Administrative assistant skills in 2026
An administrative assistant needs confident use of Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, scheduling and calendar management, clear written communication, accurate record keeping and strong organisation. Employers also look for discretion with confidential information, and the judgment to handle several requests at once in the right order.
Check yours against a real administrative assistant job. Most administrative resumes describe the role as general office support. A hiring manager looks for the specific calendars, records and systems the candidate kept running.
Start with your resume.
Takes about a minuteUpload it once. You get your readiness score, your closest roles, your real gaps and week one of a plan built for them.
We read your resume to score it and find matches. We store it so you don’t have to upload it again if you make an account, and delete it after 30 days if you don’t. Privacy policy.
Don’t have a resume?Build one with SkillDrift AI in 2 minutes.Build my resumeOffice skills most postings ask for
Microsoft Office or Google Workspace
Word or Docs for letters and reports, Excel or Sheets for lists and simple tracking, and Outlook or Gmail for email.
Scheduling and calendar management
Booking meetings across several calendars and time zones, and handling changes without double booking.
Record keeping
Filing documents, invoices and contacts so that anyone on the team can find them.
Travel and event arrangements
Booking travel, rooms and catering within budget and company policy.
Data entry and basic bookkeeping
Entering data accurately, tracking expenses and preparing simple reports.
Collaboration tools
Shared drives, video calls, and tools such as Teams, Slack or a CRM.
Human skills that decide the job
Written communication
Clear, polite emails and messages on behalf of a manager or a team.
Organisation
Keeping track of many small tasks and deadlines at once.
Discretion
Handling confidential information, such as salaries or personal records, with care.
Prioritisation
Deciding which request to deal with first when several arrive at the same time.
The skills that decide the offer
Most people who reach the interview have the core list. These are the skills that usually separate them.
Handling competing requests
Interviewers often ask what you did when two managers needed something at the same time. A clear account of how you decided, and how you told both people, carries a lot of weight.
Accuracy
A wrong meeting time or a misfiled invoice causes problems later. Candidates who can describe how they check their own work stand out.
Learning new tools
Offices change their software often. Employers value assistants who learn a new system quickly, including AI tools for drafting and note taking, and who help others use it.
How to show these skills on your resume
The second line shows the software, the scope, record keeping and a process improvement. A screening system matches words, so a skill that is not written down is a skill that does not count.
Before
Provided administrative support to the management team.
After
Managed calendars and travel for four senior managers in Outlook, kept the contracts register current in SharePoint, and set up a shared request tracker that reduced repeat questions to the team.
See how a screening system reads your resume with the ATS score checker, then turn the gaps into a plan with a career roadmap.
Administrative assistant, executive assistant and office manager skills
An administrative assistant role supports a team with scheduling, records and correspondence. An executive assistant role supports one or two senior leaders closely, and adds managing their priorities, preparing meeting papers and handling sensitive matters. An office manager role adds suppliers, budgets, facilities and sometimes a small team. The step up is usually decided by judgment and by owning outcomes, such as an office move or an event that ran to plan.
Questions people ask
What skills does an administrative assistant need?
Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, scheduling and calendar management, written communication, record keeping, organisation, prioritisation and discretion.
What should I put under skills on an administrative assistant resume?
Name the software you use, the calendars and records you manage, and one process you improved. Add organisation and discretion, each backed by a line in your experience.
What is the difference between an administrative assistant and an executive assistant?
An administrative assistant usually supports a team. An executive assistant usually supports one or two senior leaders and handles more of their priorities and confidential work.
How do I check my skills against an administrative assistant job?
Upload your resume to SkillDrift and pick the job. It names the skills the posting asks for that your resume does not show, scores the job out of 100, and builds a learning path for each gap.