The role of Business Administrator is not unlike that of a Secretary or Personal Assistant – but taken to the next level.

Many businesses are opting to employ a Business Administrator instead of having both a Secretary and an Administrative Assistant; after all, one is more cost effective than two – so be prepared for a heavy workload!

This can be a great role offering a very attractive salary, though, so if you have exceptional communication, organization and can take the lead on administration… go for it!

It is likely in this role that you will have direct line management responsibility for several other administrators, especially in a large business, so some leadership experience is going to be a distinct advantage.

The good news is that the role tends to be offered on the merit of experience and proven ability.

There are no absolute rules about qualifications, although you may find an NVQ or equivalent in Business Administration puts you ahead of the competition. In some cases, however, such as in a legal field, a high-level qualification may be an essential requirement.

Your resume will be organized, well presented, easy to read and dynamic. You will demonstrate not only exceptional administration and budget management skills but an aptitude for leadership and a proactive mindset.

Researching the organization first will give you a head start, as a Business Administrator must have a sound understanding of business structure and objectives.

Median Pay

The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the pay for administrative services managers in 2019 at around $88,110 per year. This is slightly higher than  the average  from career page tracking websites such as pay scale.com, which state median salary for business administrators at around $53,000.

The discrepancy here can probably be boiled down to simply a matter of career experience. Entry level candidates will probably make more around the $45-$50,000 range, whereas more senior level candidates and managers can make anywhere from the 80,002 almost $100,000 dollars per year.

Business Administration Median Salary 2019

Either way you breakdown, the national median salary for business administrators is quite a bit higher than a national average for all industries, which is around $48,000 dollars per year.

Industry Forecast

The business and industry sector is made of all types of companies, and within this industry lie sectors like healthcare, medical care services, financial services, construction, and transportation.

Each and every one of these industries needs Business Administrators. So in a way, business administration is directly correlated to growth rates amongst some of the fastest growing industries in business.

With businesses recovering from the 2007 to 2009 economic downturn, the demand is only increased, with top administrators directing organizations’ operations, devising strategies, and executing company policies.

Currently, in the United States alone, there are over 13 million people employed as business managers and or administrators.

Common Types of Business Administrators

As mentioned above, there are many types of Business Administrators. Every single business sector requires administration, this is a simple fact of business. Because business is so all-encompassing and there are so many different sectors, the demand for different specific types of administrators is enormous.

Most administrators will work in certain industries their whole lifetime. Developing a specialized set of experiences that are pertinent to one specific industry such as finance, for example, makes  you uniquely suited to dealing with the challenges that arise in the financial services industry. Thus, it is common for Business Administrators to specialize in different industry sectors.

Furthermore, many Business Administrators are moving to different more specialized roles within companies.

A financial services Business Administrator, for example, could move on to become an office-wide administrator, and office manager, an executive assistant, or even transition into slightly different roles such as becoming a bookkeeper, HR administrator or operations manager.

An effective business administrator is a highly versatile, highly valuable asset to all types of businesses, and for these reasons it  is one of the most flexible career paths for many professionals.

Business Admin Sample Resume Download (MS Word Format)

Below is a sample resume that you can use as a reference point when writing your own administrative resume. The sample below is real, and professionally written, but that does not mean you can copy it word for word.

The whole idea of providing examples like these is to give you somewhere to start, but the actual writing of your resume should be unique to you and your experiences.

How To Write Your Own

Being a Business Administrator, you don’t have many creative options when it comes actually writing your resume. You want to remain professional and use tried and true fonts and font sizes so that you appear uniform. Stick to fonts like Times Roman, Arial, or Helvetica.

Font size can range anywhere between 11 and 12. You can adjust to the first decimal point for your font size if you are really trying to squeeze your resume to one page.

When it comes to composing a resume, it helps to first sit down with a blank piece of paper and write down all of your past pertinent professional experiences and some of the most memorable experiences within those roles so you can easily reference them when actually typing your resume.

Find a professional looking template, or ask to use your friend’s resume as a starting point and then go in and change out all the personal information experiences so that they reflect your own.

If you get stuck, simply do a search for similar administrative resumes in your industry.

