Office Manager Resume Example & Writing Guide
Learn how to write an office manager resume that gets interviews. This guide includes an office manager resume example, plus expert tips for highlighting your skills and experience. Discover what to include, recommended layouts, and how to make your resume stand out. By the end, you'll have a resume that effectively markets you for office manager positions.
A strong resume is essential for office managers looking to land their dream job. In a busy hiring landscape, a well-crafted resume helps you stand out from other applicants and showcase your unique skills and experience. This guide provides a step-by-step approach to creating an effective office manager resume, along with an example to inspire you.
As an office manager, your resume should highlight your ability to keep an office running smoothly, manage multiple tasks, and support staff and executives. It's important to clearly communicate your organizational skills, attention to detail, and problem-solving abilities. Your resume should also showcase your experience with common office software, such as Microsoft Office, and any relevant certifications or training.
By following the tips in this guide and studying the provided example, you'll be well on your way to creating a resume that grabs the attention of hiring managers and lands you an interview. Remember, a great resume is the first step to securing your next office manager position, so take the time to get it right.
Common Responsibilities Listed on Office Manager Resumes
- Manage day-to-day office operations and maintain a smooth functioning workplace
- Coordinate and manage office supplies inventory, placing orders as necessary
- Manage office budget, expenses, and petty cash
- Oversee maintenance of office equipment, including computers, printers, and phone systems
- Coordinate with IT department to ensure proper functioning of office technology
- Manage office calendar, scheduling meetings, appointments, and events
- Arrange travel and accommodations for staff and executives
- Greet and direct visitors, answering and routing phone calls
- Maintain office filing system, ensuring accurate and up-to-date records
- Assist with onboarding new employees, including orientation and training
- Coordinate with HR department on employee-related matters
- Oversee office layout, organization, and cleanliness
- Provide general administrative support to staff and executives as needed
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How to write a Resume Summary
In crafting a stellar objective or summary for your resume as an Office Manager, the key idea to remember is the necessity of conciseness and relevance.
A well-crafted resume summary is a bridge that connects who you are professionally, to what you can offer an employer. As such, they establish your credentials, skills, and value propositions - all in a couple of sentences. They're not a place for lengthy exposition about your objectives or an explanation of your professional life story. Keep it brief, to the point, and relevant to the position you're applying to.
In constructing your summary section start by outlining your professional background. As an Office Manager, what types of companies or industries have you worked with? Have you worked more in small startup environments or larger, established companies? In this part of your summary, focus on painting a picture of the professional background you come from, it showcases your expertise.
Next, emphasize your core competencies or the key skills you possess that make you good at your job. Here's where you get a chance to show your authoritativeness by highlighting your abilities that have been honed through years of experience. Remember to customize these to the specific job you're applying for. If the job posting highlights certain skills as being particularly important, be sure, if true, to highlight these skills in your resume summary.
Following this, delineate the key achievements or the value you have added to your previous organizations. E.g. it could be process improvements that led to a significant cost reduction, or maybe it was leading a team to hit key company KPIs. This is where you showcase your trustworthiness, by showing the practical and measurable impact you've had.
Lastly, wrap it up by indicating your career goals as they align with the company's outlook. This shouldn't be overly complex or ambitious, but rather a clear, simple, and straightforward statement of what you want to achieve next in your career, and how this company or position can help you do that.
Avoid using jargon, cliches, or buzzwords. While these might seem attractive, they often lead to vague statements and can obscure the real value you offer. Instead, stick to concrete, quantifiable details about your skills, experience, and career objectives.
Remember, your resume - and therefore also your summary should be an ever-evolving document. It needs to be tailored specific to the job you're applying for to be the most effective. Keep it updated and aligned to your most current career goals, skills, and experiences.
In essence, your summary should be an elevator pitch of who you are professionally - concise, clear, and potent. Keep it relevant and focused on your professional facts and not your personal ideologies. Your aim is to extract interviews out of employers who read your summary or objective section.
Strong Summaries
- Organized Office Manager with 7+ years of experience in managing work operations and administrative tasks for large-scale companies. Proven ability to streamline work processes and maximize team productivity through effective task management and coordination.
- Motivated Office Manager boasting a robust track record in delegating tasks, handling scheduling, and managing all administrative duties, effectively reducing company expenses by 20%.
