Assistants can find job possibilities in almost every corner of the job market. All you have to do is search high and low. Since there are an unlimited number of opportunities for assistants, your day-to-day roles will vary.
Some assistants will find themselves planning meetings and events. Others will be put in charge of social media. And just a few may be tasked with getting everyone's coffee order. Whatever your role, make sure you take some notes along the way.
Assistant Overview
Assistant Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an assistant. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.23 an hour? That's $37,926 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -7% and produce -276,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed writing skills, interpersonal skills and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an assistant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.4% of assistants included customer service, while 9.7% of resumes included communication, and 7.9% of resumes included patient care. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the assistant job title. But what industry to start with? Most assistants actually find jobs in the education and retail industries.
How To Become an Assistant
If you're interested in becoming an assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 43.0% of assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.5% of assistants have master's degrees. Even though most assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an assistant. When we researched the most common majors for an assistant, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees. Other degrees that we often see on assistant resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an assistant. In fact, many assistant jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many assistants also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or sales associate.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Assistant Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of specialist you might progress to a role such as team leader eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title assistant general manager.
Assistant
Assistant General Manager
5 Years
Business Manager
6 Years
Co-Owner
6 Years
Practice Manager
9 Years
Business Office Manager
7 Years
Sales Account Manager
6 Years
Show More
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for an Assistant
Assistants in America make an average salary of $37,926 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $66,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $21,000 per year.
Average Salary
$37,926
Best Paying Cities
City
Average Salary
$23k
$86k
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Randstad Execution Assistant Execution Assistant | Randstad Randstad | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $50,00001/30/2021 $50,000 |
Natural Grocers Grocery D/F Bulk Asst Grocery D/F Bulk Asst | Natural Grocers Natural Grocers | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $29,21801/30/2021 $29,218 |
Aqua Finance Funding Assistant Funding Assistant | Aqua Finance Aqua Finance | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $30,07401/29/2021 $30,074 |
Volunteers of America-Utah Recovery Assistant-Paid Recovery Assistant-Paid | Volunteers of America-Utah Volunteers of America-Utah | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $28,17501/29/2021 $28,175 |
Upland Unified Coach-Girls Varsity Assistant Basketball Coach-Girls Varsity Assistant Basketball | Upland Unified Upland Unified | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $44,57301/29/2021 $44,573 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Assistant Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming an Assistant. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write an Assistant Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Assistant resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Assistants
1. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Public
In-State Tuition
$3,926
Enrollment
9,835
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,354
Enrollment
7,083
3. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
In-State Tuition
$9,896
Enrollment
15,529
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
5. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Public
In-State Tuition
$11,105
Enrollment
13,729
6. Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$39,216
Enrollment
1,303
7. Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD • Public
In-State Tuition
$7,900
Enrollment
6,404
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
9. Siena Heights University
Adrian, MI • Private
In-State Tuition
$27,124
Enrollment
2,035
10. University of Akron
Akron, OH • Public
In-State Tuition
$11,463
Enrollment
13,676
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Top Skills For an Assistant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.4% of assistants listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as writing skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
- Customer Service, 10.4%
- Communication, 9.7%
- Patient Care, 7.9%
- Emergency, 4.9%
- CPR, 4.6%
- Other Skills, 62.5% See All Assistant Skills
Best States For an Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an assistant. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, and Connecticut. Assistants make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $60,703. Whereas in New York and Vermont, they would average $50,655 and $46,075, respectively. While assistants would only make an average of $42,922 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Massachusetts
Total Assistant Jobs:
8,500
Highest 10% Earn:
$115,000
Location Quotient:
1.12
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$60,703
Avg. Salary
2. New York
Total Assistant Jobs:
12,828
Highest 10% Earn:
$97,000
Location Quotient:
1.21
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$50,655
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
Total Assistant Jobs:
2,970
Highest 10% Earn:
$82,000
Location Quotient:
1.08
Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$42,922
Avg. Salary
How Do Assistant Rate Their Jobs?
Top Assistant Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ assistants and discovered their number of assistant opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Advantis Certified Staffing Solutions was the best, especially with an average salary of $28,164. Stanley Steemer follows up with an average salary of $29,531, and then comes CNA Financial with an average of $35,591. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as an assistant. The employers include Public Consulting Group, Emory University, and The George Washington University