What is an Executive Assistant/Office Manager?

Behind every effective executive is an efficient assistant. Yes, that is an original quote by yours sincerely. Executive assistants do not operate like traditional office administrators. Think of their role as gatekeeper and a schedule expediter for whomever they are working for. So, this requires quite a bit of internal project management and organizational skills.

While an office manager deals with general administrative tasks such as answering phone calls, scheduling appointments, and handling office supplies, an executive assistant deals with specialized tasks that support an executive team. This includes assisting in the document review process, preparing financial reports, and recording meeting minutes.

Employers require both executive assistants and office managers to have a high school diploma at minimum, but a bachelor's degree relating to business is preferred. Besides that, at least five years of relevant work experience serving senior management needs to be demonstrated by an executive assistant. This role earns, on average, $23 per hour. By contrast, office managers need to have at least two to three years of work experience and earns, on average, $22 per hour.

What Does an Executive Assistant/Office Manager Do

There are certain skills that many executive assistant/office managers 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.

Learn more about what an Executive Assistant/Office Manager does

How To Become an Executive Assistant/Office Manager

If you're interested in becoming an executive assistant/office manager, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 58.1% of executive assistant/office managers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.7% of executive assistant/office managers have master's degrees. Even though most executive assistant/office managers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become an Executive Assistant/Office Manager
Top Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs Near You

Executive Assistant/Office Manager 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 owner you might progress to a role such as director eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title administrative director.

Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Average Salary for an Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Executive Assistant/Office Managers in America make an average salary of $59,405 per year or $29 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $89,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $39,000 per year.
Average Executive Assistant/Office Manager Salary
$59,405 Yearly
$28.56 hourly
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Roles and Types of Executive Assistant/Office Manager

The role of an executive assistant/office manager includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general executive assistant/office manager responsibilities:

  • Oversee and coordinate the general auditor’s calendar
  • Support partners in all administrative matters. Manage
  • Assistant manager s role: braum's leaders execute the company's brand strategy

There are several types of executive assistant/office manager, including:

Office Manager

Role:

As an office manager, you want to make sure everything is running smoothly, from the day-to-day responsibilities of everyone in the office to managing a small administrative staff, your role is pretty important.

Office managers typically work a normal schedule of 40 hours a week. This is a plus as it's definitely nothing crazy like other management positions when it comes to your schedule.

While leaving the office after 8 hours each day seems glamorous, it's not all daffodils and daisies. In fact, office managers tend to be under a lot of stress, most of the time. Contrary to the Michael Scott character who seemingly coasts by each day without getting much done, actual office managers stay under pressure from top management to make sure everything is running properly.

  • Average Salary: $43,395
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Service Office Manager

Role:

A service office manager is a professional who manages a service department and oversees customer service interactions, repairs, and reports. These individuals manage the service department of an organization or a business, supervise service staff, and support day-to-day service operations. Service office managers also manage inventory, purchasing, marketing, and production materials. They also schedule training for staff and employees and ensure that the department follows organizational procedures and protocols.

Most service office managers have at least a High School diploma or equivalent and should possess excellent communication, organizational, and leadership skills. They should also be comfortable managing staff and office finances and budgets.

Most service office managers can make up to $56,000 per year. However, the field is expected to decline by 7% in the next ten years.

  • Average Salary: $83,838
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Office Project Manager

Role:

Your duty as the office project manager is to ensure that the operations of your company are executed successfully, on time, and in the most cost-effective manner. It is also your duty to set the standard for the approach you and your team will take when carrying out your projects. You will set up practices that result in the outcome being delivered with the highest quality.

As the office project manager, you will draw up reports on the progress you and your team have made on projects using data you have gathered and analyzed. You will also encourage your team to execute projects using the standard protocol you have mapped out so as to ensure that the deliverable is of high quality. As you are working on a project, you need to have excellent team-working and verbal and written communication skills. You need to have extensive knowledge of project management and use that knowledge to delegate duties to your team members.

Furthermore, you need to be highly organized, be a critical thinker, and have excellent negotiation strategies. In order to become an office project manager, you need to have obtained a bachelor's degree in either business management or business administration. You also need to have attained the necessary experience to eventually be granted the responsibility of a leadership position.

