Local government administrative assistant CV: example, skills and writing tips

Local government administrative assistant CV example

The example below shows how the advice in this guide fits together on one page. The person, the organisations and all the figures are invented: use the structure, not the content, and replace every detail with your own.

Notice what makes this CV useful to a recruiter: every line says which service, which public, which task, with which system and at what volume. The rest of this guide explains how to build each section in the same way.

Job title and professional summary

Choose a title that shows the service you support

Administrative work in local government covers very different services: reception, planning, housing, human resources, finance, technical services, schools and children’s services, or the chief executive’s office. Naming yours gives a recruiter immediate context, as long as it reflects your experience:

Administrative Assistant – Local Government
Administrative Assistant – Planning Service
Administration Officer – Council Customer Services
Business Support Assistant – Public Sector
Administrative Assistant – Reception and Casework

In English, “secretary” now usually refers to specific roles (for example a medical or legal secretary, or a company secretary, which is a different job). For general administrative work, “administrative assistant” or “administration officer” is clearer.

Administrative assistant, administration officer or PA: which title fits?

Public bodies use several titles for similar roles, and grades and titles vary between organisations and countries. Pick the one that matches your real work, and keep your official past titles in the experience section.

Professional summary example: experienced administrative assistant

The professional summary (often called a personal profile in the UK) is three to five lines that answer three questions: what is your profile, how much experience do you have, and what can you take charge of?

Administrative assistant with 7 years’ experience in local government. Handles public enquiries, correspondence, case administration, diaries and meeting papers for a service of 20 staff. Confident user of Word, Excel, Outlook and the service’s case management software.

Professional summary example: entry-level administrative assistant

[Qualification] graduate ([year]) with a [six-month] placement in a town hall. Hands-on experience of reception and phone enquiries, incoming post, filing and scanning, letter drafting and data entry in Word, Excel and Outlook.

Adapt these examples to your real situation. “Organised, dynamic and motivated” does not show your level; your tasks, volumes and tools do.

Administrative assistant CV skills by area

Administrative work in a public service typically covers public contact, correspondence, case and records administration, diaries and meetings, data and tools, and confidentiality. Select the skills that match the role you are applying for, then phrase them so a recruiter can see how you used them.

A skills line such as this gives little information:

Reception · Post · Phone · Word · Excel

This one is far more useful:

Public enquiries (phone, email, face to face) · Case administration · Letters and minutes · Diary management for two managers · Excel trackers

Describing your experience and achievements

For administrative roles, the service, the volumes and your autonomy show your level. For each line, follow this order where possible:

context → your own action → tools or method → scope → result

For example: “In a planning service with frequent follow-up calls (context), I built a shared tracker of pending replies (action) in Excel, linked to the case software (method), covering around 300 active cases (scope), so officers could see at a glance which applicants were waiting for an answer (result).” The figures in this sentence are illustrative.

Too vague

Administrative tasks
Reception
Post
Filing

More informative

Illustrative figures.

First point of contact for the planning service: 40 to 60 calls a day and a shared inbox
Registered applications and chased missing documents
Kept around 300 active cases up to date in the case software
Managed two managers’ diaries and wrote minutes for around 15 meetings a month
Scanned, indexed and filed documents following the service’s filing plan

The second version shows the service, the volume, the systems and your autonomy. Be precise about where your role stops: registering and checking an application is not deciding on it. In public services, decisions belong to officers and elected members; describe your administrative part accurately.

Achievement examples to adapt

Administrative results do not need to be sales figures. Replace [X] and [Y] with your own verified figures, or leave the line out if you cannot support it; do not invent a percentage you cannot measure.

• Built a shared tracker that replaced [X] individual spreadsheets and showed pending replies at a glance.
• Created letter templates for [X] recurring requests, cutting the time to prepare standard replies.
• Reorganised the service’s electronic filing so documents could be found by [case number / date].
• Reduced the backlog of unregistered post from [X] to [Y] days.
• Supported a service of [X] staff and [Y] managers while covering reception.
• Trained [X] new colleagues on the service’s procedures and case software.

Office and case software: show how you used it

“Microsoft Office” on its own says little. Name the tools you have actually used and say what for:

Word: letters, templates, minutes and reports
Excel: trackers, filters, sorting, common formulas and pivot tables
Outlook: shared inboxes, shared calendars and meeting invitations
Teams: online meetings and shared documents
[Case management software]: registering applications and updating their status

Avoid ratings such as “Excel 4/5”. A council’s case management or records software can be a real advantage if the recruiter uses the same system; if the product name means nothing outside your organisation, describe what you did with it instead.

Education and qualifications

On your CV, use the format qualification – specialism – institution – year:

[Qualification] – [business administration / office administration]
[Institution] — [year]

Routes into administrative work vary from country to country and include vocational qualifications, apprenticeships and on-the-job experience. Short courses (for example minute-taking, data protection or advanced Excel) can be listed if they are relevant. If you are experienced, your recent roles matter more than your qualifications.

