As office administrator, you've got to lay down the law for your team. Sure, no one likes a tough boss, but they need to know what goals they're aiming for, and that's where you come in. You'll need to divide and conquer on some tasks, so the team doesn't feel overwhelmed.
The biggest, and probably toughest, part of your job is making sure your team is consistantly performing. You have to find a nice balance for employees so they don't get burned out on work, while also making sure they're not playing Solitaire on their computer.
Office administrators typically work somewhere between 35-40 hours a week. Generally, they won't work more than that. This means you might get to go home a little early some days. Our fingers are crossed that you get off a little early on Friday, so you can kickstart your weekend on a high note.
Office Administrator Overview
Office Administrator Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an office administrator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.58 an hour? That's $34,496 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -110,600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Office Administrator Do
There are certain skills that many office administrators 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 customer-service skills, detail oriented and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be an office administrator, we found that a lot of resumes listed 15.9% of office administrators included customer service, while 9.6% of resumes included office procedures, and 7.2% of resumes included data entry. 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 office administrator job title. But what industry to start with? Most office administrators actually find jobs in the health care and professional industries.
How To Become an Office Administrator
If you're interested in becoming an office administrator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 38.8% of office administrators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.7% of office administrators have master's degrees. Even though some office administrators 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 office administrator. When we researched the most common majors for an office administrator, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on office administrator resumes include high school diploma degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an office administrator. In fact, many office administrator jobs require experience in a role such as administrative assistant. Meanwhile, many office administrators also have previous career experience in roles such as office manager or customer service representative.
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.
Office Administrator Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, an office administrator can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as executive assistant, progress to a title such as office manager and then eventually end up with the title co-owner.
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 Office Administrator
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Peopleready Office Admin Associate Office Admin Associate | Peopleready Peopleready | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $31,30501/29/2021 $31,305 |
Arrow Electronics Office Administrator Office Administrator | Arrow Electronics Arrow Electronics | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $28,17501/29/2021 $28,175 |
Adecco Staffing Office Administrator Office Administrator | Adecco Staffing Adecco Staffing | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $27,13101/29/2021 $27,131 |
Adecco Staffing Law Office Administrator/Legal Secretary Law Office Administrator/Legal Secretary | Adecco Staffing Adecco Staffing | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $41,74001/29/2021 $41,740 |
Randstad Office Admin Office Admin | Randstad Randstad | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $37,44001/29/2021 $37,440 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Office Administrator 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 Office Administrator. 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 Office Administrator Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Office Administrator 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 Office Administrators
1. Western Carolina University
Cullowhee, NC • Public
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
4. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
5. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Public
6. Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA • Private
7. Morgan State University
Baltimore, MD • Public
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
9. Siena Heights University
Adrian, MI • Private
10. University of Akron
Akron, OH • Public
Top Skills For an Office Administrator
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, 15.9% of office administrators listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- Customer Service, 15.9%
- Office Procedures, 9.6%
- Data Entry, 7.2%
- Front Office, 5.6%
- Insurance Companies, 3.9%
- Other Skills, 57.8% See All Office Administrator Skills
Best States For an Office Administrator
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an office administrator. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Delaware, California, and New York. Office administrators make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $41,477. Whereas in Delaware and California, they would average $39,383 and $38,520, respectively. While office administrators would only make an average of $38,370 in New York, 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. Washington
$38,343
Avg. Salary
2. Oregon
$37,505
Avg. Salary
3. District of Columbia
$48,207
Avg. Salary
How Do Office Administrator Rate Their Jobs?
Top Office Administrator 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 office administrators and discovered their number of office administrator opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Boeing was the best, especially with an average salary of $45,426. Edward Jones follows up with an average salary of $35,646, and then comes H&R; Block with an average of $34,379. 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 office administrator. The employers include Baylor Scott & White Health, National Bank Holdings, and Center For Family Services