- Experienced Office Manager adept at handling all types of administrative activities involving order processing, inventory tracking, and finance monitoring. Commended for improving office systems and enhancing overall productivity by 30%.
- Dedicated Office Manager with more than 10 years of experience overseeing administrative and operational functions in a busy office environment. Proven skills in managing supplies, schedules, budgets, and processes to keep the office humming efficiently and cost-effectively.
Why these are strong?
These examples are good practices because they succinctly present the candidate's qualifications, experiences, and accomplishments in the role of an Office Manager. Each example provides specific details about the candidate's competencies, such as task management, coordination, expense reduction, improving systems, and enhancing productivity. The inclusion of quantifiable achievements (i.e., 'reducing company expenses by 20%', 'enhancing overall productivity by 30%') provides concrete evidence of the candidate's capabilities and effectiveness in their role, which can greatly appeal to potential employers.
Weak Summaries
- Summary: I used to be a bouncer at a local nightclub, then worked in construction for a bit. Now I want to be an Office Manager, so hire me.
- About Me: I'm just a regular guy, with regular skills, looking for a regular job.
- Hi, I'm Jane, I love cats, travelling, and reading books. I'm also looking for an Office Manager position.
- Introduction: I'm currently looking for any job that pays well.
- Summary: I was previously employed as an Office Manager. Now, I'm unemployed and need a job.
Why these are weak?
These examples are bad practice for several reasons. First, the summary in a resume should reflect skills, experiences, and career focus relative to the applied position. Mentioning irrelevant details such as love for animals or personal circumstances, like being unemployed, is unprofessional and off-topic. The candidates do not articulate their qualifications, experiences or aspirations related to the Office Manager role, hence, they fail to project a clear professional image. Summary like 'regular guy, with regular skills' does not highlight the candidate's suitability or uniqueness for the role. Finally, summary spaces in a resume are not meant to express desperation or unfocused career aspirations.
Showcase your Work Experience
The work experience segment is arguably the most fundamental part of your resume. This section effectively communicates your professional journey and accomplishments, so the importance of strategically drafting it cannot be understated. It may make or break your chance of moving forward in the hiring process.
Understanding The Work Experience Section
The work experience section is where you detail your past employment. The Office Manager, typically the heart of any company, plays an integral role in ensuring things run smoothly. Effectuating this in your resume starts with understanding how to structure this section: starting with the most recent role and working back. However, this is not a place to simply list job descriptions. Instead, it's a platform to spotlight your accomplishments.
Highlight Relevant Positions and Responsibilities
Not every job needs to be included on your resume. You only want to display jobs within the past 10 -15 years with direct responsibilities or transferable skills applicable to the position for which you're applying. Clearly, describing your duties is acceptable. Yet, avoid oversaturating this section with trivial details or daily tasks. Remember, the focus here should be on key accomplishments and significant contributions that added value to your previous employers.
Quantify your accomplishments and impact in each role using specific metrics, percentages, and numbers to provide concrete evidence of your value and make your work experience section stand out to potential employers.
Showcasing Achievements instead of Duties
Rather than listing responsibilities, try to tell a story through achievements. Put yourself in the shoes of a potential employer: they want to know how you performed instead of what you were supposed to do. Detail experiences that demonstrate your capabilities and effectiveness as an Office Manager. Quantify these successes when possible. Did you reduce hours of manual paperwork using a new system? Did you increase team efficiency by a specific percentage? Numbers, percentages, and other metrics provide a clearer, more concrete demonstration of your value.
Action Verbs and Power Words
Begin each point on your resume with an action verb to provide a stronger punch and dynamic tone. Instead of using words like 'did' or 'worked,' action verbs such as 'managed,' 'organized,' or 'coordinated' can put a spotlight on your activities, giving them more weight.
Remember, the work experience section isn't just a list of past jobs—it's a showcase of your achievements, skills, and value to potential employers. Articulate thoughtfully and truthfully, and you'll set yourself up for success.
Strong Experiences
- Coordinated daily office operations, overseeing a team of five administrative assistants
- Managed vendor relations, resulting in a 15% decrease in office supply costs
- Implemented a new digital filing system, increasing office efficiency by 20%
- Organized logistics for quarterly team-building events for 50+ employees
- Steered company-wide transition towards a more efficient cloud-based data management system
- Mitigated office disputes effectively ensuring a positive work environment
- Oversaw annual budget planning and execution, saving the company 10% annually on operational costs
- Conceptualized and developed office policies and procedures to streamline administrative tasks
Why these are strong?