Public sector status, grades and recruitment exams are specific to each country. Mention yours only with its exact title, and never imply that you hold a status or have passed an exam if you have not.

A driving licence is worth a line only if the role involves travel between sites.

Making your administrative assistant CV easy to read for ATS

Many public bodies use online application systems or recruitment software to store and search applications. The aim is not to “beat” or trick an ATS: it is to make sure your key information is extracted correctly and easy to find.

• an explicit job title with the type of organisation or service;
• clearly identifiable employers, services and dates;
• experience organised role by role;
• common terms written in full: public enquiries, correspondence, case administration, diary management, minutes;
• software named precisely;
• a simple layout without text inside images or tables used for layout.

Public sector applications often also ask you to show how you meet each point of a person specification or list of criteria. Use the same concrete examples there as on your CV.

When a job ad asks for a skill you genuinely have, use its vocabulary. If your CV only says “general admin” while you actually do “case administration and minute-taking”, the second phrasing is more precise for both the software and the recruiter.

Tailoring your administrative assistant CV to each job

Tailoring helps, because administrative roles in public services lean in different directions. Your background does not change, but you can bring forward the experience most relevant to the job’s main focus.

Before applying for a reception, casework or support-to-managers role, it helps to see which requirements of the job description your CV already covers and which are missing. CVReader compares your CV with a job description and highlights the points of correspondence.

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Entry level or career change into administration

With little administrative experience, the same principle applies: be precise about what you have actually done.

• Students and recent graduates: describe placements and apprenticeships like real jobs: reception, post, filing, scanning, letters and the tools used.
• Customer-facing roles: retail or hospitality experience shows public contact, handling requests and working under pressure.
• Logistics or operations roles: tracking, records, coordination and accuracy transfer well.
• From the private sector: office administration is largely transferable; then show any knowledge of how a public body works.

After five years in customer service, moving into administration with a first role in a local council: public enquiries, case registration and correspondence.

Trained or working in France?

If your background is French, a few adjustments make your CV clearer to English-speaking recruiters.

French qualifications and status

Keep the French name of your qualification and add a short explanation, without claiming an equivalence with British, American or other qualifications:

• Bac professionnel Assistance à la gestion des organisations et de leurs activités (formerly “gestion-administration”): a French vocational upper-secondary diploma in office and business administration.
• BTS: a French two-year higher vocational diploma; add its field, for example “support à l’action managériale” (management support).
• Concours: a French civil service competitive exam; mention one only with its exact title and only if you have passed it.
• Alternance: a French work-study programme; describe it as a work-study placement and treat it as real experience.

French job titles and terms

Translate the role, not the words. A “secrétaire administrative” is usually an administrative assistant or administration officer; a “collectivité territoriale” is a local authority; a “mairie” is a town hall or municipal council; a “communauté de communes” is an inter-municipal authority. “Élus” are elected members or councillors, “administrés” or “usagers” are residents or members of the public, “état civil” is the civil registration service and “urbanisme” is the planning service. A “logiciel métier” is the service’s case management software.

Mistakes to avoid and final checklist

Writing only “administrative tasks”

Say which service, which cases and which responsibilities.

Not naming the service

The service you support gives a recruiter useful context.

Listing Word and Excel without saying how you use them

Show what you produce with them.

Relying on personal qualities

Organisation and accuracy should show in your examples, not in adjectives.

Taking credit for decisions made by others

Distinguish administrative follow-up from the decisions of officers or elected members.

Translating job titles word for word

If your experience is in another language, translate the role, not the words, and keep qualification names in their original language with a short explanation.

Checklist before you apply

• My title states the type of organisation or service and, if useful, my experience.
• My summary fits in three to five lines and contains facts, not adjectives.
• Each role shows the service, the public, my tasks, tools and, where possible, volumes.
• Every figure is a reliable order of magnitude.
• My administrative role is clearly separated from others’ decisions.
• Any public sector status or exam is stated exactly.
• Employers and dates are easy to find, and skills are written as text.
• I have brought forward what matches the job’s main focus.

Local government administrative assistant CV: frequently asked questions

What skills should I put on an administrative assistant CV?

Put first public enquiries, case administration, correspondence, diary management, meetings and minutes, and the software you actually use, each placed in context.

Should I call myself a secretary or an administrative assistant?

For general administrative work, “administrative assistant” or “administration officer” is usually clearer in English. Keep your official past titles in your experience section.

Is an administrative assistant resume different from a CV?

“Resume” is the usual American term; “CV” is used in the UK and much of the world. For a job application, the advice in this guide applies to both.

Should I highlight local government experience?

Yes. Experience in a council or other public body gives useful context: name the service and the type of public you dealt with.

Should I give the number of cases or calls I handle?

Yes, when you know a reliable order of magnitude. It helps a recruiter understand your workload.

Should I list Word and Excel?

Yes, with what you do with them: letters and minutes in Word, trackers or reports in Excel.