Executive Assistant CVs, written by a recruiter
From Lily Shippen, the EA, PA and Chief of Staff recruitment agency
Your CV only knows what you remember to tell it.
Margot asks you the questions the best recruiters ask in a screening call, the ones that decide a shortlist before a CV is ever sent. Then she writes and designs your CV from your answers.
Most EA CVs fail on content, not effort. The difference between shortlisted and ignored is rarely the experience itself, it's how that experience is told. Margot asks what you'd never think to ask yourself, and writes it to the standard Lily Shippen holds her own shortlists to.
FROM £39, PAY ONCE · SCORE YOUR CURRENT CV FREE FIRST
Margot is Lily Shippen's screening interview, given a name.
Not a template, and not a form. Thirteen years of placing EAs, turned into an interviewer who does three jobs for you.
01 · SHE INTERVIEWS YOU
The questions the best recruiters ask in a screening call, one at a time, in plain language. She pushes where a recruiter would push.
02 · SHE WRITES YOUR CV
Your answers become a profile, achievement lines and role summaries written to the standard Lily signs her name to, in four typeset templates.
03 · SHE KEEPS IT CURRENT
Forward her an email where someone thanked you and it comes back a CV line. She nudges you after board meetings and appraisals, so your CV is never out of date again.
Answer on the left. Watch the right.
( 01 — THE INTERVIEW, RUNNING LIVE )A WORKED EXAMPLE FROM A REAL SCREENING CALL. YOUR OWN INTERVIEW STARTS AFTER CHECKOUT.
Charlotte Reeve
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Selected achievements
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Experience
How does your CV score?
( 02 — THE SCORECARD, FREE )Drop your CV in and Margot marks it out of 100 on the five things that decide whether you get the call. The score is free, and you see it before we ask for anything, including your email address.
Thank you. The full written breakdown lands in your inbox within a few minutes. This page is a design prototype, so nothing was actually sent.
THE SCORE ITSELF IS SHOWN ON SCREEN FIRST. THE EMAIL IS ONLY FOR THE WRITTEN BREAKDOWN.
You can't guess your way to a recruiter's judgement.
01
Writing your own CV means asking yourself the questions, and unless you've sat on the hiring side of the desk you can't know what a hiring manager is actually scanning for. Every question Margot asks exists because of a real CV that failed in a real search.
02
Margot asks about the things you'd never think to write down: the decision you made without waiting for permission, the process that outlasted you, the thing colleagues come to you for that has never once appeared in your job title.
03
Everything she writes is held to the standard Lily signs her name to. The promise isn't that it's quick, it's that it's right: the same CV Lily would produce if she sat across from you for an afternoon.
Same career. Same person. One got the interview.
( 04 — BEFORE / AFTER )Charlotte is a worked example, but the marking is real: the same scorer that marks your CV free at the top of this page marks every finished CV before Margot lets it go. The left column scores in the thirties. The right column is what the interview, the metrics rule and the rewrite do to the same career, and if your finished CV doesn't reach 80 we keep working with you free until it does.
Charlotte Reeve
charlotte.reeve@gmail.com | 07XXX XXXXXX | London
Personal Statement
Hard working and highly organised Executive Assistant with excellent communication skills and a proven track record, seeking a challenging new role in a fast paced environment.
Key Duties
- Diary management for a busy CEO
- Booking travel and accommodation
- Assisted with board meeting preparation
- Liaised with clients and stakeholders
- Supported onboarding of new employees
- General ad hoc administrative duties as required
References available upon request.
Charlotte Reeve
LONDON · UK
Executive Assistant to CEO · Board Level · Fintech
Executive Assistant to the CEO of a 400 person fintech through its Series B and C raises. I hold full gatekeeping authority, own the board cycle end to end, and act in the CEO's name when he is unreachable, a trust earned across four years and never withdrawn.
Selected achievements
- Hold full gatekeeping authority over the CEO's calendar, protecting two strategic focus days a week and resolving 60% of inbound requests without them ever reaching him.
- Built the board reporting cycle from nothing: nine papers, four committees, distribution moved from the night before to seven days ahead, unmissed for eleven consecutive quarters.
- Ran due diligence logistics for a £40m Series C, coordinating a five firm data room across three time zones to a deadline that never slipped.
- Cut executive travel spend 18% (£30k a year) by renegotiating agency terms nobody had reviewed in six years.
- Trusted to decline meetings, reroute requests and commit spend up to £5k in the CEO's name during two months of back to back international travel.
Experience
Executive Assistant to CEO — Meridian Pay
2022 — NOW
Sole support to the CEO and two co founders through Series B and C. Own the board cycle, investor communications and the executive hiring pipeline.
Team Assistant — Halstead Capital
2019 — 2022
Supported a six partner investment team; promoted twice in three years.
