Recruiters

Translating Admin Experience to Recruiters

If you plan to apply for a new job in the near future, you must know how to explain your administrative experience in a way that convinces recruiters to interview you and make competitive job offers. Whether you are applying for an executive assistant position or hope to use your administrative experience to move into another type of career, you must be able to show recruiters that your experience gives you a solid foundation for any job. Use these tips for translating your administrative experience into information recruiters can use to assess your skills.

Working as an administrative assistant gives you many opportunities to develop skills that are useful in every industry. Mary Nestor-Harper says that you can leverage these skills to advance your career, as working as an administrative assistant gives you great exposure to people at all levels of an organization. This administrative experience gives you an opportunity to develop excellent written and verbal communication skills. When speaking with recruiters, explain how the communication skills you gained as an administrative assistant will help you add value to the organization if you are hired for a new position. If you have experience preparing financial reports, for example, this information would be valuable for a recruiter trying to fill a position in an accounting or payroll department.

As an administrative assistant, you likely had to use word processing or spreadsheet programs to perform your job duties. Some administrative assistants also use presentation development software and basic database programs. These skills are valuable for almost any job, so make sure the recruiter knows about your administrative experience with technology. Instead of glossing over your experience, make sure the recruiter knows how frequently, and in what capacity, you used each type of technology. If you led any technology-related projects in your administrative position, tell recruiters about them so they know you have leadership skills that could apply to other types of jobs.

If you are interviewing for an executive assistant position or another job where people skills are important, you must be able to convince recruiters that you can work effectively with people from all departments. Ralph Coker, a columnist for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, says that someone with poor people skills would not be a good candidate for a job that requires constant collaboration. If you are applying for a job that requires teamwork, give the recruiter specific examples that demonstrate your ability to resolve conflict or organize team projects. Providing examples from your administrative experience gives you extra credibility with recruiters.

Your administrative experience gives you several skills that translate well into any career. The key to landing a new job is being able to explain this administrative experience in a way that recruiters understand. Always use specific examples from your past jobs so that staffing professionals know how your skills might benefit their companies.

Nancy Anderson is the communities and article Editor for Beyond.com.  Nancy has 10 years experience in the online job search business with Beyond.  Nancy’s team produces dozens of articles every month for top internet sites.  Follow Nancy and the Beyond team on https://twitter.com/BeyondJobs.

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