Executive Assistant Job Description

What Is The Work Of An Executive Assistant

Like administrative assistants or secretaries, executive assistants support someone else’s work—usually that of an executive—by managing or overseeing office responsibilities.

The distinction is that an executive assistant is a senior office staff member who is assigned to a top boss. This includes managing and teaching other office workers and taking on responsibilities that can significantly impact a company’s performance.

Who Is An Executive Assistant

An executive assistant is a professional who works as an administrative assistant to an organization’s executive or another high-level administrator.

They handle things that directly impact the performance of the business, such as training employees, conducting different office administration responsibilities, offering administrative assistance, and typically handling jobs that directly impact the business’s success, such as training staff.

Executive Assistant Skills

Each executive assistant position will need somewhat different abilities since CEOs delegate a wide range of responsibilities to their assistants. As they advance in their professions, some may be given more duties. However, numerous transferrable abilities are required for any executive assistant, including:

1. Adaptability

• Projects a cheerful mood regardless of changes in working environment • Demonstrates the capacity to handle several conflicting goals without losing focus

2. Scheduling

• Managing Time

Determines the most efficient use of time

• Space Administration

Effectively controls the workplace (i.e. maintains a clean and orderly environment) office, manages all papers properly, and maintains control of the physical surroundings, and so forth.

• Task Administration

Strikes a balance between competing priorities to manage workflow and guarantee the completion of key projects and achievement of critical deadlines.

3. Proactive Anticipation of Needs 

• Illustrates the ability to foresee problems and prevent them by taking action 
• Uses analytical skills and a broad understanding of the business to effectively

interpret needs

4. Communication Skills 

• Listening skills

Recognizes that the most important aspect of communication is the act

of listening and  works to improve those skills 

• Oral

Communicates with confidence using clear, concise sentences and is easily

understood 

• Written 

Generates well thought‐out, professional correspondence free of

grammatical and spelling errors.

Duties Of An Executive Assistant – Executive Assistant Job Description

1. Serves as the principal point of contact for internal and external constituents on all executive office concerns.

2. Serves as the Clerk of the Board and Executive Leadership’s confidential executive assistant; provides a wide range of clerical and administrative support; resolves concerns and complaints in a timely and accurate manner; and follows up with staff as needed for detailed information to be included in the response.

3. Assists the Clerk of the Board in the execution and follow-up on Board decisions and requests.

4. Serves as a liaison between the executive office and internal departments, displaying leadership to retain confidence, trust, and support from senior management personnel.

5. Collects and analyzes data on a wide range of administrative and policy issues; formulates suggestions, and produces and presents relevant reports.

6. Assists the executive leadership and members of the leadership team with administrative tasks. Scheduling meetings, maintaining and updating executives’ daily calendars, managing incoming and outgoing phone calls, drafting correspondence, creating spreadsheets and presentations, preparing expense reports, mailing or overnighting letters/packages, establishing and maintaining electronic and paper files, copying, faxing are some examples.

7. Serves as a “gatekeeper” by monitoring the schedules of the senior leadership. This entails using judgment in selecting essential things, arranging meetings, and making schedule adjustments with minimum participation from senior leadership. Plans, coordinates, and guarantees that the timetable of the executive leadership is followed and respected. Creates win-win scenarios for direct access to the senior leadership’s time and office by serving as a “gatekeeper” and “gateway.”

8. Schedule meetings, prepare agendas and take minutes for internal agency committees (Data Management/Records Committees).

9. Handles extremely private and essential information on a regular basis, including the coordination of reports and data of Bargaining Units.

10. Checks typed and other documents for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with District standards, policies, and procedures; proofreads and checks typed and other materials for correctness, completeness, and compliance with District rules, policies, and procedures.

11. Takes the first steps toward resolving urgent/complex situations and tells the supervisor.

12. Arranges travel, hotel accommodations, and meeting preparation for the senior leadership and other members of the team as needed.

13. Develop strong connections with personnel and various levels of management from inside and beyond the District in order to offer or acquire information that is frequently sensitive and timely.

14. Develop strong connections within the District to enable efficient and effective cooperation, as well as with administrative assistants of other management team members, to establish a high-performance, customer-service-oriented work environment.

15. In response to inquiries and complaints, interpret District policies, processes, rules, and regulations; refer inquiries as appropriate.

Executive Assistant Salary

The average yearly salary for an Executive Administrative Assistant in the United States is $47,987 as of June 20, 2021.

In case you need a quick salary calculator, that works out to about $23.07 per hour. This equates to $923 every week or $3,999 per month.

While Recruitbros reports yearly wages as high as $72,500 and as low as $23,000, the bulk of Executive   Assistant salaries in the United States presently range from $37,500 (25th percentile) to $55,500 (75th percentile), with top earners (90th percentile) making $67,500.

The typical salary range for an Executive   Assistant varies considerably (by up to $18,000), implying that there may be several chances for promotion and higher compensation dependent

on skill level, location, and years of experience.

According to recent Recruitbros job listings, the Executive   Assistant job market in Lagos, NG, and the surrounding region is quite active. An Executive   Assistant in your region earns $47,987 per year on average, which is the same as the national average yearly income of $47,987. Executive   Assistant wages in California are the highest in the US, ranking first out of 50 states.

Recruitbros continually analyzes its database of millions of active jobs listed locally across America to determine the most accurate yearly pay range for Executive   Assistant positions.

Today, use Recruitbros to find your next high-paying job as an Executive   Assistant.

What Are The Top 10 Highest Paying Cities For Executive  Assistant Jobs

We’ve discovered ten places where the average compensation for an Executive   Assistant is higher than the national average. San Mateo, CA is at the top of the list, with Richmond, CA, and Stamford, CT close behind in second and third place. Stamford, CT outperforms the national average by $7,744 (16.1%), and San Mateo, CA outperforms the national average by another $13,187 (27.5%).

