An administrative assistant's job can include work such as answering communication, whether in the form of answering the telephone or email. Their work may also include internal communication within the company in the form of scheduling meetings or conferences with employees. These work responsibilities may also extend to include distributing schedules within staff, in case of any updates or changes. Occasionally, administrative assistants will be required to help others in the staff with their requirements as well. These duties will then depend upon the project requirements; for this reason also, it is vital that those applying for administrative assistants' jobs should have knowledge of basic computer applications while harboring enthusiasm for learning newer areas of work.
If the work of an administrative assistant was to be divided into duties, it would include a degree of clerical work as well; essential to ensure efficiency in the day-to-day management of other office transactions. In this respect, personal assistants, secretaries, and administrative assistants, all work to complete the communication process within any office. Administrative assistants' jobs also require thorough understanding of how to operate office equipment such as the fax machine, the video and telephone conferencing systems, as well as printers and scanners. These are seemingly simple areas of work; but nevertheless, vital to the functioning of any organization. Another aspect that cannot be overlooked is management. An administrative assistant may also be involved in planning for and managing the boss's travel and meeting plans. In this case then, the assistant needs to keep a note of whom to contact to make travel and stay bookings. The resourceful assistant will know who to contact in case an emergency travel requirement comes up and bookings need to be done at the last minute.
What does an administrative assistant need to function effectively? Becoming an administrative assistant is not too difficult. However, administrative assistants' jobs need a certain level of skills that can help in better administration and management of office work. This includes multitasking where the administrative assistant can take care of several assignments at one time, while also ensuring that his or her own work does not suffer.
Apart from office skills and the ability to multitask effectively, administrative assistants' jobs require professionals to be able to hold confidences well. Most administrative assistants are in direct communication with the senior-most people in an organization. This means that willingly or unwillingly, they hold information that may not be known to others within the company. Administrative assistants thus have to be very careful about what they tell others around them or convey even in situations where it may not seem very important.
Administrative assistants' jobs hold potential for growth and there are diverse opportunities for an administrative assistant to move to higher positions, especially, given the kind of support that is extended to them.
