Receptionist Resume Sample

Professional Profile

Experienced: 8 years in administrative support and office reception in a corporate setting
Multi-talented: Strong management abilities, able to perform secretarial, assistant, and office management duties simultaneously
Friendly and Welcoming: Possessing strong social skills and a great repertoire with management, clients, and visitors alike
Goal-Oriented: Internalize organizational goals and apply best practices to assist in attaining those

Relevant Work History

Waypax inc.

Receptionist | Walnut Creek, CA | 2012 – Present

Schedule 60+ monthly visitor meetings and managed meeting room set-up and time logs
Direct external communications to proper channels, including 100+ daily telephone, email, mail, and walk-in customers
Provide top-level service to all visitors, ensuring they were informed of meeting times, had access to refreshment, and were comfortable in the rare instances they needed to wait
Help keep organization safe and secure with vigilance towards external communication and interaction

Green Leaf Financial

Receptionist | San Ramon, CA | 2009 – 2012

Managed and organized meeting facilities and scheduled 20+ meetings per month
Facilitated clear communication between clients, employees, and management, directing 100+ calls daily
Assisted clients in scheduling meetings, including follow-up and reminder phone calls
Provided professional reception service and managed front waiting room, ensuring clients were comfortable before meetings
Helped to organize all communications, both internal and external, and organized 700+ person mailing list of potential clients

Education

San Francisco City College, San Francisco, CA

Associates of Arts in Business Administration, may 2009

GPA: 3.5/4.0

Skills

Capable of quickly learning office basics, including printers, fax machines, scanners, et
Skillful and effective use MS Office Suite, as well as cloud-based systems (Google Drive, Apple Suite, etc.)
Typing speed: 85WPM
Proficient with CRM systems

If you would rather craft your own resume, follow our professional tips to make sure your custom and personalized final version is the best one possible.

1. Resume Format

It’s imperative you chose the right resume format. Visit the format page for more information, but in short the format you want depends on your experience, skills, and accolades. If you are fresh out of school but have relevant work experience, we recommend the chronological resume format, which is what we’ve chosen for our sample above.

However if you have years of experience and have received awards, or the type of job you’re applying for requires a special skill set, you might be better off with the combination resume format. This will allow you to show that experience, but it also helps insofar as it better emphasizes what exactly your accolades are.

2. Common Receptionist Resume Skills

Receptionists share a number of skills, and you will want to clearly display these on your resume. Show that you fit in well in an office setting and your organizational abilities are top-notch.

Office software

As a receptionist, you should know MS Office Suite. This includes how the Windows operating system functions, especially how to locate files. Furthermore, MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (and perhaps Outlook and Publisher) will be used frequently.

Also make sure you’re well versed with cloud storage systems. Google Drive, Dropbox, and Apple Cloud Software are becoming standard ways of storing data and sharing work, so being less than fluent in with these apps could hurt you when applying for a receptionist.

Furthermore, like cloud systems, more and more office environments are employing communication software and apps like Skype. Knowing how to stay in touch in the modern office will help you get ahead.

Office equipment

As the receptionist, you need to be the master of office equipment. On your resume, mention how versed you are in using (and repairing) copy machines, fax machines, scanners, etc. When all of these things break at some point, you’ll need to play the hero to keep everyone’s work flowing smoothly.

Another important responsibility of many receptionists is office supplies. As such, organizational ability in this function is critical. You will need to keep track of staplers, staples, pens, pads, printer ink, and post-its, and keep all of it in stock.

Don’t worry – you might not be able to handle all of it on day one, but talk about how able you are at learning and maintaining office’s system.

Typing speed and writing ability

One skill you should have down and highlight on your resume is typing speed. A good chunk of your communication, both with coworkers and customers, will be written.

Therefore, make sure you can do it quickly and efficiently. Speed isn’t enough either – show that you’re a stickler for grammar and punctuation rules by having the cleanest resume out there.

You should be shooting for at least 55WPM as a receptionist, but the good ones can easily do over 70. There are plenty of typing-speed resources, so be sure to spend some time practicing, especially if the position asks for a typing test. A few minutes a day practicing can go a long way, and this is one of those easy to quantify skills that can really add some jazz to your resume.

Soft skills

Every job requires a set of soft skills, and receptionists are no different. Here are few necessary soft skills to include on your resume:

Strong communication skills	Friendly	Welcoming
Organized	Self-motivated	Self-directing
Patient	Professional	Understanding

3. What to Emphasize

While we mentioned in the format section picking either skills or experience is critical, there are other features you are going to want to include.

Again, decide if you want to highlight your skills or your experience more, and arrange your resume accordingly. This isn’t to say hide anything, but make it clear you can do the job before you give a hiring manager pause.

Also, your education can be either helpful or detrimental depending on your background. If you have any kind of college degree, from Associates to Ph.D, include it, especially if its in a related field like business, organizational management, or communications. And of course, be sure to include your name and contact info before anything else, at the very top of the page.

There are a ton of jobs that are superficially related to receptionists, but none quite as focused on receiving clients or customers. For more information, here are some similar positions:

4. Useful Action Verbs

When writing your receptionist resume, there are a number of action verbs for resumes that will help yours stand out above the rest. Make sure to use these on yours: