ATS Keywords
Executive Assistant ATS Keywords: What Gets Your CV Past the Scan
Executive assistant postings routinely pull in over a hundred applicants because the title reads as accessible even when the job isn't. Most CVs get filtered before a human ever sees them because they describe duties in vague, generic language instead of the specific terms an ATS is scored against. Matching the language recruiters actually search for is the difference between landing in the shortlist and disappearing into the database.
Optimize Your CVATS Optimisation
Must-Have Keywords
Include these keywords in your CV to improve your ATS score.
Strengthen Your CV
Power Phrases
Use these multi-word phrases to strengthen your CV.
Avoid These
Words to Avoid
Remove these overused or weak words from your CV.
ATS Score
Before & After ATS Optimization
Before
Missing Keywords
After
Added Keywords
Formatting
ATS-Friendly Format Tips
Use the exact job title from the posting ('Executive Assistant to the CEO' vs. 'Executive Assistant') somewhere in your CV summary — ATS title-matching weighs this heavily.
List software by name (Concur, SAP Ariba, Microsoft Outlook, Google Workspace, DocuSign) rather than 'office software', since ATS keyword scans match exact tool names.
Avoid tables, text boxes, and multi-column layouts in your experience section — many ATS parsers scramble or drop content trapped inside them.
Save and submit as a .docx unless a PDF is explicitly requested — some ATS platforms still parse .docx more reliably than PDF for text extraction.
Spell out acronyms once alongside the abbreviation (e.g., 'Board of Directors (BoD)') so the CV matches both forms a recruiter might search.
Keep section headers conventional ('Work Experience', 'Skills') — creative headers like 'My Journey' aren't recognized by ATS parsing rules.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Roles this senior often draw a wide applicant pool, and most companies use ATS keyword matching to cut the list down to a manageable shortlist before a recruiter reads a single one.
Only if they're a matter of public record or you have permission — otherwise describe the level, such as 'Fortune 500 CEO' or 'Managing Partner of a 40-person firm', so the ATS and recruiter still get the seniority signal.
Aim to mirror 60-80% of the hard-skill and responsibility terms in the posting, in your own phrasing where possible — exact repetition of every soft-skill line reads as keyword stuffing to a human reviewer even if the ATS scores it well.
Yes, more than most roles — executive assistant postings are unusually specific about tools like Concur, Coupa, or SAP because the job requires operating them daily, and the ATS is often configured to score those exact names.
No — it will actively hurt you, since it under-signals seniority. The ATS and the recruiter are both looking for board-level, C-suite, and confidentiality language that a general admin template doesn't include.
It can raise the ATS number in the short term, but most modern systems and every human reviewer downstream can tell the difference between a keyword mirrored in context and one dropped in a list at the bottom of the page.
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