What is an Administrative Assistant?
Administrative assistants provide various office support services. The level of responsibility and the exact duties of administrative assistants vary greatly depending upon job title and place of employment. Some administrative assistants specialize in specific fields, such as medicine or law. Educational Overview for an Administrative Assistant: Many administrative assistant receive training through two or four year programs, In addition to learning how to work in an office setting, administrative assistants will also learn how to work with various types of software and word processing programs. Required Courses: Administrative assistant programs may include these required courses: • Microsoft Applications (Word, Excel, Access, etc.) • Practical Business Applications • Business Mathematics • Keyboarding Career Related Information Skills Obtained: Administrative assistants can obtain many different skills from an administrative degree or diploma program. Common skills obtained include:
The office secretary has been a fixture of American business for years. The person, usually a woman, was responsible for managing the office, running errands for the boss, typing, filing and fulfilling many other duties, including being what amounted to a personal assistant for the boss. They accounted for some 4.1 million jobs in 2004, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. As technology has advanced, the duties of the secretary, often maligned, have changed. The term “administrative assistant” is much closer to the actual duties of one of these employees. The U.S. Department of Labor even has a entry about administrative assistants and described their duties: “Secretaries and administrative assistants are responsible for a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary to run an organization efficiently. They serve as information and communication managers for an office; plan and schedule meetings and appointments; organize and maintain paper and electronic files; manage
Administrative Assistants are like Executive Secretaries. They perform a variety of functions in their role as executive support staff. In addition to basic secretarial duties, they are often responsible for ordering office supplies, scheduling work, planning meetings, taking minutes, making travel arrangements, taking dictation, transcription, and composing formal correspondence and reports.
I’ve been working abroad as office clerk, and later transferred into another department and serve as overall coordinator. Now, I’m pretty interested to to a position of Administrative Assistant. In this connection, I would be very glad to know the responsibilitiesof an admin.assistant. I’m looking forward to get a positive response. More power!!!
