Top Clerical Resume Examples & Pro Writing Tips

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that clerical professionals will likely face stiff competition for jobs in their field within the next decade. Employment prospects in some vocations may decline due to technological innovations. Meanwhile, current trends dictate that others may experience substantial increases in opportunities. Either way, your resume needs to tell recruiters a compelling story about you, convincing them that you’re the right candidate for the job.

Resume templates can help you fashion a document that impresses hiring managers and helps you advance further in your job search. Use our clerical resume samples for guidance that’s fine-tuned to the exact types of positions that you’re trying to land.

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Clerical Resume Samples

Sales Professional Resume using Emphasis 3 template


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Billing clerks can anticipate a 14% increase in employment opportunities between now and 2026, according to the BLS. Even so, your resume should demonstrate a solid mix of industry-relevant skills, a proven customer service track record, and the value you’ve brought to previous employers. Our example resume shows you how to emphasize your strongest qualifications within a clear and organized document.

    For:
  • Experienced billing clerks who want to put their billing, account, and customer service skills to work for a medium or large employer in the public or private sector.
    • Clerical Skills To Include:
  • Customer service and client relationship management
  • Exceptional written and oral communication
  • Knowledge of invoice creation and payment processing
  • Focus on accuracy and attention to detail
  • Strong math skills

More Information: Review this billing clerk resume sample for more details.

Sales Professional resume using Emphasis 3 template


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Although the BLS doesn’t predict much overall job growth for office clerks, it foresees that opportunities may be plentiful in some industry sectors. Desirable traits on an office clerk’s resume include adaptability, expertise, and professionalism. You can see in our resume sample how to employ concise yet descriptive language within an orderly structure to show recruiters that you have what it takes to succeed in at the job.

    For:
  • Intermediate-level office clerks who possess a diverse professional background and seek a job offering a wide variety of responsibilities and challenges.
    • Clerical Skills To Include:
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills
  • Extensive knowledge of office productivity software
  • Typing speed, especially if above 55 words per minute
  • Emphasis on accuracy attention to detail
  • Filing and office organization

More Information: See our office clerk resume sample for more information.

Sales Professional Resume using Contemporary 4 template


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Per the BLS, accounting clerks may not experience much job growth between now and 2026. Software innovations may change the role that accounts payable clerks play within an organization. For that reason, your resume should prove that you possess a combination of technological savvy, analytical thinking, an eye for efficiency, and problem-solving skills. Our resume sample shows you how to accomplish that in both content and formatting.

    For:
  • Accounts payable professionals with a diverse range of career experiences and a strong technical background, seeking to land a position with a medium or large employer.
    • Clerical Skills To Include:
  • Proficient in invoice processing and payment generation
  • Strong organization and recordkeeping skills
  • Outstanding customer service and negotiation abilities
  • Exceptional accuracy and attention to detail
  • Knowledge of office productivity and accounting software

More Information: Our accounts payable clerk resume sample provides more details.

Popular Clerical Resume Questions

1. What is the best design for a clerical resume?

Creative professionals such as graphic designers and desktop publishers sometimes use creative resume design templates. Clerical workers, however, are better off sticking to standard formats. Most hiring managers only spend six seconds perusing each resume to identify whether the candidate has the skills and experience they want. If they must hunt and dig for this information on your document, they’ll probably send it to their “File 13”. Avoid this outcome by using straightforward formats with summary statements, core qualifications, work experience, and education sections, as shown in our clerical resume samples.

2. How do I write a summary statement for a clerical resume?

Most experts now recommend using a summary statement to open your resume instead of an objective statement. Many of our clerical resume samples include a professional summary that behaves as a 30-second “elevator pitch” showcasing the jobseeker’s most relevant abilities and expertise. Summary statements are especially useful for intermediate or advanced clerical professionals, or career-changers who want to emphasize transferable skills. Nevertheless, anyone can effectively leverage this section by writing four to six sentences containing two or three industry-relevant hard and soft skills. Sentence fragments are acceptable, but craft your statements using first-person verbs.

3. What goes in the qualifications section of a clerical resume?

Use the core qualifications section of your document to list between four and eight skills pertinent to the job for which you’re applying. As you’ve seen in the clerical resume samples, you should make it a mix of both hard and soft skills, demonstrating your technical expertise along with abilities such as strong communication, customer service, negotiation, and accuracy. Also, be sure that you phrase your skills to exactly match keywords and phrases from the job posting. That could not only nudge a recruiter who’s quickly reviewing your resume to contact you for follow-up, but it can also help the document successfully make it through applicant tracking software systems.

4. What should go in the experience section of my clerical resume?

Start with your current or most recent job position and list in reverse chronological order. As illustrated in the clerical resume samples, you need to use a consistent method for company names, dates employed, locations, and positions. Bullet points for each job should include a mix of duties and significant accomplishments, especially if you demonstrated leadership or achieved results such as cost savings or process improvements. Include quantifiable metrics when relevant.

