Receptionist Resume Example

1. Action Verbs for a Receptionist

Learn how to use action verbs to enhance your resume.

2. Begin with a Professional Profile

Offering an overview of your professional experience, skills, and achievements does a huge favor for recruiters and hiring managers. Starting your resume with an introduction like a professional profile saves employers time and helps convince them to read through the rest of the document.

A professional profile has four main parts. First, the job seeker should start off by introducing themselves and their years of experience or education. Here’s how the sample above begins:

• “Receptionist with 11 years of experience managing administrative functions for office personnel”

The second point should pinpoint some relevant skills or abilities. The applicant above states:

• “Possess strong ability in analyzing information and providing solutions to problems“

The third point of a professional profile should reveal an area of expertise or specialty. Our applicant explains:

• “Recognized for ability to implement processes that reduce costs, while improving efficiencies”

Finally, the last point of a professional profile should mention your best achievement. The sales associate above mentions:

• “Achieved: Saved the company $10K in undue payments from inaccurate billings”

Follow this four-point model, and your professional profile will be sure to inspire HR managers to read through the rest of your resume.

3. Tackling the Professional Experience Section

Deciding what to write in the professional experience section is often the most difficult aspect of the resume writing process. That’s why many take the easy way out and merely list generic job duties. However, simply listing your responsibilities just doesn’t cut it because doing do almost never gets employers excited about hiring you.

Luckily, there is an easy way to overcome writer’s block and strengthen your bullet points. It’s called the PAR method, which stands for problem, action, results. The idea behind the PAR method is that your bullet points should:

• Problem: Identify a task or issue at work
• Action: Explain what you did
• Results: Reveal the outcome of your action

While it may seem tough to fit all this information into just one bullet point, you’ll find that it is actually quite simple. Check out this example from the reception resume sample above:

• “Organized complex travel arrangements for 10 sales representatives, while reducing travel expenses by 40% by coordinating lower cost travel routes”

Here’s another example:

• “Implemented data management system that expedited data retrieval by 70% and solved the company’s backlog issue“

It’s important to notice that the problem, action, and results can be placed in any order throughout the bullet point. Additionally, the results segment presents a great opportunity to add a number to your resume. Managers love to see numbers on a resume because they provide evidence of the candidate’s abilities.

Applying the PAR Method to your professional experience section will speed up the writing process and maximize your chances of getting called in for an interview.

4. Highlighting Your Effective Receptionist Skills

There are several skills needed for receptionists, but make sure you only list the ones relevant to your target job.

Specifically, you should check the job posting to see which skills the hiring manager is looking for in new hires.

In a receptionist’s resume skills section, the following  skills are the most important to list:

• Technical skills: using and maintaining standard office equipment, including printers, scanners, copiers, and shredders
• Computer skills: being familiar with accounting programs, Microsoft Office, and database software
• Communication skills: answering visitor and caller inquiries in a polite and professional manner is a critical front desk skill
• Multitasking: juggling multiple tasks at once while prioritizing the most urgent ones is something you’ll need to do on a daily basis
• Organizational skills: organizing files, documents, and correspondence must be performed to maintain an effective reception area
• Reliability: being a dependable employee with a sense of integrity. For example, respecting patient–physician confidentiality is a key medical receptionist skill

Don’t forget to give examples of how you’ve used these receptionist job skills in your work experience section.