Moving up the Admin Career Ladder

by Alex A. Kecskes

While administrative assistants don't require a great deal of technical training (like those in the engineering, legal or medical professions), if you want to advance in your career, you'll have to take the initiative and enhance your administrative skills.

That means becoming increasingly efficient in creating presentations and reports, organizing and maintaining files, planning and scheduling meetings, dealing with correspondence and office communications, handling travel arrangements, and coordinating a vast array of administrative activities.

As you progress in your career, you may also need to gain skills in negotiating with vendors and handle the training and orientation of new employees. In addition to honing your computer skills, you need to sharpen your people skills, to exercise discretion, good judgment and some managerial ability. As you move up the ranks, you'll also be expected to take the initiative in solving problems that arise, to work independently and to handle emergencies.

Moving up the admin ladder means establishing a track record as a go-to person who knows how to solve problems. For this you'll need strong conceptual skills, knowledge of the industry you're working in, and the ability to "connect" with key players in your organization.

If you feel you need more formalized training, you might look into the International Association of Administrative Professionals, National Association of Legal Secretaries, Legal Secretaries International, or the International Virtual Assistants Association. They offer such certification programs as Accredited Legal Secretary (ALS), Certified Professional Secretary (CPS) and or Certified Administrative Professional (CAP).

For another perspective, check out this video:

Alex A. Kecskes has written hundreds of published articles on health/fitness, "green" issues, TV/film entertainment, restaurant reviews and many other topics. As a former Andy/Belding/One Show ad agency copywriter, he also writes web content, ads, brochures, sales letters, mailers and scripts for national B2B and B2C clients. Please see more of his blogs and view additional job postings on Nexxt.