Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
Business, Management and AdministrationO*NET 43-6011.00United States
Provide high-level administrative support by conducting research, preparing statistical reports, and handling information requests, as well as performing routine administrative functions such as preparing correspondence, receiving visitors, arranging conference calls, and scheduling meetings. May also train and supervise lower-level clerical staff.
- Median annual earnings
- $76,382
- Projected change
- +3.3%
- Typical education
- Associate degree
- Employment
- 488.11K jobs
50th percentile, United States
2025 to 2035
33.8% of the workforce
Growing to 504.06K by 2035
Explore this career by location
Compare nationwide estimates with state or county job-market data.
Showing United States
Loading available locations…
Build the skills
ASU learning related to this career
These courses and certificates are connected through catalog career relationships and Lightcast skill tags.
Loading related ASU learning
The work
What executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants do
Tasks reported for this occupation, ordered by how often they come up in the role.
- Manage and maintain executives' schedules.
- Make travel arrangements for executives.
- Prepare invoices, reports, memos, letters, financial statements, and other documents, using word processing, spreadsheet, database, or presentation software.
- Answer phone calls and direct calls to appropriate parties or take messages.
- Coordinate and direct office services, such as records, departmental finances, budget preparation, personnel issues, and housekeeping, to aid executives.
- Prepare responses to correspondence containing routine inquiries.
- Open, sort, and distribute incoming correspondence, including faxes and email.
- Greet visitors and determine whether they should be given access to specific individuals.
- Prepare agendas and make arrangements, such as coordinating catering for luncheons, for committee, board, and other meetings.
- Perform general office duties, such as ordering supplies, maintaining records management database systems, and performing basic bookkeeping work.
- Conduct research, compile data, and prepare papers for consideration and presentation by executives, committees, and boards of directors.
- File and retrieve corporate documents, records, and reports.
- Read and analyze incoming memos, submissions, and reports to determine their significance and plan their distribution.
- Provide clerical support to other departments.
- Attend meetings to record minutes.
Pay and outlook
What the job pays and where it is heading
Annual earnings range
Reported earnings by percentile, United States
- 10th percentile
- $50,280
- 25th percentile
- $61,169
- 50th percentile
- $76,382
- 75th percentile
- $94,361
- 90th percentile
- $110,698
The gold marker shows the median. Half earn more than $76,382 and half earn less.
Employment outlook
2025 to 2035 projection
+3.3%average or slower
2025488,105 jobs
2035 projected504,061 jobs
15,956 more positions over the decade, before replacement hiring.
Preparation
Education levels
What people currently working in the career hold. These are not entry requirements.
- Associate degree
- 33.8%
- High school diploma or less
- 24.2%
- Some college
- 20.9%
- Bachelor's degree
- 11.9%
- Master's or Professional degree
- 8%
- Certificate
- 1.3%
Skills
Skills employers ask for
Technical skills appearing most often in job postings for this occupation.
How the work gets done
Core competencies
Broad capabilities associated with strong performance in this occupation.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
In the market
Job titles and employers
Recent job postings in United StatesCommon job titles
- 01Executive Assistants31,774 postings
- 02Executive Administrative Assistants3,250 postings
- 03Executive Assistants to the Chief Executive Officer2,156 postings
- 04Executive Assistants to the Chief Operating Officer1,690 postings
- 05Legal Executive Assistants936 postings
- 06Executive/Personal Assistants924 postings
- 07Executive Assistants to the President491 postings
- 08Executive Operations Assistants396 postings
- 09Executive Office Assistants374 postings
- 10Assistant Executive Directors368 postings
- 11Executive Assistants to the President/Chief Executive Officer312 postings
- 12Executive Assistant Partners283 postings
- 13Bilingual Executive Assistants225 postings
- 14Executive Administrators225 postings
- 15Real Estate Executive Assistants214 postings
- 16Executive Assistants to the Chief Financial Officer209 postings
- 17Assistants to the Executive Director204 postings
- 18Executive Administration Assistants195 postings
- 19Executive Assistants to the Dean177 postings
- 20Executive Assistants/Office Administrators149 postings
Top employers
- 01Robert Half2,387 postings
- 02Beacon Hill Staffing Group1,134 postings
- 03Career Group745 postings
- 04Amazon397 postings
- 05Insight Global392 postings
- 06Lee Hecht Harrison390 postings
- 07The Larko Group264 postings
- 08Daley And Associates259 postings
- 09Joss Search227 postings
- 10Addison Group215 postings
- 11Mack & Associates213 postings
- 12Aston Carter212 postings
- 13JPMorgan Chase183 postings
- 14C-Suite Assistants173 postings
- 15Green Key Resources172 postings
- 16Hawthorne Lane166 postings
- 17AppleOne165 postings
- 18Teradata Operations160 postings
- 19Randstad153 postings
- 20Ultimate Staffing143 postings
Keep looking