Most UK employers — including the NHS, councils, and every major retailer and agency — run applications through an ATS (applicant tracking system) that scores your CV against the job advert before any human reads it. If your CV doesn't contain the right administrative assistant keywords, you're filtered out automatically — no matter how good you are. Here are the terms that matter, and a free way to check your CV against the exact job you want.
Scan my CV against a real job — free →
These are the terms that appear most often in UK administrative assistant job adverts — and therefore the terms applicant tracking systems are configured to score:
Important: never paste keywords in blindly. The filter ranks context, and interviewers check claims. Add only what you've genuinely done — the free scan below shows which of these the specific job you want actually asks for, so you don't guess.
Yes — high-volume roles are exactly where ATS filtering is strictest, because nobody reads 400 CVs. Keyword match determines who gets seen at all.
No — in the UK and US, photos can cause automatic rejection under bias-reduction policies, and some parsers handle them badly.
Paste your CV and the job advert into the free scanner below. You'll see your ATS match score and the exact missing keywords for that job — first scan free, no sign-up.
Your match score, the missing keywords for a real administrative assistant job, and an ATS-safe rewrite. Free to try.
Check my CV free →Related: Administrative Assistant resume keywords (US) · All CV keyword guides · Free ATS CV templates · CVAutomate vs Jobscan