Question

Prepare a one-page, double-spaced summary of Secretaries and Administrative Assistant , including a description of the work, working conditions, employment, training, other qualifications and advancement, job outlook, and earnings.

Answer 1

Secretaries and administrative assistants are responsible for carrying out clerical and administrative functions that are routine in nature. Their main function is supporting the staff in organizing and managing files, scheduling appointments, arranging meetings etc.

Description of the work: Generally, Secretaries and administrative assistants’ routine supporting functions like preparation of spread sheets, power point presentations, handling incoming g and outgoing calls, scheduling appointments and meetings, operations of billing and maintenance of databases etc.

Employment: Secretaries and administrative assistants are employed as legal (preparation of summons, complaints etc), medical (notes/documents for physicians, insurance etc), Administrative (office functions) and virtual (online supporting staff)

Working conditions: Most of the Secretaries and administrative assistants work in office and only few of them work online. Majority of the Secretaries and administrative assistants work in the health care sector, followed by private corporations and educational services and least in government sector. All the Secretaries and administrative assistants have full time schedules; virtual assistants may work in flexible schedules.

Education: Generally Secretaries and administrative assistants are high school graduates with communication skills and computer skills at their entry level. Medical and legal secretaries should have technical aspects in their work area.

Training: Secretaries and administrative assistants are provided in house training by their employers in their specific areas of work which include preparation of reports, handling of documents, computer programming etc.

Other qualifications and advancement: Many professional organizations like International Association for Administrative professionals provide certification to Secretaries and administrative assistants that augment the basic qualifications of the personnel.

Advancement: Secretaries and administrative assistants are advanced to higher positions like office supervisor, executive secretary which comes with high responsibilities.

Job outlook: The importance of Secretaries and administrative assistants is growing rapidly and the demand for these assistants is likely to grow further in the coming years. The projected growth for Secretaries and administrative assistants is 12% in the coming years.

Earnings: The pay structure of Secretaries and administrative assistants varies across the country and industry. However, the research shows the average pay of these personnel in US as $ 32000 (approximately) for medical and office secretaries, $ 40000 (approx) for medical secretaries and $ 50000 for executive secretaries.