  • Average Salary: $79,831
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active executive assistant/office manager jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where executive assistant/office managers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1Texas4,087$57,956
2California3,959$75,108
3Florida3,783$49,873
4Illinois2,843$57,785
5Massachusetts2,295$63,989
6Pennsylvania2,094$57,060
7New York2,023$72,084
8Georgia1,985$55,967
9Virginia1,890$63,736
10North Carolina1,760$66,931
11Ohio1,676$53,545
12Washington1,542$62,149
13New Jersey1,512$69,257
14Michigan1,430$55,084
15Minnesota1,373$51,791
16Maryland1,334$67,967
17Arizona1,298$53,367
18Colorado1,281$53,359
19Indiana1,185$50,123
20Missouri1,147$48,004
21Wisconsin1,013$50,746
22Tennessee979$51,419
23South Carolina733$47,306
24Connecticut704$67,893
25Utah625$45,873
26Alabama617$50,754
27Iowa617$47,084
28Kentucky597$48,431
29Louisiana519$39,321
30Kansas486$40,841
31Arkansas471$48,297
32Oregon432$55,905
33Oklahoma400$36,505
34Nevada354$63,141
35Nebraska340$39,856
36Idaho309$38,140
37New Mexico263$55,890
38New Hampshire263$48,155
39Montana258$40,642
40Mississippi244$39,595
41Delaware231$65,401
42Maine218$38,361
43Alaska206$45,239
44West Virginia202$52,405
45Rhode Island181$62,038
46North Dakota157$45,259
47Hawaii152$90,724
48Vermont135$42,106
49Wyoming115$41,694
50South Dakota107$41,767

Executive Assistant/Office Manager Education

Executive Assistant/Office Manager Majors

Business
38.1 %
Psychology
7.2 %
Communication
6.4 %

Executive Assistant/Office Manager Degrees

Bachelors

58.1 %

Associate

23.2 %

High School Diploma

7.6 %

Top Colleges for Executive Assistant/Office Managers

1. Western Carolina University

Cullowhee, NC • Private

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 • Private

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 • Private

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 • Private

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 • Private

In-State Tuition

$11,463

Enrollment

13,676

Top Skills For an Executive Assistant/Office Manager

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, 9.8% of executive assistant/office managers listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as writing skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Executive Assistant/Office Manager Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Executive Assistant/Office Manager templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Executive Assistant/Office Manager resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Executive Assistant/Office Manager diversity

Executive Assistant/Office Manager Gender Distribution

Female
Female
88%
Male
Male
12%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among executive assistant/office managers, 88.1% of them are women, while 11.9% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among executive assistant/office managers is White, which makes up 71.0% of all executive assistant/office managers.

  • The most common foreign language among executive assistant/office managers is Spanish at 55.3%.

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Best States For an Executive Assistant/Office Manager

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an executive assistant/office manager. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, California, New York, and New Jersey. Executive assistant/office managers make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $90,724. Whereas in California and New York, they would average $75,108 and $72,084, respectively. While executive assistant/office managers would only make an average of $69,257 in New Jersey, 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. Connecticut

Total Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs: 704
Highest 10% Earn:
$112,000
Location Quotient:
1.15

$67,893

Avg. Salary

View 704 Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs In CT

2. Hawaii

Total Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs: 152
Highest 10% Earn:
$117,000
Location Quotient:
0.98

$90,724

Avg. Salary

View 152 Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs In HI

3. Massachusetts

Total Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs: 2,295
Highest 10% Earn:
$106,000
Location Quotient:
1.35

$63,989

Avg. Salary

View 2,295 Executive Assistant/Office Manager Jobs In MA
Full List Of Best States For Executive Assistant/Office Managers

How Do Executive Assistant/Office Managers Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Executive Assistant/Office Manager Employers

Most Common Employers For Executive Assistant/Office Manager

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Citi$96,843$46.5621
2IBM$88,535$42.5610
3Morgan Stanley$77,875$37.4415
4Beacon Hill Staffing Group$77,822$37.4110
5Walmart$74,545$35.8415
6AT&T$73,609$35.3918
7Keller Williams Realty$72,021$34.6314
8Lucent$69,864$33.5910
9Sherwin-Williams$64,813$31.1618
10Northwestern Mutual$63,836$30.6921
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Updated April 6, 2023