Other duties can include planning and scheduling of meetings and appointments, organizing and maintaining electronic and paper files, facilitate guest and travel arrangements, conduct research and manage projects. Currently organizational restructuring and increasing office automation brought about by new technology have led to administrative assistants increasingly assuming responsibilities of professional or managerial staff. Administrative assistants make use of office equipment like computers, fax machines, scanners, Xerox machines, telephone systems and videoconferencing; they create documents, office communications, reports, spreadsheets, presentations, and manage databases using computer software.
Variants of the administrative assistant career include:
1. Executive secretaries – provide administrative support for top executives; arrange conference calls and meetings; prepare agendas; supervise other clerical staff; review memos, reports and other office communications for distribution; conduct research; and prepare statistical reports.
2. Legal secretaries – prepare legal documents such as complaints, motions, responses, subpoenas, and summonses under the supervision of a paralegal or attorney; review legal journals; and assist in legal research.
3. Medical secretaries – transcribe documents; prepare correspondence; assist scientists or physicians in articles, reports and speeches; record medical histories; and arrange hospitalization of patients. Medical secretaries have to be knowledgeable of insurance regulations, billing practices and lab or hospital procedures.
4. Technical secretaries – assist engineers or scientists; maintain a technical library for their organization; prepare correspondence; gather and edit materials needed for scientific publications.
5. Virtual assistants – work from home. They make use of e-mail, fax, and telephone to communicate with their clients. They can also perform legal or medical transcription, write and edit reports and other business communications, answer e-mail, enter data, set appointments, make travel arrangements, act as bookkeepers, and perform desktop publishing.
In almost any kind of organization there is a need for administrative assistant employment or other similar jobs such as in schools, churches, large farming operations, construction companies, etc…
For an administrative assistant job a high school diploma and some basic office skills is usually enough to qualify. Training is given in high school vocational programs where office skills and typing are taught or in 1 to 2 year office administration courses offered in vocational schools and community colleges. Temporary placement agencies can also provide some training in office and computer skills. Generally, secretaries and administrative assistants must be good at typing and written and verbal communication. They must also have good customer service and interpersonal skills. In the case of medical and legal secretaries, they have to go through special training courses where they could learn terms and other things unique to these variants of the administrative assistant job. For virtual assistants training is available online as well as in community colleges in bookkeeping, computer operation, transcription, and web design. Increasingly, employers are looking for candidates with college degrees in business or related courses and also applicants who are adaptable and versatile. As an administrative assistant it helps to continue learning, through formal training or self study, about new office technologies.
Employment outlook for an administrative assistant job is good and expected to grow by 11 percent which is near the average for all occupations for the period 2008 to 2018. Employment potential varies according to specialty. The healthcare industry is projected to have above average growth and this could also mean above average growth for medical secretaries. It is only in the medical, legal and executive areas, which comprise around 46 percent of all administrative assistant jobs, where there will be faster than average growth and in other areas where there are administrative assistant jobs the growth will be less than average. Continuing advances in office technology and organizational restructuring help to make administrative assistants and similar positions more productive. Computers, scanners, voice messaging, e-mail, and other technologies allow administrative assistants to do more in lesser time and give them more time to do other tasks. Aside from jobs due to growth many job openings will also be available as other administrative assistants transfer to other types of employment or are promoted. Job applicants have better chances if they have expert knowledge in using different kinds of computer software or if they have previous related experience. Applicants with Bachelor’s degrees will also have improved chances as employers expect them to be more capable of handling more complex tasks and work more independently. The median annual wage for all types of administrative assistants for 2008 was $35,000. For virtual assistants who are usually paid by the hour it is from $25 to $100 per hour, or they could be also paid on per page or per project basis.
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