The above examples are good because they demonstrate the responsibilities and achievements of an office manager in a clear and concise manner. Each bullet point starts with an actionable verb, indicating what the office manager did, followed by a quantifiable result or a positive outcome, proving their effectiveness in the role. This is a good practice as it allows hiring managers to understand the candidate's capabilities and what they can potentially bring to their organization. Further, these examples focus on diverse areas - from managing daily office operations, improving efficiency, managing vendor relations, overseeing budget planning, to ensuring positive work environment - highlighting the candidate's versatility and ability to manage various aspects of office administration.
Weak Experiences
- Worked in an office
- Did managerial things
- Handled some paperwork
- Ran meetings
- Kept things organized
- Had to manage people
- Looked after the office
Why these are weak?
The above examples are unclear, vague, and show a lack of specific detail that is needed in a resume. Including such bullet points under the work experience section can show a lack of effort or a lack of understanding of the specific duties involved in the (Office Manager) role. Each bullet point should clearly demonstrate a particular skill, accomplishment, or learning experience which directly correlates with the requirements of the role you are applying for. Details including number of team members managed, type of paperwork handled, efficiency attained in handling the meetings, should be included. Loose terminologies like 'Did managerial things', 'Handled some paperwork', 'Had to manage people' do not provide any context or impression about the role actually performed. This makes it difficult for the employers to assess the candidate's suitability for the job, making this a bad practice.
Skills, Keywords & ATS Tips
Managing an office is a job that calls for a unique set of skills. As an Office Manager, you not only need to be adept at administrative tasks and procedures, but also at people skills, often referred to as soft skills. In your resume, showcasing both these hard and soft skills can significantly improve your chances of landing the job you're eyeing.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are technical abilities that you acquire through education, training, and experience. For an Office Manager, these could include proficiency in office software such as Microsoft Office or Google Suite, accounting or payroll management, or vendor management. These skills are usually easy to measure and they demonstrate your aptitude in handling the practical aspects of the job.
Listing these skills prominently in the skills section of your resume can help you pass the Applicant Tracking System (ATS), a software that many companies use to filter resumes. The ATS generally looks for specific keywords related to the job requirements. So, if the job posting mentions certain hard skills, make sure you include those specific terms in your resume.
Soft Skills
On the other hand, soft skills refer to personal attributes like communication, leadership, problem-solving, or team management. These skills are crucial for an office manager, since you'll need to liaise with different departments and people at various levels of the organization, and these interactions require excellent interpersonal skills.
While soft skills might not be explicitly mentioned in the job posting, they are often inferred from the required responsibilities and duties. Skills like 'effective communication', 'decision-making abilities', and 'organizational skills' are highly sought-after in Office Managers.
Balancing Hard and Soft Skills
A successful Office Manager needs a balance of both hard and soft skills. Thus, your resume should reflect this balance. This not only ensures you come across as a well-rounded applicant, but also increases your chances of passing the ATS, which often looks for a mix of both types of skills.
Keywords, ATS and Matching Skills
This brings us to the role of keywords and the ATS. The ATS uses algorithms to scan resumes for specific keywords that match the job description. If your resume doesn't contain these exact terms, it might get discarded even before reaching the hiring manager.
Therefore, it's crucial to carefully read the job posting and identify the key hard and soft skills it requires. Once you have this list, make sure to incorporate these exact terms in your resume. This can significantly increase your chances of passing the ATS and reaching the interview stage.
Remember, it's not just about having the right skills, it's also about presenting them in a way that matches the employer's needs. Balancing hard and soft skills in your resume, and aligning them with required keywords, can go a long way in ensuring your resume stands out in the pool of applicants.
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Hard Skills
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Top Action Verbs
Use action verbs to highlight achievements and responsibilities on your resume.
Education
Including your educational background and certificates on your resume is indeed crucial, especially when applying for an office manager position. You should locate this information towards the top of your document, right below your personal summary. Begin by mentioning your degrees, then continue with other relevant certificates. Start with the name of the degree/certificate, followed by the institution's name, location, and date of completion. This method gives a comprehensive overview of your academic achievements, ensuring you make a powerful first impact.
