Administrative assistants work in various industries and assist senior managers or employees with administrative, specialist, and personal tasks. Required skills vary by employer and may include computer proficiency and specialist knowledge. Some administrative assistants may also perform personal tasks. Different levels of administrative assistants exist in some companies.
Administrative assistants generally work in an office environment. These people are usually hired to assist one or more senior managers or employees of the company. Administrative assistant jobs can be found in a variety of industries, from real estate to website development. Their roles often include a combination of administrative tasks, specialist tasks, and personal tasks.
The skills required for an administrative assistant can vary greatly. This is because every employer’s needs can be very different. This is true even within a single industry. An administrative assistant job at a printing company may not involve all of the tasks or skills that the job at another company does. For this reason, disclosure and assessment of responsibilities are often a determining factor during the interview process, even when it is clear that a person has experience in the field.
Almost every administrative assistant job will include some type of administrative work. It is rare, if not impossible, to find a position where computer skills are not required. The extent of these computer skills needed may be limited to basic spreadsheet, word processing, and Internet capabilities. In some cases, a person may be required to be highly advanced in these areas and may need to have experience with less common programs such as accounting software.
The range of specialist knowledge that may be required is industry and company specific. At a website development company, for example, an administrative assistant job might require some knowledge of programming and web design. A real estate company, however, may require a person to have competency in areas such as real estate law and geography.
Because many professionals are often busy, the lines between an administrative assistant and a personal assistant can be blurred. Administrative assistant work often includes performing personal tasks for others, such as scheduling activities or rejecting invitations that are not directly associated with the job. These jobs may involve menial tasks such as ordering and getting lunch or sending and receiving private deliveries.
In some companies, there are different levels of administrative assistants. Some may be more qualified, better paid, and have more significant titles than others. This usually happens when the required workload is more than one person can handle. It is also found in companies that are advocates of separating certain functions, such as accounts receivable and accounts payable. In these cases, the work of the administrative assistant can be expressly defined or a senior administrator can delegate tasks as he sees fit.
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