Significantly, the Executive   Assistant job market in San Mateo, CA is very active, with several companies currently hiring for this type of position.

With average incomes greater than the national average in these ten cities, the prospects for economic growth by moving places as an Executive   Assistant look to be quite beneficial.

Finally, the average income for these top ten locations changes very little, at 13 percent between San Mateo, CA and Paterson, NJ, emphasizing the limited possibility for wage development. When weighing location and income for an Executive   Assistant position, the prospect of a reduced cost of living may be the most important aspect to consider.

Executive Assistant Resume

Before you begin, make sure you understand how to compose a CV that effectively highlights your talents.

1. When possible, highlight your abilities.

The ability to manage any circumstance is one of the most sought-after skills in an executive assistant. Being that capable necessitates a diverse range of talents. As a result, the clearer you can illustrate your abilities, the better.

Take note of how this candidate highlights her abilities not just in her skills section, but also in her professional profile:

• Executive Assistant with more than 8 years of experience providing administrative assistance to C-level executives.
• Organization: Skilled at meeting scheduling, agenda preparation, and action item follow-up.
• Problem-solving abilities: Demonstrate good quantitative problem-solving and prioritizing abilities.
• Achievement: Improved overall efficiency by 30% by redesigning the company’s filing system.

In addition to the abilities highlighted in her professional biography, this candidate prioritizes hard skills over soft skills. This places a greater focus on her hard abilities. Because soft skills are transferrable and do not indicate expertise in your area, this method is ideal for prioritizing industry-specific hard skills.

Examples of Hard Skills.

Microsoft Office Suite/Excel

English/Spanish

Web/Tech Savvy

Examples of soft skills.

Organization prioritization

Team Problem Solving and Leadership

Check out our skills for resume writing advice if you need help conceptualizing skills to highlight.

2. Examine your career background.

When creating your executive assistant resume, be sure to highlight the key tasks and accomplishments you’ve performed at past jobs. This offers your potential employer a better sense of the variety of jobs you’re capable of. And, if you back up your assertions with quantitative statistics, you’ll be able to demonstrate how effective you are at your work.

See how our candidate peppers her CV with easy-to-understand statistics, which strengthens her resume:

• Perform a range of accounting tasks each week, such as producing 10 to 20 check requests, expenditure reports, purchase orders, and invoices.
• Handled all domestic and international travel arrangements, resulting in a 12% reduction in the company’s travel expenditures.
• 3+ monthly meetings and their logistical components (scheduling, preparing the space, arranging handouts and/or binders for attendance, etc.) were organized.

Even amid these professional experiences, it is clear that the candidate has chosen to highlight activities that cover a broad spectrum of expertise.

3. Demonstrate your command of action verbs.

Using powerful action verbs while discussing your professional expertise is another method to persuade your prospective employer that you are prepared to be an executive assistant. Not only will your CV be more authoritative, but strong action verbs will make your experience more lively and less dull.

Take note of the verbs our candidate use to bring her most recent work tasks to life:

Manage, Prioritize, Coordinate, Track, Follow-up Identify, Perform, and Maintain.

Take note of how the applicant never repeats verbs and how the ones she chooses are powerful enough to conjure up an image of what she accomplished when you read them.

If you’re at a loss for words, check out the universe’s most comprehensive collection of action verbs.

If you have any more queries regarding how to write an executive assistant resume, you can find the solutions on how to write a resume.

Executive Assistant Resume Sample

 

Executive Assistant Cover Letter

Writing an effective Executive Assistant cover letter is a critical step in the job search process. When drafting a cover letter, be sure to refer to the job description’s criteria. Mention your most relevant or remarkable qualifications in your letter to show companies why you’re a good match for the position.

As with resume samples, the following Executive Assistant cover letter example can assist you in writing a cover letter that effectively shows your expertise and credentials. If you’re ready to start looking for your next job, post your resume to Indeed Resume.

Executive Assistant Cover Letter Sample

Dear Ms. Smith: Upon learning of your need for an Executive Assistant, I felt compelled to submit my resume for your review. As an ambitious and dedicated professional with 14+ years of experience providing comprehensive administrative and operational support to C-level personnel, I am confident that I would be a valuable asset to your team at Morgantown Industries. My expertise lies in coordinating and leading administrative and operational functions for senior-level staff and department directors. Backed by superior communication and multitasking capabilities, I excel at providing exceptional organizational and time-management skills and driving optimal office efficiency and success. Highlights of my experience include… Overseeing scheduling, meeting coordination, calendar management, travel arrangements, budgeting, project management, and records maintenance, ensuring adherence to organizational procedures and policies to ensure outstanding productivity and performance. Interacting effectively with cross-functional departments to streamline operations and achieve business success in fast-paced environments. Balancing multiple tasks within deadline-driven atmospheres while providing top-level customer service and maintaining strict attention to detail. Earning consistent recognition by staff and peers for unparalleled interpersonal and communication talents as well as exceptionally positive and uplifting demeanor. Possessing an extensive technical skillset—including proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe InDesign, and QuickBooks—as well as a propensity for quickly adapting to new technological programs and systems. With my proven commitment to delivering the highest level of executive-level administrative support, I am well prepared to extend my record of exceptional service to your team at Morgantown Industries. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this position and my qualifications with you further. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Carol O. Gess

Conclusion

Executive assistants are frequently the unsung heroes of a business, literally keeping leadership on track, on time, and under budget. You’ve probably accomplished some remarkable things in your time as an EA (and are excited about continuing to add to your impressive list of accomplishments). Simply make sure your resume and cover letter show this!