Keyword Atlas · Administration · No 14
The words hiring systems and executive assistant hiring managers actually look for, drawn from the U.S. Department of Labor occupational database and the bodies that certify this field. Sourced, dated, and checked by machine.
The keywords
Tap any keyword to see exactly where it comes from and how to use it in a real bullet.
Skill mix
Federal knowledge ratings for executive assistants rank Administrative knowledge well above every other category, with English Language, Customer and Personal Service, and Computers and Electronics clustered close together behind it. That lines up with the hard skills and tools data on this page: the role leans on structured office process and everyday software fluency more than on formal management theory or HR expertise, even though this occupation regularly touches both.
Wage terrain
Placement
Title, years, and a certification cluster at the top, the densest keyword real estate on the page.
Hard skills and tools, each attached to an outcome with a number.
Exact-phrase matching for screening software. Mirror the job posting's own wording.
One or two signature keywords woven into a story, never a list.
The receipts
75% of resumes are rejected by ATS automatically, before a human ever sees them.NO PRIMARY SOURCE
Employers admit their own hiring systems screen out qualified candidates who don't exactly match the stated criteria.VERIFIED · HBS/Accenture 2021
Asked constantly
Lead with hard skills the role is actually built on, like executive schedule management, executive travel arrangements, payroll processing, and financial document preparation, plus the specific office software you use day to day, such as Microsoft SharePoint or Adobe Acrobat. Mirror the exact wording each job posting uses rather than guessing at synonyms.
Use the exact phrasing from the job posting itself for your hard skills and tools, since most screening systems match on literal text, not intent. The idea that a system scores your resume out of 100 and rejects anything below a threshold is not how mainstream applicant tracking systems work; they store and search structured fields for a recruiter, they do not grade your writing.
Yes. CAP (Certified Administrative Professional) from IAAP and MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) from Microsoft are both real, widely recognized voluntary certifications for this occupation, not licenses. List them by name so both a recruiter and a screening system can match on the exact term.