to handle in a day. Therefore, mention your ability to work orderly because of the organizational skills picked up in previous jobs.
For instance, outline how you handle several projects using tools that improve your efficiency and productivity. Include examples of how you multitask between tasks and interruptions without losing efficiency.
Transferable skills turn any employee from mediocre to invaluable. If you have them, the employer doesn’t have to schedule training sessions once they hire you. Instead, they believe you add immediate benefit to the company since you have the skills to contribute to business growth and development immediately.
Remember, the best skills to list are those you use in multiple ways. Transferable skills mean you are proactive since you go past the job description to deliver. They also show you adapt to different settings and transition quickly within the workplace.
Therefore, call attention to these transferable skills and increase your chances of being an executive assistant, especially if you don’t have prior experience.
Sources:
Transferable Skills: How to Use Them to Land Your Next Job | Coursera
Here’s How to Improve Critical Thinking And Why It’s Important | World Economic Forum