The Modern Office Assistant

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 projects; conduct research; and disseminate information by using the telephone, mail services, Web sites, and e-mail. They also may handle travel and guest arrangements.” But any administrative assistant worth his or her salt will tell you this barely scratches the surface of everything they do.

The good administrative assistant knows intimately how the office functions. While all offices look the same on the surface, each office is different, often influenced by the industry it serves. Some have a more casual chain of command, some are very formal. The movie “The Devil Wears Prada” is a funny and revealing look at the world of the administrative assistant. How could Miranda Priestley have done all she did without her assistants keeping all the balls in the air?

In the office, the experienced administrative assistant knows, for instance, which faxes are important and which are trash; what snail mail can be safely discarded; which e-mails must be forwarded to the boss, and which he or she can deal with. The administrative assistant also deals with the public in many offices, and is a source of general information. He or she will also probably be responsible, at least in part, in training new office staff. She has to know how to work with a variety of office equipment, and may be experienced enough to do minor repairs.

If the administrative assistant is the boss’s primary assistant, she will probably type and compose part of her supervisor’s correspondence, take many of his calls and keep his appointments up to date. An administrative assistant is served best by a college degree, but a sharp high school graduate who is technologically savvy and has good writing skills could also do the job. He or she will need a thorough knowledge of a word processing program, and should know his way around a computer with confidence.

Get ready, Get Set...GO!!!

Life comes at you fast doesn't it? Now that I'm nearing graduation it's time to start the job search! In THIS economy??!! YIKES! That said, the bills need paid. As soon as I get ahead on homework I'm going to start "padding" my resume a bit. You know, the things that look good to prospective employers like actual work experience, volunteering or special special seminars or workshops you have taken. I'm HORRIBLY deficient in all of these things at the moment but I do have options I'm thinking about.

I just need to get my act together, manage what little time I have better and get out there and get these things under my belt.

It's unlikely that I will land my "dream job" right out of the gate but everyone has to start somewhere, don't they? It's not like you start right at the top or anything. You've got to enter an organization as the first rung on the ladder and hopefully work your way up from there!

I've got the skills and the creativity, now all I have to do is PROVE that to somebody!  That's "all" I have to do.  It's huge undertaking but it's also the rest of my life, so I gotta do this right!

Big Happy Surprise!

I am graduating May 6! Why should this be surprising to me, you might ask? Well, I had to drop a class because I simply had too much on my plate and I believed that I still had to take the class that I dropped yet this summer. It turns out I was in error! After my advisor and the NTC registrar went over all the NTC classes I've taken the last few years and those classes that I took previously at BSU between 1985-1992, it turns out I have more than enough credits and experiencded enough "study areas" to obtain my degeree WITHOUT taking the class that I dropped! Yay!

Now, I've got to reorient my head around this fact! I just ordered my cap, hat and gown. I also have to go back and actually READ all of those emails I received for "those graduating in May." I didn't completely read them because I didn't think they applied to me...

Wow! School is nearly over for me now, NOT this August as I believed at this time yesterday.

Welcome to my blog!

It is my hope that this blog might help me find the career opportunities I am looking for. I look forward to hearing all of your suggestions and comments on how to land a career in the field ofAdministrative Office Assistant in these challenging economic times!