Career Change Resume Example: Administrative Assistant
Administrative roles welcome many career changers from retail, logistics or the military. This example of an Army veteran shows how to translate a very specific vocabulary into skills a civilian hiring manager understands immediately.
The person, contact details and employers are fictitious. Replace them with your own information.
Skills to highlight
- Microsoft 365
- Excel tracking
- Scheduling
- Report writing
- Front desk
- Discretion
What makes it work
- Translate military terms into plain language: “tracked equipment for a 120-person unit” instead of internal acronyms.
- Put the civilian certificate and internship at the top.
- Keep the administrative side of your previous job: tracking spreadsheets, reports, schedules.
- State your availability and target location if you are relocating.
The full text of this example
Anthony Ramos — Administrative Assistant — U.S. Army Veteran
Army veteran with twelve years of service, six managing logistics and records for a unit. I retrained as an administrative assistant and bring organization, reliability and comfort with strict procedures.
Experience
- Administrative Intern · Staffing Agency, San Antonio, TX (Apr 2026 – Jun 2026)
- Prepared onboarding files and checked documents for new hires
- Entered 80 timesheets a week
- Supply Sergeant · U.S. Army, Fort Cavazos, TX (Sep 2013 – Aug 2025)
- Tracked equipment for a 120-person unit in Excel; zero loss in inspections
- Wrote reports and managed schedules for a 10-person team
Education
- Office Administration Certificate · Community College (Oct 2025 – May 2026)
- High School Diploma · High School, El Paso, TX (2009 – 2013)
Skills
Microsoft 365 · Excel tracking · Scheduling · Report writing · Front desk
Why this example works
The title combines the new role and veteran status, and a civilian internship gives recent office experience. The recruiter sees an assistant who is ready to work, not only someone leaving the service.
Twelve years in the Army are told without jargon: Excel tracking, reports, schedules. Those are exactly an assistant’s tasks. The Timeline template makes the transition easy to follow.
Keywords to mirror
Applicant tracking systems and recruiters scan for these terms. Reuse the ones that appear in the job posting, word for word.
- Administrative assistant
- Career change
- Veteran
- Office administration
- Microsoft 365
- Excel
- Scheduling
- Reports
- Onboarding
- Data entry
Mistakes to avoid for this role
- Keeping ranks, acronyms and military terms civilians will not understand.
- Leading with command experience instead of the administrative tasks the job needs.
- Putting the civilian training at the bottom.
Open this example with another template
The wording stays the same; only the layout changes.
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