Resume FAQs for Office Managers
What is the best format for an office manager resume?
The best format for an office manager resume is the reverse-chronological format. This format emphasizes your most recent work experience and achievements, which employers are most interested in. It also makes it easy for hiring managers to quickly scan your resume and understand your career progression.
How long should an office manager resume be?
An office manager resume should typically be one to two pages long. If you have less than 10 years of experience, aim for a one-page resume. If you have more than 10 years of experience or a extensive list of relevant achievements, a two-page resume is acceptable. Always prioritize quality over quantity and focus on including the most relevant information.
What are the most important skills to include on an office manager resume?
The most important skills to include on an office manager resume are: strong organizational skills, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, proficiency in Microsoft Office and other relevant software, problem-solving abilities, attention to detail, and the ability to multitask and prioritize effectively. Highlight these skills through specific examples and achievements in your work experience section.
How can I make my office manager resume stand out?
To make your office manager resume stand out, focus on quantifiable achievements and results rather than just listing job duties. Use strong action verbs to describe your contributions and highlight any special projects or initiatives you led. Tailor your resume to the specific job description and company, and use relevant keywords throughout. Consider including a brief summary or objective statement at the top of your resume to grab the employer's attention and showcase your unique value proposition.
Should I include references on my office manager resume?
No, it is not necessary to include references on your office manager resume. Employers typically assume that you will provide references upon request, so it's best to use the limited space on your resume to showcase your skills and achievements. Have a separate list of professional references ready to provide when asked, and make sure to inform your references beforehand that potential employers may contact them.
How important is a cover letter for an office manager resume?
A well-written cover letter can be a powerful tool to complement your office manager resume. It allows you to expand on your qualifications, showcase your personality and enthusiasm for the role, and explain any unique circumstances or gaps in your employment history. While not all employers require a cover letter, it's always a good idea to include one unless specifically stated otherwise. Tailor your cover letter to the specific job and company, and use it as an opportunity to highlight your most relevant skills and experiences.
An Office Manager oversees day-to-day administrative operations, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. When crafting a resume, clearly outline multitasking and organizational abilities. Highlight experiences managing office supplies, coordinating meetings/events, and providing executive support. Emphasize technical skills like proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite. Include professional references attesting to your strong interpersonal and time management competencies.
Dynamic and driven Office Manager with 8+ years of experience streamlining operations, improving efficiency, and providing exceptional administrative support. Adept at implementing innovative systems, fostering seamless communication, and managing diverse teams. Known for strong interpersonal skills, meticulous attention to detail, and the ability to adapt to fast-paced environments.
- Spearheaded the implementation of a new digital filing system, reducing paper waste by 40% and increasing document retrieval efficiency by 55%.
- Managed a team of 12 administrative professionals, ensuring smooth day-to-day operations and providing guidance and support to optimize performance.
- Coordinated complex travel arrangements, event planning, and meeting logistics for executive staff, resulting in seamless execution of over 50 high-profile events annually.
- Developed and maintained strong relationships with vendors, negotiating competitive contracts and saving the company an average of $25,000 per year.
- Implemented a new employee onboarding process, reducing time-to-productivity by 30% and improving new hire satisfaction rates by 25%.
- Provided high-level administrative support to the CEO, managing calendar, correspondence, and priorities with utmost discretion and professionalism.
- Coordinated domestic and international travel arrangements, ensuring seamless itineraries and timely completion of visa and documentation requirements.
- Prepared and edited executive-level presentations, reports, and correspondence, ensuring clarity, accuracy, and adherence to brand guidelines.
- Served as a liaison between the CEO and internal departments, facilitating effective communication and timely resolution of issues.
- Planned and executed high-profile corporate events, including board meetings, investor presentations, and employee recognition ceremonies.
- Provided comprehensive administrative support to a team of 15 marketing professionals, managing calendars, scheduling meetings, and maintaining databases.
- Processed expense reports, purchase orders, and invoices, ensuring accurate and timely processing of financial documents.
- Served as the first point of contact for clients and visitors, providing a warm and professional welcome while efficiently directing inquiries.
- Assisted in the planning and execution of trade shows and client events, managing logistics, and ensuring flawless execution.
- Implemented a new inventory management system, reducing stockouts by 20% and improving overall supply chain efficiency.