Administrative Assistant Skills You Should Have

Nowadays, a secretary is no longer just a secretary. With more duties and responsibilities given them, they are more aptly called administrative assistants. If you think that administrative assistants are basically the garden-variety secretaries then you are dead wrong.  Administrative assistants are well paid and the position is one of the coveted jobs in business today.  An administrative assistant is a one-man office doing the basic job of a secretary - putting into order the boss's schedule, filing documents and communications, preparing communication, and performing other tasks such as taking dictations, organizing meetings and doing errands for the boss.
 

In this job, the administrative assistant should have excellent communication and organizational skills and must be able to work with the least supervision.  If the job description fits your current skills and abilities, this must be the job for you but be aware that this is not the easiest job in the corporate or business scene, however, this is not ridiculously difficult as long as you always have the presence of mind when the situation calls for it. If you think that an administrative assistant might just be the job for you, you must be fully aware that this is not the easiest job in the world. In fact, this may be one of the most stressful and tiring employment.
 

However, this is not a ridiculously difficult job, with the right skills and employment experience; anyone can vie for this job. A college degree is necessary for the job.  Most employers require at least two years college experience from applicants and there is no gender bias for the position.  An applicant for the administrative assistant position must also have a set of skills that will be essential in succeeding in his or her chosen profession.  An administrative assistant must have excellent interpersonal and communication skills plus the ability to work well under pressure.
 

You may be working for just one employer or a group of supervisors.  It is important that you would know how to interact with each and everyone of them and it is your task to make communication lines clear so there would not be miscommunications in the system.   An excellent time management skill is also required. You may have to juggle more than one task or simultaneous diverse projects that must be completed within the work day.  You must know how to prioritize assignments for the day.  Likewise, it is important that you must have computer skills and know how office equipment work since you will be doing a lot of file inventories on the PC, document duplication, faxing, and sending out emails.  In short an administrative assistant must be abreast with technology.   Although the use of high tech equipment can be learned on the job, employers prefer candidates for the position be ‘schooled' on the use of office equipment. 
 

Writing skillsARE also a necessity.  In this line of work administrative assistants are required to do a lot of writing letters to other companies or associates and it is their job to proofread all outgoing communication.  They should also have a keen eye to catch typos and grammatical errors before communications are finalized because communication riddle with typos and grammatical errors would give the business a bad image. If you have all of the qualifications for the position, make sure to include them in your administrative assistant resume and go ahead and apply for the job.

- Gail Esparan