Admin executive resume example and writing guide

An admin executive or administrative assistant keeps an office running, and the job looks different in every company. In a small firm you may handle purchasing, petty cash, HR paperwork and the company car. In a large corporate office you may support one department and work through formal approval systems. Recruiters read your resume to work out which of these you have actually done.

Across all of them, employers want the same qualities: you are organised, you are accurate with money and records, you keep confidential information private, and you can deal politely with directors, staff, suppliers and visitors. Your resume should show each of these through specific tasks rather than adjectives.

Many admin roles in Malaysian SMEs also include HR and payroll support. If you have prepared EPF, SOCSO or EIS submissions, kept leave records or onboarded new staff, say so clearly — it often separates you from candidates who only did filing and reception.

This example is for an admin executive with about six years of experience. The name, companies and figures are invented — replace them with your own details, and keep only numbers you can explain.

Name and title line: “Kavitha a/p Subramaniam — Admin Executive. Puchong, Selangor · 016-789 1234 · kavitha.s@example.com · linkedin.com/in/kavithasubramaniam”.

Summary: “Admin executive with six years supporting directors and office operations in trading and engineering companies. Handles purchasing, petty cash, travel, filing and HR support including monthly EPF, SOCSO and EIS submissions. Set up the shared-drive filing system and purchase request form the current office still uses.”

Job 1: “Admin Executive, Teraju Contoh Engineering Sdn Bhd (fictional), Shah Alam — June 2021 to present.”

• Run day-to-day office administration for a 45-person company, including stationery, pantry supplies, cleaning contracts and building maintenance requests.
• Collect three quotations for purchases above the approval limit, raise purchase orders and match invoices to delivery orders before passing them to accounts.
• Prepare monthly attendance and leave summaries for payroll and submit EPF, SOCSO and EIS contributions through the online portals before the deadline.
• Track renewal dates for the business premises licence, company vehicle road tax and insurance, and office equipment maintenance contracts in one shared calendar.
• Coordinate onboarding for new staff, from offer letter and document checks to access cards, laptop requests and first-day schedule.

Job 2: “Administrative Assistant, Seri Contoh Trading Sdn Bhd (fictional), Kuala Lumpur — February 2019 to May 2021.”

• Managed the calendars of two directors, arranged meetings with clients and booked flights and hotels for trips in Malaysia and Singapore.
• Took minutes at weekly management meetings and circulated action lists the same day.
• Kept a petty cash float, recorded every claim with receipts and reconciled it with the accounts team each month.
• Moved paper files for about 300 customer accounts to Google Drive with a consistent naming system, so sales staff could pull up a customer file themselves instead of asking admin.

Name the actual systems you used. “Accounting software” tells the employer little; “SQL Account” or “AutoCount” tells them you can start without much training if they use the same one.

• Education: “Diploma in Office Management and Technology, Kolej Contoh (fictional), 2018” and “SPM, SMK Contoh (fictional), 2015”.
• Skills: “Microsoft Word, Excel (VLOOKUP, pivot tables), PowerPoint, Outlook, Google Workspace, SQL Account (purchase and supplier modules), payroll software data entry, EPF i-Akaun (Employer), PERKESO ASSIST portal, minute-taking, purchasing and vendor quotations, petty cash management.”
• Languages: “Tamil — native. Malay — fluent. English — fluent (spoken and written). Mandarin — basic.”

Avoid starting with “Hardworking and responsible person”. Lead with your level, the kind of office you supported and two or three tasks you are trusted with.

• Entry-level: “Diploma graduate in office management with industrial training in a property agency’s admin team, covering filing, data entry and front-desk calls. Comfortable with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, and speaks Malay, English and Mandarin.”
• Experienced: “Senior admin executive with ten years in corporate offices, supporting a regional director and managing office facilities for 150 staff. Experienced with vendor contracts, office moves, event logistics and approval workflows in SAP.”
• Career changer: “Former retail supervisor moving into office administration, with four years handling rosters, stock orders, cash reconciliation and supplier deliveries. Strong in Excel and used to keeping accurate records under time pressure.”

