General admin CV - what to put?

[lowrib]

I'm writing a CV to give to temp agencies for straightforward admin roles. The last job I went for said I seemed over qualified. I normally do a more specialised job, but I just need some work right now!

I have plenty of admin experience but when I try to think of what I have actually done, I'm struggling to make it sound great. I keep straying off into other, non-adminy things.

What skills are people looking for straightforward admin roles?

TIA

"General admin" jobs vary a lot. What have you specialised in? What transferable skills do you have? Do you have any financial or supervisory experience? Answering telephone enquiries, helping to organise events? Do you have keyboard skills?

Your CV needs to give an employer or agency more idea about how to match up your skills than just a "general admin" job.

In my last job took on a web and marketing role as the small organisation I worked for grew, but I don't have any qualifications to back either role up (have enrolled for a degree in web design starting next September). So while I have an impressive list of achievements for things I did while at my old organisation, I'm actually not a strong candidate for new web or marketing roles, and my achievements can actually work against me for a more general admin role.

I've done events stuff, thanks for the reminder, I think I'll build that up a bit. The thing is because I worked for a very small but growing organisation I'm a bit of a Jill-of-all-trades, I have experience doing all sorts as that was the nature of the job - rather than a clearly defined job history doing 'events administration' or whatever. My typing is fast but not terribly accurate, so typing based jobs are out I think. My strengths really are that I'm pretty goddamn smart and can take on most things you throw at me, but can also happily put up with pretty bloody boring tasks if needs be, and I'm good with I.T. AND people - but I need something a bit more concrete for my CV I think

I'm just trying to think of things which an agency might want for a temp role - ideally I'd like a part time, temp admin role, just to see me through the next few months really.

Events related stuff even if a lot of it is just mailings, answering the phone etc etc is actually quite useful experience I think for temping, as it's the sort of thing where firms often want a pair of hands.

Your experience and skills as you describe them sound like you could be a really useful temp actually to me. What you need to do with agencies is give them some little hooks that they can start matching you with. If you get a booking that goes well then you're more likely to get more work - it's getting that first booking that's hard, and the ones that aren't suited to your skills or you.

Don't dismiss your keyboard skills - say you can type and get your speed tested - the best job for you might not include much typing but it's good not to rule anything out at this stage. Where I work one of our general admin temps became one of the best secretaries we had, and she hadn't done audio typing or all sorts of other stuff before, her attitude was great.

Thanks for the vote of confidence elkiedee, I really appreciate it .

I'll have a think about little hooks (sounds painful )

PC skills? Good with MS office products, ie word, excel etc.