5. What should I do to make sure my clerical resume makes it past an ATS?

An applicant tracking system, or ATS, works by reviewing incoming resumes, scanning them for keywords from the job posting, scoring them for relevance, and then forwarding resumes that pass its checks to hiring managers. Potent keyword usage and simple formatting like what’s in our clerical resume samples are two ways to help your own version clear an ATS scan. You can include keywords from the position in your professional summary as well as pepper them throughout the qualifications and work experience sections, but don’t go overboard or the ATS could think you’re “keyword-stuffing” and reject your resume. Finally, don’t forget to spell check your document and proofread for grammar errors.

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Sample Resumes Category: Clerical

Clerical Resume Tips

A clerical resume must present the information quickly, clearly, and in a way that makes your experience relevant to the position in question. That means condensing your information down to its most powerful form. First of all analyse your career aspects and the kind of job profile you need.
  • Research about your career alternatives and organizations of interest before starting your resume.
  • Organize your thoughts and ideas into your resume.
  • Look at other resume guides’ samples.

Resume Template

Contact Information :
  1. Full name
  2. Campus and permanent addresses
  3. Telephone numbers
  4. Email address
Objective : Short specific statement that includes position, industry, and/or relevant skills. “Seeking a career position within a Company, where professional experience, education and abilities would be an advantage to the growth of my employer and myself”. Education : In reverse chronological order required information includes:
  1. Degree(s) and major
  2. Date of graduation (month and year)
  3. Universities you attended
  4. Location of universities (city and state)
  5. Any certifications of licenses related to your degree
Special Skills : Most typically includes computer and language skills. May also include job specific skills of any sort:
  • Computer skills: List languages, systems, and programs
  • Language skills: Specify language and your level of proficiency
Experience : List the recent first. Emphasize your accomplishments and contributions to the company.
  1. Job title
  2. Employer name and location (city and state)
  3. Dates of employment
  4. Active description of your responsibilities and accomplishments
Activities : You may want to list your significant student and community activities including organizations, clubs, student government, athletics, and professional affiliations. You may use action verbs to describe your responsibilities and accomplishmentsjust as you did in the Experience section. Try to use Action Verbs when constructing your statements :

Action Verbs

accelerateadviseanalyzeapprovearrangeassembleassistbuildcollectcomplete
conceiveconductcontrolcoordinatecreatedelegatedetectdevelopdirectdiscover
distributeeditdeliverdemonstratedesigneliminateestablishevaluateexamineexpand
expediteformulategenerateimplementimproveincreaseinfluenceinstallinstructlead
maintainmanagemotivateobtainoperateorderorganizeoriginateoverseeparticipate
performpinpointplanpreparepresentprocessproduceprogrampromotepropose
protestproveprovidepurchasereceiverecommendrecordreducereinforcereorganize
representresearchrevampreviewrevisescheduleselectsellsetupsolve
streamlinestructurestudysupervisesupportteachtesttrainwrite
Here are a few important tips that can help you build an effective clerical resume providing an opportunity to enhance your career. Prioritize Job Duties By Importance Make a list of every duty that you perform on the job. Then prioritize your list, starting with the most important and ending with the least important. For example, highest level skills : Managing the office, providing customer service, coordinating with manufacturers, dealing with key accounts and overseeing cash disbursements. Lowest level skills were answering the phone, maintaining filing and cleaning the office. Market Your Top Skills To advance your career, focus on your best skills not weak job titles. Here?s a list of skills that can be used as headings in your clerical resume. For example Office Management, Customer Service to Key Accounts, Manufacturing Liaison / Troubleshooting, Accounting / Cash Disbursements. Office Management Customer Service to Key Accounts Manufacturing Liaison / Troubleshooting Accounting / Cash Disbursements Use Numbers to Paint A Big Picture By using numbers to describe how many sales staff supported, how many customer accounts you dealt with, what the company?s total sales volume was, and how much you processed in cash disbursements, create powerful but truthful statements about your skills and abilities. For example – Managed office functions to support President and staff of 10 Sales Representatives who were in the field 75% of the time, for branch with sales of $12 million annually. – Provided customer service, price quoting and emergency problem solving for a base of over 2,000 key accounts including Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. – Maintained bookkeeping and prepared monthly disbursements in excess of $40,000. Apply For Positions That Match Your Highest Skills When applying for internal promotions, integrate strong descriptions like those above into your interviews. Using powerful language and describing the full range of your skills makes employers take a new look at your value to their company and results in upward career growth. Take On Higher Level Job Duties Keep your eye out for job duties that can help you expand your resume and your value to a company. Even though you may only perform such duties a small percentage of the time, they can be used as powerful headings in your resume or to convince employers that you do deserve a raise or promotion.

Available Sample Resumes