Clerical Resume Example

Whether you’re a seasoned office worker, or just starting out in your clerking career, use the following tips to write the strongest resume for clerical work possible.

1. Add Action Verbs

Every section of your resume should grab the hiring manager’s attention. Show them how much you have to offer by sprinkling the right action verbs throughout your resume. Here are just a few that we recommend for an office clerk position:

2. How to Write a Career Objective with No Work Experience

Contrary to popular belief writing a career objective doesn’t require extensive work experience. It simply needs to be targeted and applicable to the reader.

Thus, even without work experience a strong career objective can be composed with experiences such as part-time work, internships, volunteer work and educational experiences.

Combining those aspects will make a strong impression on the hiring manager. This is especially important at the beginning of your resume, as hiring managers only need 6 seconds before determining if a resume is relevant or irrelevant.

The key takeaways from this objective are the following three excerpts:

1. The student starts off with a strong introduction:

Fresh college graduate with international internship experience.

The phrasing makes them seem experienced even without having held a full-time position. 

2. In addition to real life workplace experience described in the opening line, the applicant doesn’t forget to draw upon their educational history to round out the objective, stating:

Seeking to leverage acquired academic knowledge…

3. Finally the applicant targets the resume by very clearly stating the position they are applying to and hoping to fulfill.This comes when they state:

…into effectively filling your office clerk position.

3. List Education Before Professional Experience

Focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses; by putting the educational section first the reader’s focus will fall on that recent experience instead of the sparse professional experience. The Education section is extremely important resume builder in an entry-level resume .

Some key takeaways for writing a strong educational section include:

A. State your major or focus of study right away, in this case a “Bachelor of Arts in Sociology“, followed by the graduation date.

B. Include any 2nd majors or minors also attained. Don’t discount the depth of your academic knowledge. In this sample the applicant included: “Minored in Statistics and Statistical Applications“

C. GPA should be stated if healthily above 3.0. The GPA should also be stated on a 4.0 scale for measure. This applicant included their “3.83/4.0 GPA“ as the last bullet point in their educational section.

4. But Don’t Neglect the Professional Experience Section

As you can see, our applicant Rita Shaw included the semester she spent as an office clerk intern. This is beneficial for several reasons.

First, she let’s potential employers know that she has some real life experience. That is, she hasn’t solely spent her time in a classroom environment, so the transition from being a student to being an employee should go more smoothly for her than for someone with absolutely no out-of-the-classroom experience.

It also gives her an area to highlight some skills that she’s acquired. Just keep in mind that when writing your bullet points, you’ll want to focus on skills relevant to the position which you are applying for.

Lastly, it bulks up the resume. It’s not always easy filling out a complete page when you are fresh out of school, or when you don’t have loads of experience. You still need to submit a full one-page resume though, and expounding upon any relevant experience you have allows you to do so.

5. What if You Don’t Have Any Formal Work Experience Whatsoever?

If you have never held a part-job and don’t have any experience as an intern, you might feel like giving up. Don’t worry; you still have options.

You might need to get a little creative, but here are some additional accomplishments you can cite.

• Volunteering: churches, hospitals, assisted living facilities, state parks, libraries, animal shelters
• Seasonal work: summer camps, snow removal, lifeguarding
• School activities: clubs, like writing for the school newspaper or helping with the graphic design of the school yearbook
• Scouting: if you spent a considerable time moving through the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America, mention it as a filler for missing job experience

No matter which of these you use, or anything else you might cite, make sure to keep the bullet points about each experience targeted on obtaining a position as an office clerk. That means you’ll want to reference any computer or leadership skills you gained as a result.

6. Include Key Clerical Skills

When you’re writing your resume, you need to include key clerical skills if you want to land the position. But what are clerical skills?

In short, clerical skills are the abilities that hiring managers need to know you have before they even consider your application.

Here’s a list of the clerical skills employers will be on the lookout for in their prospective applicants:

Technical skills: these abilities allow you to operate the standard range of office equipment, such as photocopiers, scanners, and shredders.

Computer skills: being able to use a computer and master new software is essential, so these abilities are must-have clerical skills for your resume. A clerk applicant might include the following information in their skills section:

• Familiar with customer relationship management software
• Expert typist: 60+ WPM
• Adept with collaboration tools, including Slack, Trello, and Dropbox

Organizational skills: Part of a clerk’s usual duties includes keeping the office running smoothly, so your organizational skills can’t be neglected.

Here are a few example bullet points you might use on your resume that emphasize your organizational skills.

• Ensure office records and documents are correctly filed
• Develop proper procedure for filing and maintaining records
• Order office supplies in a timely manner

Takeaways

By keeping these tips in mind when you update your clerical resume, you’ll increase your chances of knocking the socks off your future boss.

Let us know below if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions.

If you’d like a helping hand, use one of our fashionable resume templates, or create your own personalized resume with our free-to-use resume builder.