How To Become A City Secretary: What It Is and Career Path

What is a city secretary and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a city secretary. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.49 an hour? That's $53,028 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -8% and produce -286,900 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCity SecretaryUS Average

Salary

4.1

Avg. Salary $53,028

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate -8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 3.81%

Black or African American 9.15%

Hispanic or Latino 16.02%

Unknown 3.87%

White 66.44%

Gender

female 93.04%

male 6.96%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.4

Complexity level is basic

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a city secretary

Explore city secretary education requirements

Most common city secretary degrees

Bachelor's

40.2 %

Associate

29.5 %

High School Diploma

23.8 %

Start to develop specific city secretary skills

Skills	Percentages
Meeting Agendas	17.85%
Customer Service	10.57%
City Ordinances	9.50%
State Laws	8.14%
Meeting Minutes	6.86%

Complete relevant city secretary training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New city secretaries learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a city secretary based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real city secretary resumes.

Research city secretary duties and responsibilities

Scan and manage documents on Laserfiche.
Serve as a notary and administer oaths of office.
Prepare discharges, enter all updates into OASAS system and review patient information to verify patients eligibility to receive transportation reimbursement.
Initiate and monitor requisitions through PeopleSoft for office supplies, laboratory supplies including purchasing lab animals for research and travel reimbursement.

Prepare your city secretary resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your city secretary resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a city secretary resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable city secretary resume templates

Build a professional city secretary resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your city secretary resume.