For example, if you are working in financial services, simply go to Google and type in “financial services resume” and browse some of the top results for ideas.

Some specific experience points that you may want to consider adding to your resume that are uniquely advantageous to Business Administrative roles include the following:

Human Resources Skills

Human resources skills are immensely valuable for administrative positions, as administrators are often tasked with list filtering and/or making the final call when it comes to hiring.

Oftentimes, administrative managers are above human resources professionals and thus must be able to understand the job of the human resources professional as well as be able to work with them in acquiring new talent.

This includes the ability to screen applicants as this is one of most critical steps in recruiting. You also need to be able to be analytical, think critically, and work with senior management in making key decisions on who to hire and who to fire.

You also want to indicate how you can keep an ear to the ground and maintain positive employee relations throughout the company.

This includes everything from very positive and complete on-boarding process for new hires, to respectful professional process for those leaving  the company either through retirements, job transitions, or terminations.

Technology and Organizational Experience

Gone are the days when offices are full of endless rows of file cabinets with different reports. Business administrator today need to be highly connected; they need to be mobile; they need to be connected to the cloud.

The ability to fully embrace and understand technology within the realm of the business administrative role is key to standing out against other older applicants who still do everything by pen and paper.

In your resume, be sure sure to talk about using software, analytics, or some type of web app that helps you better organize, plan, forecast, or just streamline a business process, in general, as technically savvy hires always get put to the top of the hiring list.

Make sure your resume follows a logical format. This means your resume should be either reverse chronological, functional, or combination format, The choice depending upon which best matches your experience level and qualifications.

Entry level candidates should probably use a reverse chronological layout where they put their education section at the top of the resume.

More experienced candidates can use a functional resume with a list of skills first, or combination of chronological and functional where they include experiences but also include a section of the top where they list the specific industry skill sets.

Once you have actually completed your resume, carefully proofread and formatted, and you are confident and ready to send it off, let it sit one night.

When you come back to the next day, you have a fresh perspective and might find things that you originally missed when you were crushing it out late last night, buzzed on coffee.

Another useful way to ensure that your resume is of the highest quality is to give it to a friend to proofread and give suggestions.

Even if your friend is in a different industry, as long as he/she is a white-collar professional, or there is an overlap in terms of professional responsibilities, their insight can be useful as a fresh perspective.

Sample Bullet Points

Below is a selection of bullet points chosen specifically for administrative and business type resumes. You can copy these, but at the end of the day you want to be sure the bullet points are owned by adding numerical quantification, including percentage and dollars, whenever possible to illustrate your individual ROI for company.

Sample Business Administrator Bullet Points

Career Objective Writing

A career objective for a Business Administrator should be succinct and to the point, clear and concise, yet informative and enlightening. Within the space of just a few sentences, you need to accurately convey both your qualification for that position and also what makes you stand out from the other applicants.

If you do have  some experience, start off with that as that is one of your greatest assets. After stating your experience in the industry, states some of the key skills that you have that allow you to grow as a professional, and which will help you grow with the company you are applying to.

Finally, end on a positive note by stating how you are ambitious, and how you intend to integrate with the company to help it grow, as well.

Additional Skills & Certifications to Include

For more industry relevant skills that you can include on your administrative resume, the better. You want to include information such as problem-solving abilities, your strong business acumen, financial expertise, and general ability to motivate staff and helped develop new products or services while staying organized and delivering on time.

You will also want to convey information that indicates your strong interpersonal ability to connect with both customers and coworkers. You can do this by saying how you are an attentive listener, a clear communicator, and a really strong problem resolution expert.

There are not many specific Business Administrative certifications. Generally speaking, these certifications, or credentials of the business administrator are their educational history. This means having an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in business administration or similar academic department.

You can always return to school as a professional if you want to brush up on your skills, as adding something like an associate’s degree, which are often completed in under two years. It can be done today online without actually ever having to physically attend classes.

Useful Skills to Include

Below is a table of useful skills that you can emulate on your own resume. Again anytime you can mention Business Administrative specific skills, please do so and feature them prominently at the top of your bulleted list.

Some really important points to include are software knowledge, industry regulating policies, and special interpersonal skills such as language skills.

Useful Business Administrator Skills

Additional Resources