SYSTEMS: GOOGLE WORKSPACE · CONCUR · NOTION · BOARD INTELLIGENCE | LANGUAGES: ENGLISH · FRENCH
LILY SHIPPEN · WHO MARGOT LEARNED FROM
The questions the best recruiters ask. In a screening call.
Lily Shippen founded Lily Shippen, one of the UK's top EA, PA and Chief of Staff recruitment agencies, at 22 years old. Over thirteen years she has placed into four figures of EAs and PAs with founders, CEOs and boards, and read tens of thousands of CVs to do it. She knows within seconds whether a CV will be shortlisted, because she's the one doing the shortlisting.
Margot is Lily's screening interview, written down and given a name. The questions are the ones she asks across the desk. The writing is held to the standard she'd put in front of a client.
Lily has always told every EA she works with the same thing: email yourself your achievements as they happen, don't wait until you're job hunting to try and remember them.
Almost nobody does it. So Margot does it for you. This was never just about updating your CV, it's about making sure it is constantly up to date.
Your CV isn't a document. It's a habit.
Most EAs open their CV in the week they decide to leave, and then try to reconstruct two years of work in a single sitting. By then the good detail, the numbers, the saves, the quiet wins nobody else noticed, has already faded.
The Record never asks you to write. Forward Margot any email where someone thanked you, and seconds later it comes back as a finished CV line. You never have to claim anything, because the evidence was already in your inbox, written by someone else.
Her reminders follow your calendar, not hers: the morning after a board meeting, the week after the offsite you ran, the day after your appraisal while the feedback is still warm. She asks what nearly went wrong and what you fixed, because an EA will happily describe a disaster she averted long before she will claim an achievement. Two or three entries a quarter is more material than your CV will ever need.
Meridian on Thursday. They'll press you on board exposure. You logged the Series C data room in June, so here's how I'd tell it.
SHE PREPS YOU FROM YOUR OWN CAREER, BECAUSE SHE KNOWS IT.
Fonts matter. Design matters.
( 07 — FOUR TEMPLATES, ALL ATS SAFE )A hiring manager forms a view of your CV in seconds, before they've read a word, which is why the typesetting is part of the argument. Every executive assistant CV we produce comes in four professionally set templates, each one readable by every applicant tracking system. Margot typesets each one to its owner: two industry awards earn a place above your experience, a career change pulls your transferable evidence forward. Switch templates, accent colours and font pairings whenever you like, the content reflows instantly.
THE SIGNATURE · WARM EDITORIAL
THE STANDARD · CONSERVATIVE CLASSIC
THE BRIEF · MODERN MINIMAL
THE STUDIO · FOR CREATIVE TEAMS
Pay once, it's yours. Or keep it current.
( 08 — PRICING · WRITTEN TO THE LILY SHIPPEN STANDARD )If your finished CV doesn't score at least 80 out of 100 on our own marker, the same one that scores everyone on this page, we keep working on it with you free until it does.
THE CV
£49 WRITTEN FROM SCRATCH
The full interview, written to Lily's standard.
THE SEARCH KIT · CV + LINKEDIN + TARGETING
Because the recruiter who likes your CV looks you up next.
THE RECORD
Lily has always believed you should be updating your CV as your career happens, not rebuilding it from memory every few years. The Record makes that effortless: it launches soon, and joining the waitlist means you hear first.
Tell Margot your appraisal date and she asks you for the content from it. Reminders come as little or as often as you like, so you send her achievements and anything you've picked up while it's fresh. Next time you need your CV, there is no starting from scratch and no trying to remember what you've done since the last one.
You're on the list. You'll hear the moment the Record opens, and CV buyers get first access.
EVERY CV IS YOURS TO KEEP. THE RECORD LAUNCHES SOON, AND CV BUYERS GET IT FIRST.
Questions, answered.
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The executive assistant CV, done properly.
( 10 — THE SHORT GUIDE )What makes a strong executive assistant CV
Evidence of judgement, not a list of duties. The strongest EA CVs name the seniority of the executive supported, the authority held, and what changed because you were in the role. Ours are built from a recruiter's interview, so that evidence is drawn out of you question by question.
Executive assistant CV templates and examples
Four professionally typeset executive assistant CV templates: The Signature, The Standard, The Brief and The Studio. All ATS safe, all included, switch any time. See the full CV template guide and real before and after examples.
Skills for an executive assistant CV
Gatekeeping and calendar authority, board and investor support, stakeholder management, complex travel, event ownership and confidential judgement. The interview surfaces which of these you can actually evidence, then writes them so a hiring manager believes them.
Personal assistant or career changer?
A personal assistant CV, office manager CV or a move from another career entirely: the same interview translates your experience into the language an executive assistant search is run on. With The Record, your CV stays current from then on.
Margot will ask you thingsyou haven't even thought of.
Score your current CV free, see the standard in the example above, then let her build yours.