Whoa! An Administrative Assistant Does All of That?

Being an administrative assistant involves far more than just filing papers and taking notes. Admin assistants actually have an array of responsibilities, including helping executives prepare for meetings and fielding phone calls from a wide range of people. If you are looking for a varied role, then becoming an administrative assistant could meet your need to take on a challenge.

In many office environments, the administrative assistant is the person who makes sure that everything runs smoothly. The key role of the administrative assistant is to act as a support system for colleagues. As a result, the schedule of an administrative assistant varies depending on what other professionals in the office are doing.

Admin assistants take on a primary role in organizing the office and the people who work in it. They schedule appointments and coordinate meetings, taking into account the schedules of managers and other people working in the office. In addition to organizing the people around them, admin assistants are also often responsible for handling communications. For example, a part of the role often involves answering the telephone, transferring calls to the people who can deal with them and answering emails. They may also be responsible for opening and sorting mail.

An administrative assistant also takes on important clerical duties. Traditionally, these have involved taking notes, maintaining an organized filing system, entering data and bookkeeping. The modern administrative assistant works much more with digital data than with paper-based forms of information, which means that anyone who wants to work in this role needs to have strong computing skills and a good understanding of modern digital communications. On the other hand, some traditional parts of the admin assistant's role have disappeared. Most office workers now type their own documents, although they may still rely on notes taken by the administrative assistant to help them.

In some companies, the role of the administrative assistant has expanded to include new duties, such as updating or monitoring the company's social media accounts. With ever greater numbers of companies using social media to stay in touch with their clients and customers, having a competent professional regularly checking the accounts is of critical importance. An administrative assistant may also be responsible for adding new content to the organization's website.

Although being an administrative assistant can be challenging, it can also be a very rewarding role, with the variety of different responsibilities reducing the risk of getting bored. Performing this role also equips a professional with many skills that can be useful in a number of careers. If you choose to become an administrative assistant, you will need strong organizational and time management skills as well as computing skills. Are you up to the challenge?

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