Administrative Careers: How To Structure Education On Your Resume So That It Does Not Hurt You

Many jobs in administration will require you to have a lot of education, but education doesn't have to be the end-all be-all to your landing that all-important administrative position. The type of administrative resume you put in must include proper detail. But too many people believe that an extensive education will make them look more valuable rather than having actual experience. Some people will have degrees from private schools with a high GPA figuring this will put them ahead of the competition. But people who are in charge of employing people in the administrative field do not pay much attention to this, their primary focus is on experience and core skills.

Putting in an executive assistant resume, a receptionist resume, executive resume, or an office manager resume requires you to be very particular about the skills you possess. People make the mistake of putting education before experience in this department thinking that if they have more education it will make up for lack of actual experience. If your experience is limited it is best to be straight forward and honest about it. You may possess the skills, you may simply not have enough experience employing them. You may get the chance if you're able to convey this effectively on your administrator resume.

Always position education before experience if you have no actual experience on the job though, but make sure it does not take away from your marketability. What I mean by this is you do not want to be so fancy about including your education that it overshadows your actual experience and skills. Your education isn't meant to sell you, your actual skills are. Your education level should be mentioned very briefly and if more questions are asked later then you can provide more information. In any case you want your actual skills to market you because this is what will be used to determine if you are appropriate for the job.

You can put experience before education also if you feel your experience will make you more marketable. As mentioned before education isn't used a lot of the time to determine whether someone is qualified for an administrative position. As long as you meet the basic education requirements that is usually all you need. Putting in for administrative careers will require you to be particular about what you can do for the company, not about the level of degree you have or the type of college you went to.

- Gail Esparan