Use these as patterns and rewrite them with what you really did. The figures are examples only.

• Office management: “Negotiated a new pantry and stationery supplier after comparing three quotations, reducing monthly spending while keeping the same items.”
• Office management: “Organised the move to a new office floor over one weekend, coordinating movers, IT and the landlord so staff could work on Monday.”
• Purchasing: “Created a simple purchase request form in Google Forms, so every request had an approver and a record before ordering.”
• Finance support: “Matched supplier invoices to purchase and delivery orders each week and flagged mismatches before payment.”
• HR support: “Maintained personal files and leave records for 60 employees and prepared monthly payroll inputs for the accounts team.”
• HR support: “Registered new hires with EPF and SOCSO and kept a checklist so no new joiner was missed.”
• Director support: “Managed travel for three directors, including visas, flights, hotels and itineraries, with every booking confirmed in writing.”
• Director support: “Prepared board meeting packs and took minutes, then followed up with each owner on outstanding action items.”
• Records: “Set up a filing index for contracts and licences with renewal dates, so nothing expired unnoticed.”
• Events: “Organised the annual dinner for 120 staff, from venue booking and catering to lucky draw prizes, within the approved budget.”
• Improvement: “Built an Excel tracker for company vehicle servicing, road tax and insurance dates for five cars.”

Admin job posts often list the same keywords. Use the ones that are true for you, written the same way as the advert.

• Office tools: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams; Google Docs, Sheets, Drive and Calendar; Zoom.
• Business systems: accounting software such as SQL Account or AutoCount, payroll software, SAP or Oracle for purchase requests in larger companies.
• Statutory and HR portals: EPF i-Akaun (Employer), PERKESO ASSIST for SOCSO and EIS, and supporting the monthly PCB submission to LHDN if you did it.
• Tasks: purchasing, vendor quotations, petty cash, invoice matching, filing and records, minute-taking, travel booking, event coordination, onboarding, leave records, reception.
• Office facilities: maintenance requests, cleaning and security contracts, office equipment, company vehicles, access cards.

List each language on its own line with a plain level: native, fluent, professional working, conversational or basic. If you can speak a language but not write formal letters in it, say so — admin roles often involve drafting letters and emails in Malay or English.

Skip star ratings and percentage bars. Recruiters can’t tell what “four stars” means, and many applicant tracking systems ignore graphics completely.

• Writing a list of duties copied from your job description instead of what you did and what changed.
• Saying “handled HR matters” without naming which ones. Leave records, onboarding and statutory submissions are very different levels of responsibility.
• Leaving out the size of the office or the number of people you supported, which helps the employer judge your experience.
• Overstating responsibility. If the accountant ran payroll and you prepared the inputs, say “prepared payroll inputs”, not “managed payroll”.
• Including salary details, IC numbers or confidential company information on your resume.
• Using a decorative template with tables and text boxes. Admin roles attract many applicants, so a clean, readable format matters.

Your experience stays the same; only the order and emphasis change. Move the bullets that match the job post to the top of each role, and update your summary to use the job title in the advert.

• Small and medium companies: show range. Put purchasing, petty cash, HR and statutory tasks, licence renewals and supplier handling near the top, because one person often does all of it.
• Corporate offices and multinationals: show process and communication. Mention approval systems, working with several departments, supporting senior managers and writing in clear English.
• Secretarial and personal assistant roles: lead with calendar management, travel, minutes and confidentiality.
• Schools, clinics and property management offices: highlight front-desk handling, scheduling, records and dealing with the public.

Admin work is judged on accuracy, so your resume is your first test. Check that dates line up, company names are spelt correctly and formatting is consistent. Then save it as a text-based PDF with a clear file name, such as “Kavitha-Subramaniam-Admin-Executive.pdf”.